Franklin 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!

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.

This dictionary is good for the kids who are in grade 1 or 2. It has limited vocabulary. Speech is poor. The main problem I found is that it froze many times while looking for the words and I had to reset the battery. On the whole, it didn't meet my expectation. I suggest to have a kindle or similar e-readers which can have a handy dictionary and much more than that. Are there any good speaking-dictionaries as kindle apps?

This may not be the best choice for those who need a large database of words. However, my 12 year old son who has dyslexia finds it incredibly helpful and fun. His spelling is at a third grade level and this helps him to work on his 6th grade work much more independently. Spell check on word documents don't help him find the words he is looking for, but 9 times out of 10 this phonics spell checker does. Plus it gives the definition so that he knows he has chosen the correct word. I use rechargeable batteries and have had this for 3 weeks. We haven't had to recharge them yet, so it seems good on battery use. My 5 year old likes playing with it to try to create words and my 10 year old loves the hangman game and making sentences that it speaks back to you. But it has been the greatest help with my son.

I bought this for my son who is in third grade and needs help with spelling. He loves it! He uses it as entertainment, not just for school work, looking up various words, listening to the audio and playing games with his spelling words. It works perfectly for our needs, he types in how he thinks the word is spelled and the dictionary then gives him the correct spelling and pronunciation so he can be sure it is the same as the word he intended. Others have complained of the odd voice on the talking dictionary but it is certainly not unintelligible by any means. It has held up well with normal use, no broken parts. We are happy with this purchase.