Yoto Player Review

A few weeks ago we received the Yoto Player, a children’s audio book speaker. It is described as being a smart player because it has additional features when compared to other audio speakers on the market. The Yoto plays stories, music, educational activities and has a clock too. It also has a sleep trainer and a night light too, an aspect that really reminded me of a Gro Clock.

All of the stories are on cards which you slot into the top of the box, they start playing immediately when a card is inserted and stop as soon as the card is removed. The cards are really durable but are they as small plastic cards, you do need to be careful where you store them so they don’t get lost. You can buy a pouch that holds up to 20 cards but I think an old fashioned business card wallet would work better!

Although most of the cards available are stories, they also do ones to assist with learning such as phonics and times tables. What I really like about the Yoto is that you can also purchase blank cards (around £5.99 for 8) so you can record your own stories on them too. Were going to ask Ita’s granny to record a story at some point as I think she would absolutely love this.

In the Yoto Store, the cards are broken down into sets with ages 3-5 years and 5-8+. Ita was also sent a box of Julia Donaldson stories which included Zog, Tabby McTat, Tiddler, Stick Man, The Highway Rat and Superworm. The cost of this boxset is only £19.99 which is such good value for 8 stories. I think this is the cheapest I have come across when it comes to children’s audio players. They have lots of individual cards starting from only a few pounds but I like the value of the box sets which also include Winnie the Pooh, Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton. The card store has a huge amount of stories to chose from and you are also given free downloaded stories each month.

I really like that the Yoto doubles up as a clock with the ability to help children learn the time. This feature is really appealing especially if you plan on putting it in your childs bedroom. The pixal screen shows night and day and also has a soothing light for night time.

Another feature which I think really sets Yoto apart is the daily free podcast and their own little radio. More so, there are no ads in between and the podcast has daily little riddles which Ita seemed to really look forward to. The Yoto can even be used via Bluetooth to play music via the likes of Spotify! 

It was really very easy to set up and we leave the audio players in Ita’s playroom as background noise mostly whilst she is doing her home schooling.

I would say this is definitely not suitable for a child under 3 but even at 4, Ita really struggles to use this autonomously. I (or her dad) need to turn it on however we realised that if you keep it on the charger then it stays on indefinitely making it that bit easier to use.  There is also a headphone port though which will be quite handy for travelling. We have only had this for a few weeks though so I am confident she will get the knack of it and use it very frequently, on her own.

The box costs £79.99 and comes with the charging docking station and a welcome card. Other cards are available to purchase on line.

https://www.yotoplay.com/pages/player