AD-Yoto mini gifted for review
We’re all looking for alternatives to screen time and yoto is one of a few popular audio players on the market. After already owning a tonie box, I was intrigued as to how the yoto would shape up in comparison. I had seen some reviews based on older children and wanted to see how the yoto mini compared for my 3 year old. If you’re interested in knowing how the yoto mini works for toddlers and pre-schoolers (especially in relation to supporting their speech), then read on for my yoto mini review.
What is a yoto mini?
The yoto player is a very easy to use audio player that allows your child to listen to songs, stories and learning activities. The yoto mini is small and cube sized, it’s perfect for little hands and very portable. It works by simply inserting credit-card sized audio cards into the device and using just three buttons. One on the side allows you to turn on/off the device and the other two allow you to change the volume and skip the section. The yoto mini is a much smaller and lighter version of the original yoto player. The yoto mini is £59.99 and the accompanying cards start from just £2.99 (but most are £5.99 onwards)-you can get 5% off with my discount code MUMERNITY5
Yoto mini review: What my three year old thought of the yoto mini
As we already have a toniebox, I was curious as to what my three year old would make of the yoto mini. But he really loved it. One of the best selling points of the yoto mini is its portability: it’s very easy to transport around which means the yoto mini comes everywhere from the car to under the covers of night. It really is the perfect size for a toddler (although he loves the toniebox too, it is obviously bigger and heavier for him to carry) and the adventure jacket which you can purchase protects it from being damaged.
He loved how easy it was to operate himself and quickly got the hand of inserting the cards and the volume buttons (although the on/off button requires a bit more pressure but that may be intentional) which gave him control of what we listened to. One thing he really likes is that the yoto mini does have a small, stamp-sized screen which plays pictures from the audio card (for example when listening to ‘All Aboard the Number Train’ the numbers come up on the screen).
There are really a huge variety of cards to suit any interest: his favourites are the lego duplo stories (which I believe are exclusive to yoto) along with room on the broom. I thought he might just keep inserting and removing the card but the yoto box has really taught him to listen a story and this is now a big part of our evening routine (we even have a picture of the yoto mini on his AAC device).
Is the yoto mini useful for children with speech delay?
If you’re a regular reader of Mumernity, you’ll know my son has speech delay, so I am always on the hunt for books and toys that will help. I can see the yoto mini being incredibly useful for children with speech delay. One thing that I loved was that many of the stories actually pause for your child to interact/answer a question or join in, which is one strategy we’ve been taught to do ourselves from therapy.
Many of the cards look really useful for speech delay specifically, which I’ve outlined below.
What are the best yoto cards for speech and communication?
If your child is struggling with speech sounds like me, you’ll appreciate the phonics yoto cards which are perfect for exposing your child to and practising different speech sounds. They also have a my first 100 words card. The duplo cards are also great for familiarising your child with the alphabet, numbers, farm animals and more. There are lots of different story cards which
How does the yoto mini compare to the original yoto?
There are two options when looking at yoto boxes. The original yoto player is larger and has a night light, whilst the mini is much more portable and charges more easily with a USB lead. For us, the yoto mini is definitely the better choice-I really love how it can be easily held by Jude and fits in his backpack.
How does the yoto mini compare to a tonie box?
As mentioned, I also have a tonie box (full review here). I think both of these boxes are great but there’s some differences between them and similiarities. They are both pretty similar in terms of price (although the individual yoto cards are cheaper than the tonie figures).
One of the biggest appeals of the tonie box is that they have character figures (instead of the audio cards of the yoto). I think this has its pros and cons: on the one hand, it is more engaging and exciting than a card-children may also find it a stronger visual representation of the story and use the figures in other ways. Jude absolutely loves his zog and peppa tonie figure.
However, he would sometimes just take it on and off the toniebox interrupting the story, whilst with his yoto he seems to leave the card in to enjoy the whole story. Because the mini tonie is more portable and feels more durable, it is easier to bring to bed each evening for his story and we have been able to take it evetywhere.
Another thing we loved is when you can also connect the yoto cards to your phone using the yoto app. This means if you lose the card or just don’t have your box, you can still listen to the audio (you can listen to the audio on your phone or connect your phone to the box which allows you to play the audio on the box without the card).
In terms of the audio, both boxes have a decent selection of stories children will love. I feel that yoto has a bit more variety-for example, there are phonics activities, language learning, mindfulness and meditation, learning tasks (like science or recipes ) and even podcasts. Because of this, I think it has more potential to grow with them as there are cards suitable for 12 years on beyond.
Discount code for the yoto mini
Yoto have given me a discount code which gets you 5% off your yoto player or yoto mini-just use the code MUMERNITY5 to grab your discount.