How To Choose A Truly Educational App for Your Toddler
The number of children and teens not attending school is soaring due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). In this time of health crisis and lockdown, how can you ensure the education continuity of your kids?
That’s when educational apps for kids come very much handy. And the good news is that there are hundreds of educational apps for toddlers on the market today. Yet, because of the overwhelming number of educational apps, choosing the best ones can be somewhat complex.
You might find yourself looking at a stockpile of educational apps, all of which claim to “enhance learning.” Right now, there’s no clear standard regulating when developers can and cannot claim that their app is educational.
So, how do you know if an educational app is actually designed to enhance learning? Exploring your subconscious criteria can help you in deciding which educational app is best for your kid.
All Digital School provides you with all the online learning resources you need, including a comprehensive list of educational apps for children. In an effort to help you choose the best educational app for your child, we’ve put together a list of factors you must consider.
Table of Contents
1. Engaging, Motivational, & Supports Learning Goals
Kids learn when they are engaged and motivated, which is why educational apps need to be a cross between education and entertainment. This means fun content, bright and vivid images, attention-grabbing songs and puzzles, and more. If an app simply repeats numbers at your kid, you could just as well use flash cards or a video recording, the effect will be the same – slow acquisition process and almost non-existent retention of the material that was covered.
In addition to that, any app you choose for your child should support the learning goals you have set for them. Those goals are different for toddlers and preschoolers, and you have to have a number of games that you can switch between as your child progresses.
2. Age-Appropriate Design
An app will not be very useful to your child if they are unable to use it independently. That often happens when developers don’t consult with educators and early childhood specialists in the beginning stages of their project.
Zoolingo is an educational app focused on providing pre-Ks and toddlers early learning experience. It’s intuitive, simple-to-use, user-friendly, and available in 16 languages!
It contains drag-and-drop puzzles, letter tracing, nursery rhymes, and a whole bunch of mini-games that kids can access even without assistanceーfeatures that you would want for your toddlers!
Another example of an educational app with an age-appropriate design is Sir Linkalot. The app is focused on helping grade-schoolers spell using fun techniques ー we’re talking about quests and slaying dragons!
3. Not an Endless Parade of Ads
Some educational apps run on a freemium model – that means that their existence and content are only possible because they show ads inside the app itself. We love freemium games but the fact remains that they disrupt the learning process. Imagine your child learning numbers from 1 to 10, only to see a 30-second commercial after each number? That’s not educational, that’s frustrating.
4. Developed by Experts
Developing an app takes a lot of work and effort. Still, it’s mostly design and coding, when you think about it. What that means is that everyone with passable computer skills can create an app and start marketing it as educational – without providing any proof that it will actually benefit your child.
If you’re looking for an expert-designed app, then you might want to check out Homer. They got a spectrum of learning products for ages 2 to 8. Homer has been proven to increase early reading scores by 74%.
Always remember, pick educational apps that are made and approved by experts!
5. Supports Group Activities
Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and apps that don’t feature group games are short-changing your child. Socialization is an important part of a child’s learning process – in essence, it helps them learn how to learn. In addition, skills and knowledge acquired through group activities have a better chance of ‘sticking’.
My Kids Drawing is an online platform where kids can share their drawings with other kids from all around the globe. They can even join competitions.
If you have a group of kids, a great educational app would be something that will have the group engage and participate. Use apps with nursery rhyme songs that a group of toddlers can sing together, such as Bamboo and Zoolingo.
Thanks to digital educational apps, children can still get access to fun and super-charge home learning amid a world pandemic.
Modern technology is making learning accessible, fun, and super-charged. Still, as parents and as educators, we have an obligation to curate what our children use, especially when they are still toddlers.
What Educational App Does Your Toddler Use?
Nothing beats the traditional learning system, but there’s no question about how educational apps help boost the learning process in toddlers.
We’d like to know what educational apps you use for your toddlers as well as your insights on how to choose the best educative apps. Share your ideas to other parents and teachers by registering on All Digital School (and it’s 100% FREE!)
Be part of our growing community and get access to our community boards where you can share your thoughts, ask questions, and even recommend apps and resources. You may also share your experiences with parents and teachers from different parts of the world.
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Feel free to share what educational apps for toddlers you highly recommend as well as your ideas on how to benchmark educational apps.
Like!! Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Really thank you! Keep writing.
Like!! Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Really thank you! Keep writing.