How to play
Everything in Siddhi is a game your child plays by touching the screen. This page explains how the games behave, what your job is while they play, and what to do when it goes wrong. Ten minutes here will make every session afterwards better.
A session in three minutes
Open the week, open an activity, and hand over the device. That is the whole setup. A session is meant to last ten to twenty minutes, and stopping while your child still wants more is better than pushing to the end.
- 1Read the notes above the game yourself first — they say what the activity trains.
- 2Read the question out loud, then let your child do the tapping.
- 3Talk more than you correct. The conversation is the lesson.
- 4Stop when interest goes, not when the game ends. It is different every time you come back.
The five games
Every activity in Siddhi is one of five games. Once your child knows the five, they can start any activity without being taught it.
Tap the one that fits
A question and a row of cards. Tap the one the question asks for — the odd one out, the biggest group, the one you saw a moment ago.
Trains · Noticing, sorting by category, number sense, listening
Sort things into groups
Tap a thing to pick it up, then tap the box it belongs in. Two or three boxes.
Trains · Categorising, and giving reasons
Find the partner
Tap something on the left, then its partner on the right. Matched pairs fade out.
Trains · Matching, cause and effect, emotional vocabulary
Put them in order
Tap them one at a time in the order the question asks for. The row along the top fills as they go.
Trains · Comparing sizes and amounts, sequencing
Touch and count
Tap each thing once and count out loud. Some count down instead of up.
Trains · One-to-one counting, counting backwards, other languages
The rules every game follows
Two goes before the answer
A first wrong tap says not yet, gives a hint, and lets them try again. Only the second wrong tap shows the answer with the reason. Your child never gets stuck and never gets the answer handed over immediately.
It is different every time
Each activity holds far more questions than one sitting uses, and deals a fresh set every play. The options move around within each question too, so nobody can learn “it is always the one on the right”. The smallest activity has 495 different combinations; the largest has over 43,000.
Wrong answers explain, they never scold
Every wrong answer comes back with a reason, not a cross. That is deliberate: a wrong answer is the most useful thing that can happen in a session, because it shows you exactly where to look next.
Nothing is timed
There is no clock anywhere in Siddhi. Thinking slowly is not penalised.
Your job while they play
On the Early Years track your child does the tapping and you do the talking. Three habits do most of the work:
- 1Ask for the whole sentence. “Strawberries” becomes “There are the most strawberries.” Stretching the answer does as much work as the puzzle.
- 2Ask why, especially when they are right. A correct tap with no reason behind it has taught them very little.
- 3Say the answer back to them properly. When they point, you name it: “Yes — the candles are missing.”
On the Thinking Skills track your child can play alone. Your job there is the conversation afterwards: which one caught you out, and why?
How much to help
The rule of thumb is: help with the reading, not with the thinking.
- 1Read the question aloud as often as they want.
- 2Name things they do not have words for yet.
- 3Do not point at the answer, even when the pause gets uncomfortable. The pause is the work.
- 4If they are wrong twice, the game explains it. Let it, then ask them to say it back in their own words.
Sound and the voice
Tapping anything says its name out loud, in a voice chosen to be as warm as the device allows. That is deliberate for the little ones: half the value of the picture games is learning the word, not just the category.
Getting something right plays a bell chime; finishing plays a short celebration jingle. The speaker button in the top corner of every game turns all of it off, and it remembers your choice.
Choose the voice
The voices come from your device, not from us, so quality varies enormously between one phone and the next. Tap any of these to hear it, and Siddhi will use your choice everywhere.
Doing it away from the screen
Every activity has a printable version. Open the activity and use Print or save as PDF at the top of the notes. You get a worksheet with the questions laid out, space to write, an answer key at the end, and the same guidance you see on screen.
It is worth doing at least some weeks on paper. Screens are convenient, but a pencil is slower — and slower is often better for a small child.
When it goes wrong
They tap wildly without looking
Cover the screen with your hand and read the question first. Only uncover it once they have said what they are looking for.
They get everything right in seconds
The activity is too easy — try the next week, or switch to the older track. Nothing is locked by age.
They get upset at being wrong
Play a round yourself and get one wrong on purpose. Seeing an adult be wrong and carry on cheerfully does more than anything you can say about it.
They want to play the same one again
Let them. It deals different questions each time, so a fourth go is not a repeat.
Ready to start?
The first week of each track is free, with no card and no expiry.