Peekaboo App
The Peekaboo app, by Sai Services, is one of my favorite vocab apps. Children love this app. Each vocab picture is exposed by moving an icon up, down and across each page in eraser fashion. Children enjoy the anticipation of seeing which picture they will expose. The icon and the picture erased can also be vocabulary words for the child to identify. The pictures are large and clear. The word for the object appears on the screen below the image. A new picture appears when the screen is swiped right to left. Swiping left to right takes one to the previous picture. Children may inadvertently swipe left to right until they get used to the right to left swipe. There is the option to turn on/off background music, card voice, card flip sound and “I see you” sound. The app targets receptive vocabulary when the card voice is switched to ON and expressive vocabulary when the it’s switched to OFF.
Suggested uses in addition to vocab: Left-right, up-down and across positions can be taught as the icon is moved, identifying colors, object parts, attributes, categories, where object is found, how object is used.
Ages: 2 (maybe) to 7
Cost: $.99 (this app was free when I downloaded it)
Rating: +++++
Website: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-peekaboo-cards-interactive/id391296156?mt=8
English Baby App
The English Baby app by Athcan offers 500 pictures sorted into 19 categories. The categories are nicely displayed in a row at the top of the screen. You just have to select a category and a picture from the category appears on the screen. A new picture appears when the arrow to the right of the picture is tapped. Tapping on the left arrow takes one to the previous picture. If one chooses to hear the word, an icon below and to the left of the picture can be touched, turning the app into one for receptive vocabulary. The voice is pleasant. Not touching the icon allows the app to function as an expressive vocabulary task. The word for the object appears on the screen below the image when the +W button at the top of the page is touched. The word does not appear with tab in -W position. The pictures are real photos, rather than drawn, and clearly displayed.
Suggested uses in addition to vocab: Object parts, attributes, categories, where object is found, how object is used.
Ages: 3-7
Cost: $2.99 (the lite app was free when I downloaded it)
Rating: ++++
In my upcoming blog, I’ll review the 13 vocabulary app offerings put out by one company.
Vocab apps I really like
About the Author: Mirla G. Raz
I am an Arizona licensed speech pathologist and am certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. I have been in private practice for over 30 years working extensively with children who have speech and language problems. I received my Master’s degree from Seton Hall University in New Jersey. After graduation, I decided that I need sun and warmth and so headed south to work for the Volusia County Schools in Daytona Beach Florida. The next year I moved to California where I was offered a job working for the Los Angeles Unified School District in the severe oral language handicapped program. My next move was to UCLA where I worked in the department of Clinical Linguistics at the Neuropsychiatric Institute. In 1981, I moved to Arizona where I went into private practice. It gives me tremendous satisfaction to know that I have helped hundreds of children gain normal speech and language skills.
