Dexteria Dots

Upon opening up Dexteria Dots the first thing that struck me was its simple appearance. Users are presented with three game play modes: combine, separate and both.  Once you choose your option you are given a further option of difficulty levels: beginner, intermediate, advance and expert. At beginner level the "dots" have four visible attributes: a numeral, pips (smaller dots within the dot), colour (each dot is colour coded in relation to its numeric value) and size (which is proportionate to its numeric value.)

Dexteria Dots appears at first look to be very simple but the more you watch children interact with the dots you begin to realise there is a lot more to it. Through three modes of "combine", "separate" and "both" children will be able to learn a wide range of core maths skills such as: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Each dot has: pips, a numeral, colour and size proportionate to its numeric value.  Children are asked to use touch screen gestures such as taps, swipes and drags to manipulate the dots.  

On screen visual instructions show the four gestures used in the game:  swipe (splits the dot in two), drag in (pulling one dot into another to combine them), dragging out (pips can be dragged away from a larger dot and forms a new single dot with a value of 1) and the children's favourite tap which explodes the dot into single 1 dots e.g. tap a 5 and the 5 disappears and is replaced by 5 single dots.

As the level of difficulty increases attributes are removed one at a time so by the time users are working on expert level they are working with only size to identify the value of different dots.  Although the visual of the app is extremely simple there are some very fun animations that happen to dots when you reach the target set at the start of each round. The dots transform into fun characters that each have their own sound effect before disappearing. 

The app is really simple and really fun to play and without realising it children will be working on a range of fundamental maths concepts such as addition, 1:1 correspondence, subtraction, multiplication, division, larger and smaller to name just a few.

A feature that really adds to the engagement and challenge of the apps is being able to score bonus dots. Your target is to reach a dot of a given value or size but in many level you have enough components to create a number of dots at the target value. This brings in a whole strategic element to the game as players will want to line up their components so they can drag together as many as possible in the time between when the first one is completed and when the animation fades away.  

As well as the mathematical benefits of the Dexteria Dots it also offers some really good opportunities for fine motor control, visual tracking and requires  visual motor planning and this makes it an ideal app for children with special educational needs.

Dexteria Dots is a great way for kids to learn, practice, and build fluency.

You can download Dexteria Dots on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.