An AppStore for children: iWriteWords

As a general rule, tiny high-tech gadgets turn out to be too fragile for use by children since little users simply don’t know how to play with such “toys” and prefer breaking them. An alternative is the not-so-tiny iPad, which has a lot of interesting features to offer, not just adults, but also their children. In addition to the dozens of games you can install for the iPad, you can also install a few development-boosting applications to let your child spend his time in a useful way while playing with his dad's tablet. For instance, the iWriteWords app will help your kid practice the basics of the alphabet while playing a game.

The app can help your child develop his spelling, writing, and word pronunciation skills. The education process is well-planned and at the same time simple: the application demonstrates a word and requires the child to write it letter by letter while simultaneously showing and pronouncing each correctly written letter. The interface is very simple and free from any mess. As you might have guessed, the app offers a finger-drawing pattern for writing letters – the user must catch a tiny, funny crab and place it on the appearing letters. However, it is better to buy a pencil-like stylus to help your child develop his fine motor skills more quickly.

Luckily, the app doesn’t require that your child be a genius; the lines can be drawn imperfectly, and the letter “e” may look like an “o." The purpose is to let your child memorize the correct spelling and way of writing the word through multiple and gradual revisions.

In the future, he will try to write words as iWriteWords asks; that is, in a correct way.

At first it may be difficult for a kid to cope with the finger-drawing pattern, and letters will turn out curved and go across the boundaries of the rectangular drawing field. To assist your child in the game, you can widen these boundaries a bit using a small scrollbar located in the bottom-left corner.

Once your child gets used to the iPad’s display and the app’s interface, the boundaries of the field can be reset to their default settings.

In addition to these features, iWriteWords is able to motivate a child by displaying funny pictures if a word is written in the proper way. For example, a kid will see a cute bear after writing the word "bear" correctly.

Through using this app, your child will get practice writing upper and lower case letters and will also learn how to write digits; the app has more than 20 “digit” levels. Thanks to the parallel voice-syncing of every action your child does, graphic images, and more than 70 levels, your kid will no longer view studying the alphabet and spelling as a boring thing that he is required to do. Instead, he will think of it as an interesting and colorful game.

By John Page January 31st, 2012s 4 Comments