KID-1240 Children's Talking Dictionary and Spell Corrector

I purchased this talking dictionary for my 6 year old grandson for Christmas. He likes to carry it with him in the car (very compact)and practice his spelling and sentence construction. The talking feature makes it especially fun for him and reinforces these skills. The spell correction feature for phonetically spelled words is very useful. He gets immediate spell correction and hears and sees the correct spelling on the screen. I did have to sit down and explain all the features to make sure he understood how to use it, but after this brief instruction session, he could operate it independently quite well. The cover is a bit flimsy, but we have had no difficulty with it yet. Attractive electronic learning aid, very compact, and so easy to carry and operate. Great learning aid!

Absolutely WONDERFUL item. I was working with a child who was way behind on his reading skills. He quickly learned to use and rely on this item for correct spelling and pronunciation. It has helped him to improve his reading and language skills sufficiently that we are going to the library to check out some books that are of interest to him, and he agreed to go. Can't imagine being unable to read well in this day and age, but this is certainly the right tool to help. Later, it will be passed down to his younger brother and sister, and I'll get him a more advanced one, appropriate to his age when he has completely mastered this one. Thanks whoever thought this one up. It's really been a tremendous aid.

I rated this child's device so my comments will not be buried in a pile of overly positive "reviews". This is a unique device as Franklin Electronic "Books" tend to be. I've had 2 Franklin Bookman products for several years, each has slots for additional Bookman Books (Proprietary ROM cards). My complaint is Franklin did not make enough books for them. I have the college dictionary, the Bible, the Concise Encyclopedia and the Spainish-English Dictionary. Other than my complaint that Frankling didn't release enough reference books for them, my other complaints are Franklin totally abandoned Bookman owners (they could have easily continued releasing new "books"). They also abandoned owners of the original Bookman devices when they came out with the Bookman II. Mine have a port for linking them to a PC so you can download e books and install them into blank ROM cards. Franklin switched to Bookman II and never released the cable for linking to a PC and they never made the blank ROM cards available. Before anyone spends any serious money on Franklin products, you may want to know this about Franklin Books: They practice abandonware. They leave customers in the lurch.The quality of Franklin devices has been high. I have not had any Franklin device or book fail on me. Old ones sell for above list price on eBay. I ordered this KID-1240 device for my very intelligent but stubborn 8 year old grand daughter. I don't get the complaints here that the dictionary has too few words. It does have 44,000 words. Did the reviewer expect an encyclopedia or unabridged Oxford Dictionary?Positives. I inspected it closely and ran it through its functions. The device is high quality build and it works well, both things I expect from Franklin. A function I do not see mentioned will interest parents. The device says each letter out loud as they are entered but it will not say slang words, which eliminates nearly all "dirty" words. The speaker is much better than the speaker in the original Franklin Bookman devices but I think Franklin could have done better considering the amount of space they set aside for the speaker. I've seen smaller computing devices with better speakers. However, unlike earlier Franklin devices, the speaker is clear, and loud enough for individual use.Negatives. The design of the battery compartment and door should have been better. Most 6 to 9 year olds should not change batteries themselves. There is real risk they will break the compartment door or lose the tiny screw. Breaking the door is a game changer. Losing the screw is not. Inserting the 4 AAA batteries is a little tricky. Overall, I find that the KID 1240 is what Franklin claims it is. Its not an unabridged dictionary. Its not a tutor or an electronic parent.

we can't find lots of new vocabularies from the dictionery although it's fun for kid to learn by speaking the word out. The only thing I liked it best is that it provides handwriting letters for kids to learn. I suggest that kids under 8 can buy it.

I had one of these when I was a kid. I have never been a good speller. Now as a homeschooling mother of 4 I see why I have never been a good speller! I have a logical brain and the English language is often not logical! What is so great about this tool is that it takes the phonic spelling your child puts in and gives them the correct word. There have been times I have been typing and auto correct on my iPad will not give me the correct spelling of a word because it does not recognize words phonically but rather by letter patterns and I grab my adult version of this tool. My kids LOVE to make the dictionary talk, make lists of words, and play games. It encourages them to spell and use their brains and teaches them grammar rules. It encourages them to write. Often times kids don't pick up their pencils because the dynamics of writing are too hard. If they know they can grab their dictionary and look up a word and the spelling, it gives them confidence.I would recommend this for every child but if you're buying it for your kids to just play games on and you don't have the kind of kid that's interested in words, writing, books, reading...then yes they probably won't like it and you should some other type of "educational" tool for them. The pronunciation is very robotic, yes but we enjoy making fun of it. The only reason I don't give 5 stars is because quality is a little lacking. The screen will break easily and it does eat through batteries.