Fun and Useful Apps for Children in Early Childhood Services Sharon Mannino, SLP Leah Bunch, SLP

Description Parents often look towards the professionals working with their children, as well as other parents for ideas and suggestions for new and different apps to use at home to promote carryover of skills, as well as to provide interesting and fun play for their children. We surveyed parents, regular education teachers, special instructors, therapists, and other professionals, and compiled a list of apps and designed a handout both fun and useful for children in early childhood environments.

Procedure Survey Monkey Sent an 8 question survey to ECS staff Job Position Frequency of Use Primary iPad Use Areas of Interest Favorite/Least Favorite Apps Received total of 32 responses

Majority of our responses were from Special Instructors and Speech Therapists. We found that many preschool teachers did not use iPads for instructional use within their classroom setting. When iPads were implemented by regular education teachers, I found that it was primarily for administrative purposes (e.g. attendance, take pictures, send notes home to family).

Fairly evenly divided. Most individuals who completed our survey use the iPad for instructional use every day, or use their iPad depending on the individual students’ needs.

We found that the ECS staff uses their instructional iPad for learning applications (e.g. ArticPix for speech, Dora’s ABCs for cognition, First Phrases to use 2-4 word phrases) and Reinforcement activities. These applications include Easy Bake Treats, Mr. Potato Head, Toca Boca) to use as a reward during sessions. Some colleagues noted that Apps that are considered “reinforcement” can also be used as instruction time. For example, “Bugs and Bubbles” can be used as a reward, used to work on naming colors, or used to expand language skills. Our colleagues found that they have the least amount of Apps relating to Classroom Management and Sensory skills.

Our staff is most interested in learning more about instructional, thematic, reinforcement, and visual schedule applications. Following the survey, we compiled a list of Apps that were frequently used by our staff. We categorized the list of apps for reference.

Summary Over 64 apps listed in survey Categories include: sensory, reinforcement, fine/gross motor, instructional, classroom management, visual schedules, data collection List will be available on the ECS documents in SharePoint We found that over 64 apps were listed within the survey. Some apps are costly, while others are free. Many of the apps that are more expensive have a “lite” version that is reduced in price or free, but does not contain the entire app.