Editor’s Note: This is an installment of a new series that showcases the top developer tips, tutorials, and educational resources to help you build incredible Alexa skills. Follow the series to learn, get inspired, and start building your own voice experiences for Alexa.

Now that kid skills are available in the Alexa Skills Store, you have a unique opportunity to reach a whole new audience with your skills. You can now build fun and educational skills for kids under the age of 13. And kids can discover and interact with your creations with parental consent.

In this installment of our resource roundup series, we feature our top tips and tutorials for developers looking to build incredible kid skills. Check out the tips below and enter your best skill to the Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids for a chance to win your share of $250,000 in cash and prizes. 

6 Tips for Building Stellar Kid Skills

Kids are quick to take to voice experiences and talk to Alexa as if to a friend. While voice-first experiences may come naturally to kids, these youngsters interact with Alexa in a way that’s uniquely their own. As developers, this means there are a few key things to keep in mind as you build kid skills—from vocabulary to style of speech to areas of interest. Check out our free guide 6 Tips for Building Stellar Kid Skills for more best practices from the Alexa team on how to build engaging kid skills.

How to Build Engaging Kids Skills

As you’re building your kid skill, it’s important to think like a kid. What will a kid expect your skill to do? What about the skill is important to a kid? How would a kid respond? What would a kid need help with? Watch this on-demand webinar to see two Alexa technical evangelists explain voice design for kid skills in detail and provide expert insights to make your skill engaging, entertaining, and educational.

Mix Master Kid Skill Template

If you want some practice building a kid skill before you start your very own, use the Mix Master Kid Skill template. You can use the template to apply key design principles when creating a kid skill. Incorporate progressive prompting to help guide kids through the interactions and add leveling to your skill to give kids a sense of accomplishment.

Certification Tips for Kid Skills  

Once you've built an engaging kid skill, check out these certification tips to ensure your skill is prepared to pass certification. These recommendations for kid skills are based on common issues we see developers face.

Tellables’ Tips for Fostering Consistent Customer Engagement in Kid Skills

Tellables, the developer behind Tricky Genie and Listening Comprehension Practice, has created three popular story-based skills for Alexa, all designed to keep children engaged while also developing their critical-thinking skills. They told us all about their approach to designing successful kid skills, from starting with the kid audience in mind to consistently adding fresh content to their skills. Check out the case study for all of their protips for building consistently engaging kid skills.

Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob Skill for Alexa Entertains Kids with a Voice-First Memory Game

When Nickelodeon chose to build a skill based on one of their popular kid shows, they knew SpongeBob SquarePants would be a great choice because the show has such a deep narrative with so many memorable characters. Read the full case study to learn how Nickelodeon built a voice-first memory game for kids inspired by the show, and the tips and tricks they learned along the way.

Build Your Best Kid Skill for a Chance to Win

Use all of these resources to learn what kids find engaging in voice experiences and build your best skill for kids under 13 over the holiday break. Enter the Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids with Devpost for a chance to win your share of cash and prizes totaling $250,000.

Stay tuned in to the rest of the series for additional posts featuring resources for new skill builders, advanced skill builders, smart home skills, and skills for devices with screens. Then, tell us about what you’re building for voice with Alexa. Tweet us using the hashtag #AlexaPioneers.