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Why they keep going

Your child cannot fail at this.

Nothing in here keeps score, so there is nothing to be bad at.

  • A balloon carrying a chick up past the clouds after its word was said, with the next word waiting below.
  • A creature coming up over the hill towards the thing it asked for, with the words it is waiting for above.
  • A grid of pictures with the next one to name ringed, and that word printed large underneath.
  • A shopkeeper, three things on the counter to ask for by name, and the one a child asked for politely marked as handed over.

What that means at home

5 things your child never has to deal with.

  • Nothing to be bad at

    There is no score in this app. No number goes up when your child does well, so none sits there when they do not.

  • Nothing to collect, so nothing to miss out on

    No stars, points, badges or trophies — a four-year-old cannot tell a star they earned from a star in the sky, and none of those words exist in the game.

  • Come back after two weeks and nothing has moved

    There is no streak. Miss a week, miss a month, and everything is exactly where they left it.

  • Every word your child says works

    No character can tell them they said it wrong. Not a rule somebody follows — the game has no way to do it.

  • Their voice and their face stay on your phone

    Nothing here records audio — there is nowhere for a recording to be sent. The photo is cropped on the device and never leaves it.

Words nobody says

No character in the game may use any of these.

“You did it!” celebrates the thing they did. “You got it right!” is a verdict, and a verdict is a score.
See the list
correctincorrectrightwrongperfectwell donegood jobgreat jobnice jobtry againscorepointspointstarstarsbadgemedaltrophypercentstreaklevel upbetterimprovedclearlyproperly

Every one of them

Every game, by name.

Apps that advertise a thousand activities cannot list them. Here is the whole list.
GameA roundPractices
Balloon Words40ssaying single words clearly
Big Beat60sleaning on the word that matters, which part of a word is loud
Build My World90sasking for what they want, colours, sizes and amounts, naming things, words for where things are
Count It60s
Creature Call75sasking for what they want, loud and quiet on purpose, naming things
First, Then75sfollowing two steps in a row, joining two ideas, what happened first, then next
Loud and Quiet45sloud and quiet on purpose, the tune of a sentence
Magic Garden90scolours, sizes and amounts, number words, one and more than one, two things in one sentence
Make an Animal50snaming things, saying single words clearly
Make It Move75scopying a word back, naming things, words for what things are doing
Monster Mouth60shearing the first sound in a word, where the tongue and lips go
My Turn60scopying a word back, naming things, saying single words clearly, taking turns
One More75sasking for what they want, hello, goodbye and please, making sound on purpose, using language with people
Rocket Boost45ssaying single words clearly
Say and See60scopying a word back, naming things, saying single words clearly
Shape Town75snaming things, saying single words clearly
Sound Smash60ssaying single words clearly
Sounds Like60shearing rhymes
Starts With30scopying a word back, making sound on purpose, taking turns
Syllable Stomp45shearing the beats in a word, keeping the quiet syllable in
Tap and Say60snaming things, saying single words clearly
The Shop90sasking for what they want, hello, goodbye and please, trying again when not understood, using language with people
Trace It60s
Two Baskets60shearing the first sound in a word, saying single words clearly
Two Halves40s
Two Words75sasking for what they want, naming things, two things in one sentence
Uh Oh!90ssaying why, talking about what already happened, telling what happened
Who Is It?90sanswering who, what and where, describing something, giving and following directions, remembering and retelling
If you would rather check than take our word for it

Say Yay has no reviews, no ratings, no press and no awards — any of those would take an afternoon to fabricate. What it has instead is a repository, and these are the places the claims above live in it.

  • No score anywhere
    Nothing in packages/ or services/ computes one
  • Stars, points, badges, trophies, streaks
    packages/content/audio/sounds.json → forbiddenInLines
  • No column for a photo
    services/accounts — no column, no url, no hash, no bucket
  • Nowhere to put a recording
    No service in the repository accepts an audio buffer
  • No way to correct a child
    packages/contracts/world-actions.allowlist.json → forbidden
  • Days played is a list of dates, not a counter
    The rewards blob in services/accounts

Ready?

Three minutes to a plan.

See my child’s first week