Spinlight Studios, the developers of the 
wonderful number-learning TallyTots, turn their attention to the alphabet in this creative and educational app. Learning isn’t something that’s viewed as a burden, but rather transformed into a game, which makes young kids want to use this app again and again. All letters are always on screen, letting kids explore where they want — and accessing the familiar A-B-C song is just as easy. The interactive elements, which kick in after pronunciation on the letters is made clear, are very clever and engaging. Navigating alphabetically is a snap, but if the user wants to jump from, say “A” to “Z,” they’ll have to press that letter for 3-4 seconds, which might be beyond the attention span of the target audience.
Tag Archives: toddlers
App review: The Going to Bed Book
Sandra Boynton is one of the most-loved modern authors 
of children’s books and it is fun to see her beloved board book become an app. This app has a soothing reader (Billy J. Kramer), great highlighting of words read, the ability to tap any word to hear it spoken aloud, and lots of interactive hotspots. Plus the interactive elements vary greatly from tilting the iPad to make the animals slide to turning on the hot water in the sink, which causes the screen of the iPad to steam up (you wipe it clean with your finger). However, The Going to Bed Book has a few navigational issues. The onscreen animations are generally well-done, but some are positioned on the screen near where the user is likely to try to swipe to the next page, making it sometimes hard to advance the book. Even with this shortcoming, the book’s message and characters are as charming on iDevices as they are in the original board book form.
Chris Morris: Journalist 