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Has anybody used one recently with their children? I was considering purchasing a ‘new’ model as a gift.

• TehCorwiz 7y ago
  I used to circuit-bend Speak & Spell / Speak & Math and my kids still play with one or two I have kicking around. On the one hand it sounds cool, and for most things it isn't unintelligible. On the other, the speech synthesis does have its limitations and foibles. I've been playing with then since I was a kid and I still can't make it out some of the time. If my kids can't understand it they don't seem bothered by it. I'd say that even with those limitations it's still moderately educational insofar as alphabet and basic vocabulary practice are concerned, but the word list is fairly limited. On the physical side I still enjoy the simplicity of the device. It's tactile in ways that touchscreens aren't, even if you have the one with the membrane keyboard. My kids can pick it up, turn it on, and start typing letters and get letter & words read aloud, no tutorial or parent permission required. I love that it's an appliance, I don't have to worry about in-app purchases, ads, and all the other modern consumerist trappings. It's not perfect and not deep, but then not everything needs to be. Sometimes good enough can be great.
• joezydeco 7y ago
  I poked at one of the “new” models at the store and, to my ears, it sounds nothing like the original. They might have sampled the phonemes off the original chip.
• pgh 7y ago
  Yes, I gave one to my son when he was 5 years old. He's still playing with it even now he's 10. I bought it used from an eBay seller. They're remarkably physically robust, even after all these years, it's taken plenty of knocks and tumbles. Unlike a tablet or computer, it's also very much offline so we felt completely comfortable letting him use it unattended.