[Silhouette]

So these apps reportedly get a child the equivalent of 18 months of mathematical development in 6 weeks of short, fun sessions? In that case, it does seem the £15.99 price is off by at least an order of magnitude, but I suspect we disagree on the direction.

[DanBC]

If it works. The BBC don't link to this study. It's not linked on Dr Pitchford's website - http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/njp/research.ht...

There's a PDF called "unlocking talent" on the onebillion website, but that crashes iOS Chrome so I haven't been able to read it. It's not peer reviewed. It's not blinded.

https://onebillion.org.uk/downloads/unlocking-talent-final-r...

I can find plenty of published research for stuff which is pure horseshit - brain gym - or for stuff approachig horseshit in the way it's applied - Omega 3; learning styles; a lot of "cures" for dyslexia.

So far I have a press release from a company saying "trust us, our app works" with nothing to corroborate it.

What do you get for £16?

Sorting and matching

Counting to 3

Lines and patterns

Counting 4 to 6

Where is it?

Counting 7 to 10

Patterns and shapes

Counting 1 to 10

Comparing

Add and take away.

That's an under whelming list. It's the bare knuckle minimum you'd tolerate if you had a 1:90 teacher:pupil ratio.

Tldr: give them the money because educating Malawian children is good, but for your own children buy a book and do it yourself.

[vidarh]

For comparison, there are UK private primary schools that will cost you about GBP 12k/year that deliver far less measurable benefit (if any) than that, that are still wildly successful at attracting students.

[makomk]

The benefit of those is generally teaching kids how to pass the entrance exams for good secondary schools.