Tag Archives: eduacational apps

Felt Board

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Price: $2.99 iPad, $1.99 Nook

Seller: Software Smoothie

Tablet: iPad, Nook

Educational Aspects:

Targets a wide variety of language goals including:

  •     Story telling and songs
  •     Following directions
  •     Describing
  •     Spatial concepts
  •     Vocabulary building
  •     Categorizing
  •     WH questions

Description:

Felt Board is modeled after felt boards used by children, storytellers, and teachers. Users can choose from a variety of backgrounds, characters, animals, numbers, letters, and scenery for hours of learning through play.

Review:

Felt Board is a versatile app that is simple enough to target a wide variety of language goals. Children and adults will be familiar with the layout and concept because it is designed after felt boards used in schools. The layout easy to use and look is beautiful with bright colors and simple shapes of all items. Users can select a wide range of backgrounds and items from a categorized side bar to add to a scene and address language goals such as, categorizing, naming/labeling, story-telling, following directions, and describing (just to name a few). Users can also take quick pictures of a scene to be discussed/described later, or to create a saved story sequence. Scrolling and selecting items can be difficult as items are added if they are touched and the scroll bar is very small. However, mistakes can be easily removed by dragging items to the trash.

Pros:                                                                Cons:

  1.   Inexpensive                                             1.   Difficult to scroll
  2.   Aesthetically pleasing                              2.   No music or recording capabilities
  3.   Intuitive and simple
  4.   Versatile

Felt Board is an exceptional application for children of all ages. It is simple and versatile with an intuitive layout and unlimited imaginative possibilities.

Below are some promotional codes for Felt Board on iPad ONLY.

PMR36EREP44R
KKHLNE7AXYK3
TWPTWKAWPFK4

Click to view and/or purchase Felt Board for iPad

Click to view and/or purchase Felt Board for Nook

Lillian Vosa, M.S., CCC-SLP

Toontastic

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Price: FREE

Seller: Launchpad Toys

Tablet: iPad

Educational Aspects:

  • Storytelling and/or retelling story
  • WH questions (who, what, where, when, why, and how)
  • Increasing utterance length
  • Developing complex sentences
  • Pretend Play
  • Linking ideas
  • Improving syntax
  • Following directions
  • Pragmatics
  • Increasing use of pronouns/verbs
  • Comprehending spatial terms
  • Intonation
  • Teaches flexibility and turn taking… to name a few

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:

  1. FREE                                                    1.  Hard to record in groups
  2. Easy to use                                          2.  Mood music overpowers character’s voices
  3. Numerous educational purposes
  4. Teaches the Story Arc
  5. Encourages imaginative play
  6. Toontube feature (watching other videos from around the world)
  7. Parent/Teacher Guide on website- filled with helpful information and interactive questions. http://launchpadtoys.com/toontastic/parent-teacher-guide/
  8. Toy Store feature- Purchase extra scenes individually or All Access Pass for $9.99

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