I have two precious boys – little-J (1yo) and big-T (3yo). They love Daddy’s iPhone. This site contains independent reviews of iPhone and iPod Touch applications based on educational or developmental merit for preschool children, based on personal opinions and observations of my two boys using the apps. I am reading up on developmental stages for children (trying to find out what is good/appropriate at different ages), but I am not formally trained in child development (I am in IT as you can see here).
Usage
Some people worry about giving expensive electronic devices to young children. Here are my comments:
- Big-T, my 3yo has never dropped it yet.
- Little-J, my 1yo has never dropped it accidentally – in fact, getting it out of those surprisingly strong little fingers can be very difficult. He has however thrown other toys away when he has had enough, so I do always supervise his usage closely.
- I always hand it over when they are sitting on carpet, never tiles. Some have said they give it to their children in the back seat of the car (again carpet, and only a short falling distance).
- I put the timer on before handing it over to (try and) control the session length.
- I don’t make it a regular thing so it becomes an expectation every day.
- Putting the iPhone into “Airplane mode” is a good idea, to reduce radiation to your child and avoid unintentional international phone calls.
- I assume its obvious you should get a screen protector of some kind.
What Makes a Good App
Some things I think are important for a good app for young children.
- It should teach something. Straight shoot-em-up games just waste time. There are lots of arcade style games however that involve mental challenges, not just good reflexes.
- Rewarding good results is good. One app allowed you to collect stickers for example. Even nice short little animations when a match is made is a positive thing.
- Encourage rather than chide when the child gets it wrong. One app used the vibrate mode in a memory match game every time a wrong pair was selected. But you had to pick lots of wrong pairs before you could pick a right pair. Big-T might be a bit sensitive, but he won’t play that game any more – he does not like all the negative feedback.
- Make sure a stage can be completed quickly – little people tend to have short attention spans. (I like the Digital Chocolate ™ tagline of “Seize the minute” ™. Very apt.)
- For very young children, I am not so keen on time limits.
