Some of the Best Online Learning Games for Kids

Since we began researching learning apps in 2016, we’ve spoken with a range of experts, including a classroom teacher, a child developmental psychologist, a pediatrician, an astronomer, education researchers, app developers, and others.

These experts have included Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University who has written about and conducted research studies on educational apps for young children; Jennifer Auten, an award-winning teacher in Cupertino, California, who at the time was using tablet and smartphone apps in her first- and second-grade classrooms; Christine Elgersma, senior editor, learning content, for Common Sense Media, an organization focused on children’s media; and Pat Yongpradit, chief academic officer at Code.org, a nonprofit that advocates for computer science education. Last, we’ve spoken with parents on our staff for recommendations of apps they and their kids love in categories such as science, music, and coding.

We read articles and reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and child developmental psychologists and educational researchers to learn about kids’ media use and about principles for designing learning apps. Finally, we read through reviews and ratings from well-regarded children’s media sites such as Common Sense Media.

The good news: research has found that educational apps can aid with student learning. The challenge is finding the good ones. Similar to what we found when researching learning toys, we discovered that developers and app stores often label apps as “educational” with little research or evidence, and few experts, to support those claims.

In 2016, the AAP released a broad report on children’s use of digital media, calling for more-rigorous evaluation of apps that claim to be educational: “Unfortunately, very few of the commercially available apps found in the educational section of app stores have evidence-based design input with demonstrated learning effectiveness.” Similarly, in a 2015 article, Hirsh-Pasek writes that educational apps “present a significant opportunity for out-of-school, informal learning when designed in educationally appropriate ways” but notes later on that “[o]nly a handful of apps are designed with an eye toward how children actually learn.”

In a 2019 analysis of 124 popular children’s educational apps in the Google Play Store, most scored low in offering meaningful learning or engagement, particularly those that were free. Among the top-rated apps were several Toca Boca apps and a related Daniel Tiger app, Daniel Tiger’s Stop and Go Potty (iOS and Android).

Experts are still studying what makes learning apps successful pedagogical tools, as well as fun and interesting activities for kids. But after speaking with experts, reading research, and trying out apps ourselves, we identified a few features that seem to be common among great learning apps.

• Offer unique experiences: Several of the experts we spoke to noted that a good educational app should offer children something they couldn’t simply do, learn, or explore in a classroom or the real world. If the app is “basically a worksheet on screen, [or] an experience that could be replicated off screen, then that’s not a good use of the screen,” Elgersma said. “You want it to be an experience that kids could really only have in that screen world.”
• Be open-ended, with limits: Most of the apps in this guide are open-ended in the sense that they encourage kids to independently explore, create, and navigate within the app. But researchers say it’s important to have built-in limits, as well. The AAP has pointed out that digital games have traditionally been designed with rewards and reinforcement designed to keep kids playing as long as possible. The organization recommends that learning apps instead have “automatic ‘stops’ as the default design to encourage children and caregivers to pause the game use and turn to the 3-dimensional world.”
• Be engaging but not distracting: Apps have great potential to engage children through interactive features, but some research has shown that too many bells and whistles can distract children or reduce their comprehension. A good learning app uses interactive, animated, and responsive features to engage kids or enhance their comprehension, not simply to entertain. Hirsh-Pasek has written that parents should evaluate an app’s interactive features and ask: “Do the enhancements actually add value and increase engagement, or do they cause distraction?”
• Encourage interaction: The AAP and other organizations say that learning apps that encourage real-life interaction among multiple people — adult and child, or child and peers — can be especially strong at facilitating learning. The apps in this guide are fun and interesting for kids and adults, and many foster conversation and play outside of the app itself.

As with our guide to learning toys, we focused primarily on apps aimed at kids 3 to 9 years old, though older kids can enjoy many of our recommendations, as well. We chose this age range because, as Hirsh-Pasek has written, “there are so many apps targeted toward [children in this range] that parents and educators do not know how to navigate the marketplace of possibilities.”

Sarah Gannett and Ellen Lee contributed to this guide.