RESEARCH - MORE ON TYPEFACE...

I have read very interesting article on this web pages: 


1.
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/06/effective-use-of-typography-in-applications-for-children-3.php titled: Effective Use of Typography in Applications for Children by Catalina Naranjo-Bock.
It highlights:
- tolerance toward reading and understanding text varies greatly, depending on the age of children and whether they are pre-readers, beginning readers, or readers with middling skills. In most cases, your use of text should be moderate unless you are designing specific areas of an application that need to accommodate large amounts of text.

- Most children learn to read by going letter by letter until they are able to make sense of an entire word. Therefore, it is important to choose a typeface with well-defined contours and generous space between letters, which gives a warm and inviting feeling.

Keep in mind:

- Follow principles of typography and visual communication design as any other design project. No matter how organic and playful the look of a user interface is, its layout should still have an underlying grid structure that displays information in the best way possible, carefully balancing all graphic elements.


- Consitency. Always remember to use layout patterns that achieve a good balance between text, color, and graphics in allsections of your applications, and use the same fonts throughout. And even if you are working with a very colorful and vibrant layout, the use of negative space, or whitespace, is as critical as ever.


 - Strive for legibility. Keep in mind that most children are not going to read entire paragraphs of text unless it is critical to their experience about reading or learning.


- children below 6 years of age can cope with only individual words or very short sentences.

2.

http://www.itcfonts.com/Ulc/4011/TypeKids.htm

"Most children learn to read going letter-by-letter, learning which sounds go with which shapes until they can blend the sounds together to form words. This is why new readers proceed slowly and sometimes struggle with pronunciation and syllable stress.

The efforts of new readers can be supported by making sure their texts use inviting, easy-to-read typefaces, set in the most readable way.

Text legibility
When selecting a typeface for a children’s text, look for a warm, friendly design with simple, generous letter shapes. The counters (the enclosed shapes within characters) should be rounded and open, not angular or rectangular. Avoid non-traditional letterforms. A good example of a typeface with these attributes is Sassoon Primary, designed specifically for children.

Either sans or serif designs can be used as long as they avoid any extremes that could impair readability. For example:

• Don’t use condensed or expanded typefaces, which make character recognition more difficult
• Select a book or medium weight; stay away from hairline or very bold weights
• If you plan to use italics, make sure they too are easy-to-read, and not overly condensed or stylized

Both the serifed Bembo Infant and Plantin Infant, as well as Gill Sans Infant, a sans serif style, have been designed for children and exemplify the principles above.

Making the text readable
New readers have to learn to follow words from left to right and “jump” their eyes from the end of one line to the beginning of the next. To make this easier, set the text large (14 to 24 point depending on the typeface and age of the reader) and with very generous leading (4 to 6 points).

Keep line lengths short, and don’t put too much text on a page. Dense blocks of type can be very intimidating to young readers. Avoid all cap settings, which are difficult for readers of any age!

Make sure there is ample contrast between the type and the background. This is especially true when setting light type against a dark background, as is common in heavily illustrated children’s books. When setting more than one paragraph on a page, consider using line-spaces instead of indents to separate paragraphs. This gives the text and the reader a visual break.

Headlines and Titles
Headline or title type gives you the opportunity to be more playful in style, color and layout, since there are fewer words to read. Decorated typestyles, lots of color, and curved and jumping baselines can all be used to attract and entertain the young reader. Keeping it light and fun is the key to keeping a young reader interested and turning pages."

Very inetersting!