Hey everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that Toca Boca put their doctor app for free in the App Store today to honor “back to school” week. This is a great app with lots of educational content that usually costs $1.99. You can click on the link below to find and download it for FREE today.
Click here to view/download Toca Boca Doctor
Price: $3.99
Seller: Shimon Young
Tablets: iPad, Android, Nook
Educational Aspects:
Description:
A virtual playhouse where you are in control! My PlayHome showcases 6 different rooms of a house (kids bedroom, master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, family room, and backyard). This app also comes in a lite version (free), but does not contain all the rooms.
Review:
My PlayHome is an original, multi-purpose, entertaining, yet educational app available in the App Store. Once purchased, you will be hooked navigating and exploring the different rooms with all you can do! This app is beyond impressive in its interactive capabilities. It is extremely user-friendly with no instructions needed. The main screen on the app only showcases one function, “Tidy the House.” This feature allows you to put the rooms back to the original settings (if you were playing with it previously). Once you begin, the user can touch to add people into the scene. To remove a character from your scene you must drag them back into their original spot. You can also investigate other rooms of the house and see what they have to offer by touching the arrows on the screen. From a therapist’s perspective, My PlayHome allows you to touch on multiple speech and language goals. Children and teens get to use their imaginations in this app and create stories, link ideas, and be engaged all while working on verbs, pronouns, labeling, and even following directions to name a few. This app is also great for working on complex sentences or having them describe a room or what they’re doing (i.e. Q: What is he doing?- A: He is jumping on the trampoline). Really, the educational characteristics of this app are endless.
Pros: Cons:
My PlayHome is one of my personal favorites. It is simple, revolutionary, and extremely addicting.
Click here to view and/or download My PlayHome
Andrea Flynn, B.A., SLPA
Price: FREE
Seller: Launchpad Toys
Tablet: iPad
Educational Aspects:
Description:
Toontastic is a creative educational app that allows children, teens, and adults of all ages to become the creator of their very own cartoon!
Review:
Toontastic is a one of a kind ingenious app available for free in the App Store! From the moment the download is complete you will want to immediately begin playing. The catchy background music and advanced graphics are what truly leave this app pioneering the way of future apps to come. The apps homepage is well organized providing practical navigation throughout the entire app. The app begins teaching and explaining what is going to happen from the moment you click “New Cartoon.” From a therapist’s perspective this is brilliant because the app explains the Story Arc and details out what should be happening in each setting. The creator’s job is to listen and click on the corresponding picture (i.e. setup, conflict, challenge, climax, resolution) of where they want to begin. Another strong educational factor in this app is its ability to teach emotions/feelings. It not only lets the characters act out and sound a certain way through recording, but it also ties in background music that directly relates to the mood of the scene. This provides children and teens with a well-rounded view of emotions and feelings and helps them to comprehend Pragmatics. A feature that would be helpful for therapists and other educators on Toontastic, would be providing multiple recording sessions per scene. When just one person is working on Toontastic managing and recording a scene is rather easy. However, when you get 3+ people working on a cartoon, it gets hard to animate all the characters and have each child say their line in one recording.
Pros: Cons:
This is a must have app! Many therapists I personally know use this app across multiple settings. The creators of this app are genius and seriously thought of everything. From the kid-friendly look of the app to the Parent/Teacher Guide filled with helpful info, tips and a run down of the Story Arc! It is innovative, educational, and beyond creative… what else can beat that?
Click to view and/or download Toontastic
Provided by: Andrea Flynn, B.A., SLPA
speechnteachapps.com 