Saturday, September 18, 2010

Matthew's List of iPhone Apps

I love technology. Matthew does too. He likes my laptop and my iPhone. I've downloaded several iPhone apps for him.

ABA Flash cards (free) by Kindergarten.com - Actions, Alphabet, Zoo Animals, Fruit & Nuts, Emotions
Real life pictures with the word for the picture on top. Voice audio says the word clearly. It can be turned off. Pictures can be ordered alphabetically or shuffled.

Balloonimals
Blow up balloons by blowing into the talking end of the iPhone. Shake the iPhone to create different animals with the balloons.

Echo
A game that's great for auditory and visual memory. A sequence of buttons flash on the screen. The challenge is to repeat the sequence in order with a new flash added to the sequence when successful. The goal is to match as many buttons in a row.

iPlay 'n Learn
Flashcards with letters, colors and shapes. Nice educational app but I think the voice is too fast for Matthew to follow. I'm also not impressed with the letter tracing feature on this app. It's not very easy to follow. I prefer iWrite Words for tracing letters.

iTouch iLearn Words
Features a match-the-word game and matching a picture to the word on the screen. Matthew isn't developmentally ready for this app yet.

iWrite Words
Letter-tracing educational app with easy-to-follow tracing guide.

Learn Sight Words ($0.99)
300 of the most frequently used words in the English language. I think this is the dolch list. Blue letters on white background.

Learn to Talk
Flashcards featuring high impact words, objects and labels, one word actions, two word actions. Tapping the word on the card spells it if spelling is enabled. Tapping the letter on the card flips it over to show the uppercase and lowercase form with audio of the letter, but not how the letter sounds.

Model Me Going Places (free)
Picture slideshows for modeling social skills. Limited to hairdresser, mall, doctor, playground, grocery store and restaurant.

Talking Tom (free)
A cat that repeats whatever is said to him.

TapToTalk
A tool for non-verbal kids to communicate. I have it on my iPhone but I haven't tried it with Matthew.

Virtuoso
Fun freeplay on the interactive piano.

Voice Toddler Cards – the talking flashcards ($.99)
Real life pictures with words underneath. Flashcards of letters, numbers, food, animals, objects). Own voice can be recorded for the picture or a default is also available in English or Spanish. Flashcards can be set to autoforward or manual tapping on the screen.

Wheels on the Bus
Poke or slide things on the screen for surprise actions. Own voice can be recorded singing the song.

More iPhone Apps
Here's a list of educational iPhone apps I've seen or heard of but haven't downloaded:

Baby's Animal Show
iTot cards
Pocket Phonics
Wh Questions
Which Doesn't Belong
Which Goes Together

Other Blogs That Have Listed Favorite iPhone Apps:
Yo Mamma Mamma
Sue Mayer - Special Needs Mom

What are your favorite iPhone Apps for kids?

If you have a blog and have written about your favorite iPhone kid apps, please share the link and I will add it to the list.

UPDATE:
Here are more resources.
- a .pdf file listing 200 iPhone & iPod Touch Apps for Special Education.
- Apps for Children with Special Needs
- Lunchbox Reviews: The Best Kids Apps Reviewed

8 comments:

Jennie said...

Thanks for the list. Micah LOVES the iTot cards. He's also a fan of Talking Carl ($.99), that imitates what you say, but in a weird voice that makes Micah laugh (you can also tickle Carl to make Carl laugh, or poke him in the eye to make him yell... not that I want Micah to learn that it's fun to poke someone in the eye, but it does require fine motor skills). :-)

suelmayer said...

Thanks for the list and the mention of my blog. I just found a new favorite. Sam loves pictures of his family but it's hard for him to talk about them. Smart Baby My First Sentences allows you to use your pictures, type in a sentence and record your voice. I didn't really like their sentences, too long, too complicted for my guy but I love being able to make my own.

Anonymous said...

WoW, I don't have an iPhone... but this has peeked my interest in perhaps getting one. My almost 5 year old identical twin boys both with PDD Autism and Down Syndrome are non-verbal, but they sign and communicate well with that. I'm interested!!

Rochelle said...

Great post as always Ria.
We have talked about Iphones for sometime too.
I definitely like the idea of the educational apps.

Kids iPhone Reviews said...

Hi Bill and Ria. I started a site called LunchboxReviews.Com. We collect, categorize and gather ratings for iPhone and iPad apps for toddlers, preschoolers and young kids to save parents time and money when making app buying decisions. We're new and always open to suggestions!

MamaMia said...

Wow! I love this! Thanks Ria! :D

Anna said...

make me want to upgrade. Maybe once G tires of the things we have at home and gets her contact lenses to see better...... Thank you for once again answering questions before I ask them! ;)

Monica Crumley said...

What a great list, Ria! Thanks for doing all the hard work. :-) Now I just have to go to iTunes and pick out the ones I want. John Michael loves to play on iPHone but we haven't done much educational stuff yet, so this is very helpful. Thanks!