Toddler’s love the iPhone
Apple has done a great job building a mobility device that anyone can use. I’m just not sure that Apple realize’s that in this case anyone includes toddlers. Though, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this technology is perfectly suited for toddlers. The iPhone is small and light enough for young children to hold. The touch display means that children are encouraged to investigate and touch the objects on screen that capture their attention. For any parent that has sat their child down at a computer, they’ll have the finger prints on their monitor to prove the value of touch screen displays for kids.
Now, I’m not the only one that has realized the iPhone can be a great toy for their children, Macworld* recently reviewed several games for girls. Reader ibeetle is concerned that leaving an iPhone in a preschooler’s hand would result in an early demise of your phone, stating “Wait until you are distracted for two seconds and your 18 month old leaps up off the sofa and launches your iPhone into the toilet”. Which really comes down to knowing your child, for example my daughter—a two year old—shows no interest in putting things into the toilet, so my only fear with giving her the iPhone is that it may end up momentarily lost in her toy box. Which is easily addressed by giving the phone a call to track it down in the house.
In addition to the three games reviewed by Macworld I’ve found 3Dal’s PreSchool Adventure for iPhone an enjoyable game to share with my daughter. The game provides several different activities that keep her interest, while teaching her basics like colors and shapes.
For those with preschoolers Crayon Physics Deluxe for the iPhone is a great tool for introducing your children to Newtonian physics or falling short of that, entertaining them for a few moments. Crayon Physics (App Store) is not just for your children though as it recently won the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival, so you may just find yourself enjoying a level or two as well.
*Special thanks to Mark McCormack over at The Narrative for alerting me to the Macworld article.
January 12, 2009
When you are ready to introduce your 2 year old to words, try the iPhone game “I See Ewe”. I wrote “I See Ewe” for my 2 year old daughter in order to help expand her vocabulary in a fun and engaging way.
The app has two games built into it. The first game, “Learn Shapes”, presents a child with a number of cards, each containing a different item. The game then verbally asks the child to find a specific item amongst the displayed cards while displaying the written form of the specific item’s name. The second game, “Match Shapes”, is a memory match game that challenges the child to turn over cards two at a time to find a pair of matching cards.
I See Ewe has four different card sets for each each game: geometric shapes, colors, animals, and household objects. After playing the game for a period of time, your child should learn to recognize, say, and possibly even read the names for over fifty different items.
You can find out more about the game at: http://www.ISeeEwe.com
March 8, 2009
Michael K, nice work on your app! It looks GREAT! I was inspired to make an educational game for my 4 year old son
Shape Builder educates and entertains your little one (target age 3 to 6 years old) with easy to move shapes that snap into place on top of silhouette puzzles. Each puzzle has 5 to 10 pieces and after positioning all of the pieces, the real image is revealed along with a professional voice recording of the word spoken by Jill Dews, a licensed speech therapist. Shape Builder encourages cognitive thinking and fine motor skills plus exposes young minds to new music instruments, animals, produce, objects and the alphabet in a fun and engaging format with LOTS of sound effects!
Highlights:
Total of 120 puzzles!
24 Music instruments with sound effects
17 Fruits & Vegetables
37 Animals - great sound effects!
26 Letters - speech therapist sounds out each letter in a fun way
16 other fun items like Firetruck, and Police Officer
Random play resets after all puzzles are completed
Here’s the website with a video demonstrating the game:
http://www.touchscreenpreschoolgames.com/