Free ABC games: find the letter, hear its sound

What makes a good ABC game

There are hundreds of alphabet games. Here is what we looked for in the research, and built into ours.

• It asks more than it shows. Preschoolers remembered about twice as much when they were asked to recall something than when they were just told again [20]. "Can you find M?" does more than a song that plays M.
• It says the name and the sound. Kids taught both together learned more than with the usual approach [10][11]. Knowing letter names and sounds is one of the strongest early signs of later reading [8].
• It shows big and little letters together. Kids learn the lowercase letter through its likeness to the capital [9], so every stone here shows both.
• A mistake gets a hint, not a buzzer. Sesame Workshop, after many tests of apps with preschoolers, treats a wrong answer as a chance to learn: try again, then a hint, then the answer [3]. Miss twice above and the right stone glows.
• The screen stays calm. Busy, heavily decorated rooms pulled kindergartners' attention away from learning [28]. Fewer things moving means more attention on the letter.
• It stops. Short practice on many days beats one long sitting [19], and the WHO says no more than an hour of screen time a day for 3 and 4 year olds [21]. A good game ends kindly instead of pulling for one more round.

ABC games with no screen at all

The same ideas work with a pencil, a box of cereal and a few spare minutes.

1. Name hunt. Write your child's name on a card. Find those letters on signs, books and boxes [9].
2. I spy a sound. "I spy something that starts with sss." Then show them the S.
3. Letter in the sand. Draw a letter in sand, flour or on a foggy window and say its name and sound together.
4. Find it fast, then slow. Point at a page of a picture book and ask "Can you find a B?" Let them take their time.

Where this goes in Typing Melody

The game above is a small piece of Sprout, the first stage of Typing Melody, for ages 3 and 4. In the full version, each letter your child finds wakes up a friend in their meadow, who sings a little tune. Add your child's name and Sprout starts with its letters. It stops after ten minutes.

At 5 and 6, Little Hands moves the same letters onto a real keyboard, home row first. At 7 and up, the full game teaches real touch typing. More on that.

More for little learners

• Letter sounds, A to ZTap any letter to hear its name and sound.
• A phonics game on a real keyboardHear the sound, find the letter.
• How young kids learn to recognize lettersWhat the research says, in plain words.