Kids and Smartphones: Apps and Tips to Please Everyone

Man, are kids of today tech-savvy! And we are raising them that way. They take all their early cues from us, their parents, and they are going to pay the most attention to those items we spend the most time staring at. These days, if it’s not a computer, it’s a smartphone.

My kids, aged 4 and 18 months, are already both super fluent with touch screen technology—a skill I only mastered a little over a year ago. And though I have gotten to the place where I’m not sure how to use a phone with buttons, they will likely soon consider such an item a toy. Just like their actual toy phones that I occasionally pretend I really love, in the hopes that they will give me back my Droid.

There’s no denying that the smartphone is an invaluable tool for a virtually unlimited number of purposes. And just one of those is keeping your kids quiet and/or still for a certain amount of time. That’s survival, baby.

So I have done my own informal consumer testing of free Android apps for toddlers and preschoolers that I found on other lists of the so-called best. Several had problems that myself and my testers found insurmountable, such as advertisements that look a lot like buttons for game play. The short list that follows contains the games that appealed to the kids and parents alike. All are free on the Android market.

1.            Toddler Memory Lite. This one gets top billing for the simple reason that, though free, it contains no ads. The standard memory game offers four options for board size, as well as four choices of picture themes. My kids love that the game applauds when they complete a board. The app runs in demo mode when it’s first opened, which is great for the really little kids, and there’s a lock button that’s a good idea…but most techie kids will easily defeat it. It’s okay, though, because the game itself won’t lead them to the Internet.

2.            Talking Tom & Talking Pierre. These apps were a runaway hit with my kids. The gray tabby, “Tom,” can be punched and smacked in the face, and he’ll eventually fall down if you do it repeatedly. My boys love this, and though I have some motherly pangs about teaching them violence, at the moment I’m just glad they have a safe outlet for their impulses. You can also pet Tom gently for purrs and press a button to pour Tom a glass of milk. But the most fun thing about the app is that Tom listens to you and repeats what you say in a funny voice.

Now Talking Pierre, on the other hand, is a parrot who lives in Tom’s kitchen. Pierre also listens, but he doesn’t repeat it verbatim. He remembers everything you say, and parrots it back in a funny mishmash. Tom also makes an appearance in this game, but I won’t spoil the surprise. The only downside to these games is that they are very memory intensive (both require an additional download in order to have the best graphic experience). The pay version (to eliminate ads and include additional activities for the animals) is only 99 cents, so it could be worth it if you want to be able to step away from the kids momentarily while they’re playing. Peeing in peace…priceless.

3.            Animal Sounds Quiz. The free version of this game has two levels of 10 questions. The first level shows pictures of two animals and makes a sound; the child gets rewarded with a smiley face if they match the animal sound to its picture (and a frowny face if not). The second level shows three animal pictures from which to choose. There is also a practice mode that shows all of the animal pictures; they can be touched to hear their individual sounds. You’ll want to get the game started for your child to avoid them having access to ads. Nicely, ads only appear on the home screen that gives you options for playing the game, practicing, and buying the upgrade (also .99).

Smartphone Survival Tip: Train ‘em young

Some days I feel like I’ve spent my entire day just moving my phone around from place to place in order to keep little hands off of it. But I finally realized that the kids are not going to suddenly lose interest in this toy. I sure haven’t. So my strategy is now to take some time whenever they want to use the phone to demonstrate safe handling. My four-year-old clearly understands that touching the ads takes him away from the game, so he’s careful not to. The eighteen-month-old isn’t quite there yet, but he does bring the phone back to me whenever he has accidentally gone off course.

If you’re careful to leave any important accounts password-protected, such as banking and email, and you don’t store credit card information in your phone, kids and adults should be able to equally enjoy the wonder that is your smartphone.

For more information and game options, this is a great site that reviews all kid-themed apps for Android, iPhone and iPad: http://www.bestkidsapps.com/.

What other kid-friendly apps do you like?

In Praise of Subtitles

My husband & I unwinding with some subtitled programming after a hard day. Yeah, right.

You may be wondering how I can suggest that using subtitles reaches the level of life improvement. Though they are a vital resource for the hearing impaired, those who do not need to use them may find them distracting.

But I think activating the English subtitles on any DVD elevates the video watching experience significantly.

My husband and I started using subtitles on movie rentals when our second son was born. Cooper’s crib is in our bedroom, where it will probably remain until he’s old enough to move into his brother’s room. Using subtitles allowed us to watch movies at a volume low enough to keep the baby sleeping comfortably.

As time went on, though, I started turning subtitles on every time we watched a DVD. I love that with the subtitles running, you don’t have to keep adjusting the volume as screeching action turns to murmured dialog. If you miss a line here or there, the subtitles fill in the missing pieces.

Subtitles are great for the kids, too. I haven’t done a formal study on this, but matching written words to spoken ones can’t possibly hurt developing literacy in the younger kids, and maybe even improve spelling in the older ones. It’s probably not enough to say that watching television is good for kids, but I love anything that helps me justify my boys’ admittedly excessive media consumption!

Here are just a couple more reasons to praise subtitles:

They refer to sounds you never knew were even there. Subtitles may tell you that there is a faint bird call, or sound of hammering, or something else that helps set the scene but is nearly inaudible to the average person.

They’ll tell you the name of the song that’s playing, and in many cases, the lyrics, too. Obviously the soundtrack of any movie has been carefully chosen to add to the story. Subtitles save you from trying to decipher lyrics that may be difficult to understand, and make it easy to follow up on purchasing a song you really liked.

Subtitles make it easier to keep track of characters. If, like me, you watch your movies in fits and starts, sometimes you forget who’s who.  When two people are speaking, the subtitle will usually indicate the speaking character’s name. This can help avoid more confusion when you and your husband watch movies separately: “What part did you get to?”

“Umm, that guy, y’know, the best friend. What’s his name? He was talking to the ex-girlfriend…”

Maybe I’m weird, but I’m bummed that closed captioning isn’t a feature we have on our television service plan. I’ve gotta see about getting that turned on.

Best place I’ve used subtitles: Flight of the Conchords DVDs. These guys are frickin hilarious, mostly in cleverly rhymed songs.