Preschool Kids Math

This app’s title on the App Store differs from the one that is shown on the title screen.  Here it is known as Pups with Numbers and this gives a clear idea of the two main themes of the app.  Puppies are the child-friendly guides through learning about how to form numbers.

This is a tightly focused app that is designed to help children learn how to correctly form written digits.  There are no distracting links or other screens to distract from its main purpose.  After choosing one of the cute animated puppies to guide them in their learning, children begin at zero and work their way through to the number twenty.  The chosen pup leads the route that the player’s finger should follow as they write the number. 

You’ve probably seen this teaching device before in an app, but it is particularly well executed here.  Too often in other apps, the invisible markers through which children’s fingers must pass to stay on the good side of correct are too sparse or poorly positioned.  This leads to children being able to form some crazy shapes that are marked as correct because they occasionally stray back into position.  This is much more tightly controlled in this app and finished numbers will look correct.

The developers of this app recognise that the target users of it won’t have secure reading skills and so every instruction, correction and word of praise is delivered in a clear spoken form.  From the soft Australian accent you can make a correct assumption about where the developers are from, but there are no examples of any phrases that are unique to its home country and so it is perfectly understandable by everyone. Children are rewarded with graphical effects in addition to this verbal encouragement.

Throughout the app, the presentation and polish are excellent.  Colourful, but not garish, graphics are child-friendly and the pups will be endearing to children although they may lead to a false assumption.  The assumption, perhaps through conditioning by other apps, is that each pup will lead the player through a different game or activity, but this is not the case.  It only changes the guiding pup. The activity is so well presented and enjoyable that the expectation that there are more like it may lead to disappointment.  The developer promises more apps led by them so this variety will come with time.

Educationally, the app meets its objectives – both curricular and in child-development.  Playing through it will give children a strong foundation in both writing numbers and knowing the order of them.  Children can easily pick up the app and play independently with it, but parents and teachers can also use it as the focus for them to work with their child as they learn.  With a crayon and some paper, they can easily help their child to begin to apply what they have learned to real life.

When building up a collection of learning apps for your pre-school child, you could do much worse than let these pups help out.