Our Current Favorite iPad/ iPhone Apps

Here is a list (and some video) of Elizabeth (2-yrs old) and Matthew's (4-1/2 yrs old) favorite apps these days. I've categorized them as best as I could. Some apps are listed in more than one category. Please feel free to comment and share your favorite apps with us.

Short-term Working Memory
NACD Simply Smarter


Expanding Knowledge
Mini Adventure Animals - I love integrating this app into our reading time, especially when we read about animals. Great real-life photos and youtube videos AND it's customizable.

Matching Jobs
ABA Animals flashcards (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Earth Science (by kindergarten.com)
Sesame Street Podcasts - not an app but free short videos featuring the letter of the day and things related to it.

Learning Concepts
Photo Touch Concepts (by Grasshopper Apps)
ABA Problem Solving What Rhymes (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Problem Solving Which Go Together (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Which Does Not Belong? (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Receptive by Function (by kindergarten.com)
Little Matchups Opposites (by Grasshopper Apps)
Little Matchups The Matching Game (by Grasshopper Apps)

Learning Patterns/ Critical Thinking
Caboose - Learn to Recognize and Complete Patterns
Little Patterns
Monkey Mathschool Sunshine

Little Solver Preschool Logic (by Alligator Apps)- this game gets progressively harder as Matthew gets more successful with the basic patterns.

Injini/ Injini Lite

Early Numeracy Skills & Math
KidCalc - Great app except I don't like the number tracing activity on this app. It's overly responsive and allows random screen swiping to trace the numbers.

Monkey Mathschool Sunshine
Grover's Number Special
Kinder Add
Line 'Em Up
Preschool Prep Meet the Numbers
PhotoTouch Numbers
123 Toddler Counting
Counting Bear (by Grasshopper Apps)
Montessori Counting Board (by Grasshopper Apps)

Speech Production & Articulation
SmallTalk Phonemes

NACD Apraxia

Talking Tom (and other Talking Friends)

Just For Fun
Monkey Mathschool Sunshine
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox
Talking Tom (and other Talking Friends)
Grover's Number Special
Matching Job
More Breakfast
More Pizza
Cupcakes!
Your Teddy!
Balloonimals
Fruit Ninja
Scout's ABC (by Leapfrog)

Books and Activities
I Like Books (by Grasshopper Apps)
The Monster at the End of this Book
Another Monster at the End of this Book

Lightning Was Here Puzzle Book
Thomas the Train books - Some (or maybe all) of the books have a memory matching game that's both auditory and visual.

Sight Words
Verbs with Milo

Noodle Words

A+ Dolch Pre-primer and Primer Sight Words
300+ Sight Words
Little Reader Three-Letter Words (by Grasshopper Apps) - I just wish the words were in lowercase letters instead of uppercase letters.
Little Reader Four-Letter Words (by Grasshopper Apps)

Language Input/ First Words/ Phrases
My First Couplets (by Smart Baby Apps)
ABA Animals flashcards (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Sports flashcards (by kindergarten.com)
My Home (by Smart Baby Apps)
Animal Kingdom (by Smart Baby Apps)
Food Festival (by Smart Baby Apps)
Around Town (by Smart Baby Apps)
My First 1000 Words (by Smart Baby Apps)
My First Words (by Smart Baby Apps)
ABA Vehicles flashcards (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Things You Wear (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Musical Instruments (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Things You Play With (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Actions (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Fruits & Nuts (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Vegetables (by kindergarten.com)
Noodle Words

Sentence Construction/ Reading Comprehension
Sentence Maker
I Like Books
ABA Alphabet flashcards (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Shapes flashcards (by kindergarten.com)
Sentences Builder (by AbiTalk)


Drawing & Writing
Drawing Pad
iWriteWords - I haven't used this app with the kids yet because we're not actively working on writing yet. I downloaded it because I wanted to try it. I'll use it when we start working on writing.
Paint Sparkles

Letter/ Color/ Shape Recognition
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox
123 Color
Preschool Prep Meet the Letters (uppercase)
Preschool Prep Meet the Letters (lowercase)
Preschool Prep Meet the Colors
Preschool Prep Meet the Numbers
Preschool Prep Meet the Shapes
ABA Alphabet flashcards (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Shapes flashcards (by kindergarten.com)

Audiobooks
Tales2Go - Since both Matthew and Elizabeth like listening to age-appropriate audiobooks, I'll be using this app in the car so they can listen to books in the car instead of their usual kid music sometimes.

Object Identification/ Visual Scanning
PhotoTouch Toys
Little Finder (by Alligator Apps)
ABA Animals flashcards (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Sports flashcards (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Receptive Identification by Class (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Receptive Combined (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Receptive by Feature (by kindergarten.com)
ABA Receptive Identification by Noun (by kindergarten.com)
My Home (by Smart Baby Apps)
Animal Kingdom (by Smart Baby Apps)
Food Festival (by Smart Baby Apps)
Around Town (by Smart Baby Apps)
Injini/ Injini Lite

Toy Review Tuesday: Thomas the Train Wooden Railway

Not all kids really get into train toys. Matthew did. Our little train engineer will play with this train set for at least 15 minutes - that's relatively longer than other non-electronic toys and non-screen based games. Elizabeth, his assistant train engineer, enjoys it too. The kids started out with the Water Tower Figure 8 set and then inherited a large plastic tub of tracks from older cousins.

