I write a fair bit about Apps for our various iThings (Pod, Pad, Phone). While we don't have a dedicated iPad for Snail yet (we're working on it!), I do have a collection of Apps that Snail loves to play with on my iPad.
A couple of notes - Snail is limited to very simple Apps, single touch or two choices only, really. We'll be working more on choices between two options once we get the iPad and work it into her school and therapy curriculum. So, if you're reading this and have a special needs child, the Apps here are fitting into a pretty limited range. Snail is very intellectually affected, and is worse since seizures and meds over the past few years. She gets (few) days where choosing is possible, and many where we can scarcely interest her at all in anything (or she is asleep the whole day). With that in mind, here are some Apps she's enjoyed.
Toddler Counting. This is a fun, simple as anything app where, as you might suspect from it's title, things get counted. Lolly has got a lot out of this one, and Snail loves it, too. A simple touch, and the things on the screen are counted aloud. It moves on automatically to the next screen when finished. You can set it to stick to numbers under 10. This app cracks Snail up, every time. She finds it hilarious, and it consistently gets her to touch the screen and keep engaged [with pauses for bouts of laughter]. She is not great at aiming at the numbers, but the app seems fairly forgiving with where you touch.
Sparkabilities 1 and 2. These are just fabulous. See the Sparkabilities site for their principles and DVDs, too. They respond to single touch to move the simple "story" forward. They are bright and interesting, and use simple words, most of which Snail can say. Lolly still likes them! Awesome. There is a "find it" section Snail can't do, the prompt (shown below) is a tad small, and these days her focus is not that great :(.
Verbal Victor is a great App for augmentative communication. You basically make photo options for your child and recording your voice underneath them. There's a range of options, and being able to record your own message is just fab. Their site and instructions are here.
A couple of site recommendations. I like Babies with iPads (thought I hate the name, as Snail is 12 and it just makes me sad that she can't do most of the "Babies" apps, *sigh*). The reviews and information is great, and they also collect donations and give away iPads to special needs kids, which is a great, direct way to give a bit of money! Spectronics has comprehensive lists of apps and prices.
Lolly is now a month over 3 years old. She's constantly changing her use of our iThings, she uses an iPod, and our iPads, mostly mine, which is now crammed so full of kids apps I can scarcely fit my own stuff on there. Thank the iPad gods for folders! Here's what she's chosing lately:
Nosy Crow's awesome retelling of the Three Little Pigs. This is interactive fairy-tale fun at it's best. Quirky art, great animation, and a fun story, you can tickle the pigs, there's a range of voice responses from every character, and lots of interactive bits as a natural part of the story. The tale is re-told with a great sense of humour and fun. Highly recommended! Lolly and I are looking forward to the other apps Nosy Crow has slated for the rest of the year. The one drawback I have is the usual gendered stuff, the "female" pig is a tad girly, and there's a couple of typical tropes there about how she can't build and likes to decorate. Honestly, it's not that hard to leave this stuff out when you're building an app like this, it doesn't add anything. *shakes fist*
Unfortunately, Lolly is more than obsessed with Outfit7's money pit Apps "Talking *Everything*" (Talking Hippo, Dino, Cat, Giraffe and so on ad nauseum). Some are free but ask for in-App purchases. I'm loving that Lolly's common chat now includes "we're not buying food for that Giraffe!" My favourite of this lot is the one aimed more at kids, Talking Hippo. If you haven't had the joy that is the Talking-Shit Apps, they basically "listen" and repeat what they "hear" via the mic on the iThing, in a variety of amusing voices. They have basic interaction, you can touch the screen and interact with the character, for example you can give the Hippo food, a dummy (sigh), a balloon, and make a butterfly appear. This is totally awesome, really. And Lolly LOVES them. Can I repeat that again for effect: LOVES them. I have come out out of the study to see her with her Talking Hippo propped up on the couch "watching" Octonauts on the TV with her. Now that's a sight from *the future* - my kid interacting with her touch screen responsive talking virtual pet.
What I object to here are the in-App ads, cross advertising for the millions of other Talking-Shit apps, and on some of them, the violence. Talking T-Rex attacks another dinosaur, you can "hit" Talking Tomcat and knock him over, that kind of thing. Arguably, most of these Talking-shit apps aren't for kids, but, let's be realistic, you advertise them inside the kids apps, most kids are going to want the talking dino/cat/whatever as well. Lolly loves to open them up one after the other and listen to different voices. I'd rather the kid rated versions stuck to advertising the kid rated apps, or that there was a parent-controlled way of setting preferences, or that you could choose to pay a dollar more to get a version that didn't have the cross-version ads in them. But, I do think these are great Apps for kids. Lolly still looks so amazed and full of wonder to hear the Hippo talking back to her, and she can chat to it for ages. Worth a go, with the ad-based limitations in mind.
The final App for today is the fabulous and hilarious My Underwear.Thumb Arcade have produced a great new app for kids with four games. Adorable drawings and animation, and easy to control games, Lolly has been chosing this nearly every time since we got it a couple of weeks ago. There's underwear matching, a memory match game, a paint-your-underwear paint game, and a hungry undie-eating monster game. And the music is infectious and awesome. DO give this one a go, it's worth it! And I love that Thumb Arcade have given us all four in one game, rather than rorting parents for four separate games. That is extra awesome.
Oh okay one more, we have recently been crazy here about You Tube (can you spell, *Mummy learning parental controls frantically*?), and discovered Eric Herman's the Elephant Song. Which has an App (basically just the song, a bit of interaction, and a puzzle game. Worth it, though, this song is just great, and Herman's got heaps of other kids music that doesn't make me want to poke out my eye. Try 'em out on YouTube. The pirate song is a particular fave here, and the whole family is also dancing like they've got ants in their pants...
Enjoy! And do let me know in comments if you try any of these out on your own iThing!
