KidsClick! is an online search engine made just for kids. It's fun and easy to use, with an appealing home page. But how does it measure up for kids with lower literacy levels? Read on to find out about search engines in special education.
What is a Kids Search Engine?
A kids search engine is a tool for helping kids find information online, in a way which is safe and easy for them to operate. A kids search engine needs to be created specifically for kids, rather than allowing them full and unrestricted access to the wider Internet for their searching tasks. A kids search engine ideally should be check on a regular basis to ensure the information on it stays up to date and current, and that it reflects the sorts of topics under which children are searching for information.
KidsClick! is a search engine created for children, and it advertises itself as being put together by a group of librarians. It is owned and maintained by the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. The information is grouped under topics such as Society and Government, Home and Household, Sports and Recreation, and Literature.
So How Does Kids Click Rate for Special Education?
Kids Click is a website which has been created for the broader educational market of children who wish to conduct safe online searches using the Internet. As far as being a safe search engine (and this is obviously critical in special education given the vulnerability of many of the students in special education settings), it comes up well as sites are checked for suitability before being included at KidsClick! It also means that when students are using it as an online search engine, they are less likely to be distracted by other pages which they come across unintentionally. Sometimes special needs learners can be easily distracted or led off task by instructions online such as 'Click here' or 'You have won' etc. A safe search engine which assists in keeping kids on task and focused is a very useful tool in special education. It is also great for building general media literacy skills; a critical skill for life and work for today's young people.
| Visual Appeal and Ease of Use | Rating  |
The limited number of colors and the mostly white background work well from a special education perspective, as there is less visual distraction on the page to take attention away from the task of reading on a screen (which can be challenging enough in itself for some students).
| Cross Cultural Appropriateness | Rating  |
KidsClick! is American and makes no claims to being anything else. However, for users from other countries it would be helpful to see content that relates to their own country as well as U.S. content.
| Reading Level | Rating  |
In general the reading level of the websites that Kids Click directs readers to is appropriate. Sometimes there is a significant amount of text on some web pages which can be challenging for weaker readers), and there is certainly no uniformity of reading level (but the same could be said of the wider web as well).