They have two battery-operated metal trains - Salty and Percy - and all the other trains are made of wood. Train Engineer Matthew has mastered the art of connecting the interlocking wooden tracks. Matthew is very particular about how the track is set-up and which trains are on it. If we add another train without his approval, he says "Nooooo!" and takes it off the track. Both little engineers always make sure the trains stay on track. The battery-operated trains tend to go off-track if the tracks aren't connected just so. Some reviews online cite this as annoying but I think it's a good way to hold the kids' attention.

I honestly enjoy playing with the train set too. Bill says I seem to enjoy it more than the kids when I help make elaborate railroad lines. It's just so much fun to think of the possible configurations with bridges, tunnels, twists and turns and then watch the battery-operated trains pull the other trains along the track.



Thomas & Friends books on iPad/ iPhone
Matthew, in particular, has been enjoying Thomas the train so much that I have borrowed Thomas & Friends books from the library. We also have all 13 apps on my iPhone and iPad.

The apps are mostly developed by HIT Entertainment and some by Callaway Digital Arts. The HIT Entertainment ones feature an interactive book, a coloring sheets (6 choices), puzzle, and voice recording capability. The Callaway Digital Arts ones feature an interactive book, a matching game, puzzle, coloring sheets (6 choices), and a short video excerpt of the story.

All books are narrated in a British accent. All the stories are quite lengthy (and wordy) and don't hold Matthew's attention. So I usually disable the British narration and make up a shortened story as we manually swipe through the book.

By HIT Entertainment:
Down at the Docks
Thomas and Toby
Thomas Gets a Snowplow
Thomas and the Castle
Thomas Gets His Own Branch Line
May the Best Engine Win!
Calling All Engines
Thomas-saurus Rex
The Special Delivery

By Callaway Digital Arts:
Misty Island Rescue
Day of the Diesels
Engine Activities
Hero of the Rails

Tech Savvy

When Matthew was a baby, I didn't know the extent of Matthew abilities when I was told he would develop like other kids but just at a slower pace.

At age 3, he takes my iPhone, unlocks it, and scrolls through six screens of apps to find his favorites. He does this all by himself after observing me many times and some trial and error on his own. He has not accidentally deleted any of the apps (yet). His current favorites are Talking Roby, Talking Hippo, preschool prep apps, I See Ewe, Toddler Counting (by iTot Apps), and SmallTalk Phonemes.

He pushes the 'on' button on his vReader and vTech Mobigo, then proceeds tapping on the screen and navigating through games. I don't think he understands all the instructions but he understands enough to be able to experiment, learn to figure out some of the games, and play some of them independently.

If I let him, he'll randomly click on the laptop mouse when he wants to view more of the videos that I made for him or look at photos. But he's a little too click-happy with the mouse and since there are too many important documents on my laptop, I've taken away his mouse-clicking privilege.

Yes, he may be learning many things at a slower pace. But he is tech savvy just like most kids in his generation.

Toy Review Tuesday: Alphie The Learning Robot by Playskool

Alphie is Matthew's current favorite toy from his 3rd birthday. He says things like "Alphie-nomenal" and "You compute me." Yes, he's cute and a little corny. I found Alphie a little annoying in the first few days when Matthew started playing with him. He talks almost constantly and loudly even at the lower volume setting. But over time, I've learned to tune him out and actually like him.

He's an interesting, fun, engaging little toy. It took a little time for Matthew to figure out which buttons to press and how he could only put in one card at a time in the slot but otherwise Alphie is very kid user-friendly.

He sounds out letters, has interesting fun facts, matching, animals, sequencing, colors, rhyming and number games. Some of the double-sided cards that come with the robot have concepts that are a little advanced for Matthew at this time. The toy is rated by the manufacturer for kids 3 and up.



Right now, Alphie's main purpose is to keep Matthew's mind off of his post-surgery discomfort. Matthew does enjoy the letter cards and he sometimes sounds off the letters himself. He recognizes more upper case letters from playing with Alphie. Matthew likes to listen to Alphie talk. He understands some of the simpler activities/ concepts. He'll randomly press buttons when he doesn't understand what Alphie asks for or says. Alphie hints at the right answer if Matthew presses the wrong button. Matthew will eventually understand the more advanced concepts as he gets older. It's a toy to grow with, assuming he doesn't lose interest.

Flashcards With Sounds

Like most kids with Down syndrome, Matthew is a visual learner, meaning he learns best by seeing. In some ways, he is also a kinesthetic learner, meaning he learns by doing. We trying to increase his auditory processing skills too so he can learn better by listening or hearing.

I usually tailor my activities to match his learning style. Here's a video of one of my improvisations. I found a free app for the iPhone called "I Hear Ewe". It has recorded real-life sounds of farm animals, wild animals and modes of transportation. I use it to bring pictures to life by showing Matthew a flashcard of the animal as I tap on my iPhone for the sound. Matthew enjoys it. And when he's enjoying an activity, he's learning!

Sight Reading Activity

Matthew's interest in my laptop is growing exponentially. I use it to show him the short alphabet videos I made for him. We look at action photos of him for language input. Sometimes I have him on the webcam when I'm chatting with my mom and dad online.

I've discovered something else to do to make his laptop time productive. I found that I can teach him more sight words (focusing on high frequency words) and review the ones he already knows using Notepad and large font.

Here's a short video of him reading what I type. He will be 3 years old on October 5.

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