Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, has launched Big Bird’s Words, a new app to help children improve their vocabulary.

The App guides children to search for and find new words in their environment, making vocabulary building a fun and interactive experience.

Big Bird’s ‘Word-o-Scope’ enables children to use a smartphone as a digital eye into their real-world environments to find, identify, and learn about words, bringing a deeper understanding of what these words mean by exposing children to them in familiar contexts.
 
Children in India will be thrilled not only to hear the voice of their favorite feathered friend in Big Bird’s Words, but they’ll also be exploring healthy food words such as “milk” and “orange” with the furry blue Cookie Monster. The app recognizes 1,500 words, and verbally recognizes 500 of those by name and is available in India on both iOS and Android.
 
Sesame Workshop researched the impact of the app on measurable learning outcomes and among the findings was that preschoolers who were exposed to Big Bird’s Words had a 40% increase in their ability to identify the target words.1
 
“Big Bird’s Words helps children develop a deeper understanding and context for the words in their environment,” said Scott Chambers, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Media Distribution at Sesame Workshop.  “Innovative digital experiences, like augmented reality, can help support and enhance learning for children.”
 
Big Bird’s Words is the first Sesame Street app built using Qualcomm Vuforia’s real-time text recognition capability using a smartphone’s camera. Qualcomm Vuforia is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, and the Vuforia SDK is a product of Qualcomm Austria Research Center GmbH, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.