Like its adult-focused forebear, 7 Little Words for Kids ($2.99, Universal) offers an accessible and personality-filled word jumble/crossword mashup for the young’uns, although a few Americanisms may confuse non-US players. Snappy feedback and ample hints provide a great sense of progress and achievement here. And with no in-app purchases, you can steer clear of bill shock.

Chicktionary’s (Free, iPad) quirky take on word scrambles lays a solid foundation for expanding your vocabulary, with dozens of words for each seven-letter scramble. The funky hens recall the musical Muppets chickens as they cluck and squawk to your taps, while a baker’s dozen of paid puzzle packs and a host of playful Easter eggs make it a great option to play with your kids.

Kids’ Vocab — MindSnacks (Free, Universal) teaches vocabulary, reading, and writing skills to elementary school students through nine mini-games and 25 interactive lessons. There are some confusing issues with images — a hungry lion represents “devour” but not “carnivore,” for instance — but the game otherwise proves a valuable teaching aid that adapts to your trouble spots.

Pitting players as luchadores wrestling for vocabulary supremacy, Vocabador ($1.99, iPhone) helps high schoolers fly high in their SATs and trains their younger siblings to develop their lexicon. Study key usage information relating to over 400 words in training mode’s three difficulty levels, then put your skills to the test in a challenge against computer-controlled wrestlers.

Drawing on Seward’s educational research, Vocab-a-Splat ($0.99, Universal) aims to teach 400 words to children aged 4-6 through a combination of sights and sounds. You fling a ball at the picture that matches the spoken words, repeating for new words until you run out of balls or complete a set. Some words are tricky, even for adults, but with contextual help available and only three choices, it’s easy to figure out.

If you’ve ever read one of the books, you’ll know what to expect from Mad Libs (Free, Universal): a silly game of fill-in-the-blanks stories that's best played with friends. The app includes voice recognition, camera integration, and built-in sharing tools to spread your nonsense tales. It’s a great way to encourage creative wordplay in kids of all ages.

Targeted at an elementary-school level, The Opposites (Free, Universal) challenges players to match up antonym pairs in a fun game that may even test adults. It starts with simple pairs such as left/right and gradually works up to complex or abstract terms (like body/soul and boom/bust), with a separate dictionary for learning each of the 10 levels.

O! Kids’ Voca ($2.99, iPad) groups words into 19 categories based on their starting syllable, presenting them in paintings that come to life at your touch. It’s a purely exploratory experience, encouraging learning through curiosity. Tapping on words and related objects triggers animations, sounds, and narration describing their meaning and pronunciation in simple terms.

It may be pitched at first and second graders, but Sight Words 2 ($1.99, Universal) is sure to please anyone who appreciates positive reinforcement, thanks to an enthusiastic voiceover that congratulates you on every success. There are two levels split into six modes, asking you to spell or identify spoken words. Sight Words 2 doesn’t teach definitions, but it should help kids learn and remember words.

Shape Puzzle HD’s ($0.99, iPad) simple and colorful tangram (a kind of jigsaw) puzzles may appeal most to toddlers and kindergarteners. Each puzzle contains several pieces that combine to form an interesting object, which is then identified by a cute cartoon turtle and voiceover. There are around 150 puzzles split across 10 vibrant, themed scenes.