Good App - MindPal

 

                                                         

MindPal is the latest app that has captured our attention and both of us - mom and son are busy trying to get higher scores😊

Our homeschooling curriculum places a lot of importance on building thinking skills and problem solving skills. MindPal app provides you with a personal training program that has 5 free games everyday. MindPal is an award winning app on both Apple and Google Play as well as The People's choice award at the International Mobile Gaming awards. 

The app comes with 40 brain games that help sharpen your cognitive skills - memory, attention, language and math skills. These games are super fun and provide just the right amount of challenge as they adapt to your performance. The in-depth insights at the end of the session track your score in these areas - Speed, Memory, Attention, Flexibility and Problem Solving. Let's take a look:

You can download the app and use the free version to play the daily five games. It is available on Google Play Store  and   Apple App Store

Edujoy apps /games

 

                                                     

During my recent conversation with a mom looking for ways to develop visual skills, Edujoy apps were the first ones I suggested. I thought, why not share this wonderful resource with all my readers, hence this post. There are many educational apps/games developed by this company and many them offer free games. Though, we need to pay to access all the games, the sheer variety of the free games available in their many apps are enough to get you started. Miffy games is the only paid app of theirs in our home. The rest are all free versions. They are great for developing visual perception, figure ground differentiation, eye hand coordination, thinking skills, fine motor skills, memory  and problem solving skills as well as for learning educational concepts. Let's take a look:

                    

                      You can check out their vast collection and find ones that are suitable for you kiddo:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=5704336914526446295

https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/edujoy-entertainment/id535825661?see-all=i-phonei-pad-apps

Math Balance App

 

                                         

Math Balance app is developed by Makkajai Edutech Pvt. Ltd.  Their math monster app series offers many fun and interesting way to practice math skills in our children. Today, let's take a look at their Math Balance app.

This app is great for kids in the age group of 5-11 years or grades 1st to 5th. As the kids try to balance the bridge for the monster to reach the next level, they learn various skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  Other skills included are learning to understand greater than, less than;  practice mental math as they add the expanded form of the numbers to balance the bridge; problem solving skills as they find a way to work around the frozen blocks; using addition and subtraction in the same equation; Algebra and many many more as you can see in the images below:

With over 30 levels and multiple problems to solve in each level, this app is a treasure trove for our children. You can purchase it from 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.makkajai.numbersense_compensation_free&hl=en_IN&gl=US

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/math-balance-educational-game/id1217326065

Picture The Sentence App

 

                                     

                Picture the Sentence app is developed by Hamaguchi apps, a well known therapist developed app brand. This app is particularly useful for children struggling with receptive language as it helps them picture the sentence and thereby vastly improves the comprehension. They say, a picture is worth a thousand words, but it is probably worth a lot more for our visual learners on the spectrum. Let's check out this app.

                                          

In the settings, you can select the Difficulty level, sentence types, wait time and visual cues and track progress of your kiddo. They are three levels - Easy, Intermediate and Advanced.

In the Easy level, the entire sentence is shown in pictures and after a set wait time, the kiddo has to choose the correct image matching the sentence from the options given.

In Intermediate level, each word of the sentence is shown as a separate picture one after another. After a set wait time, the kiddo has to string along the pictures to form a sentence and select the corresponding image from the options given. Great for developing visual memory!

I hope you got a good idea of the app from this review. There is a lite version of the app, in case you want to try it beforehand. You can purchase it on the Apple App Store

As always, do reach out to share your feedback and if you're looking for some other app for your kiddo, I would be happy to help!

Splingo's Language Universe

 

                                            

Splingo's Language universe app developed by The Speech and Language store is a great app to help our early learners develop language skills. This app helps our kids master the usage of nouns, verbs, prepositions and adjectives in an interactive game style format. 

There are four levels in this app. The level of details become increasingly more complex as the levels progress; moving from using only nouns in level 1 to noun+verb in level 2 to noun+verb+preposition in level 3 and finally add adjectives to the mix. Here's an example:

Level 1 : Find an apple

Level 2 : Give the apple to boy who is waving

Level 3 : Place the apple next to school

Level 4 : Give the apple to the big boy who is sitting

The app costs around Rs 270/- .To know more about the app, visit the website of the app developer which also has links to purchase from Apple app store and Google play store. I hope you found this app review useful. Please feel free to reach out, I would love to hear from you!

https://speechandlanguagestore.com/our-apps/splingos-language-universe/

Concentration - The Attention Trainer App

 

                                              

After my last app review of Brain games, a dad got in touch with me and asked for an app recommendation that develops concentration. Since we are already using this app, and found it very helpful, this is a perfect app for him and for everyone looking for great games to develop concentration and attention for detail in our children.

There are many games in this app and the image shared below will give you an idea of why this is one of my favourite apps:

There are more games in this app than the ones shared above. You must be thinking that it must be a very costly app, right? Nope, it costs around 200/- Great isn't it?

You can purchase the app here:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/concentration-kids-attention-trainer-hd/id523101687

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tivola.concentration&hl=en_IN&gl=US

https://www.amazon.in/Tivola-Publishing-GmbH-Concentration-Attention/dp/B00C762OEU

Brain Games For Kids App

 

                                       

Brain games for kids app is another gem developed by IDZ digital Pvt. Ltd. It has an amazing collection of over twelve different types of games, each game comes with multiple levels, making it totally over 300+ games for your kiddo. 

The sheer variety of the games is great. I couldn't find the images to showcase all the games but the ones below should give you a fair idea.

The various skills that these games promote are:

Develop identification of shapes, colours, sizes and directions

Develop visual skills like scanning, visual perceptual skills

Develop logical thinking skills

Develop problem solving skills

Develop eye hard coordination and last but not least

Develop fine motor skills

The icing on the cake is the price, you can get it for around 300/-. You can check out  more images at the app stores. It is available on all stores:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?

id=com.iz.kids.brain.games.test.genius.iq.young.brains.mind.teaser.game.puzzle.tricky.quiz

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/puzzles-for-kids-3-year-olds/id1541102044

https://www.amazon.in/Brain-Games-Kids-Genius-Teaser/dp/B08NCF5JRZ

Listening Power Grades 4-8+ app

 

                                 

After my last app review - Fun with directions, a parent got in touch and asked for an app suggestion for her teenage son with advanced comprehension skills who needed more auditory workout. Thanks for getting in touch and here is the app recommendation for you - Listening Power for grades 4-8+, developed by Patti Hamaguchi, an experienced speech therapist.

This app offers excellent workout for auditory processing skills like auditory memory and closure, comprehension skills, vocabulary. There are three levels of difficulty and you can also select the number of choices for each one.

There are five categories in this app:

1. Listening for meaning 

2. Listening for grammar ( which sentence sounds right?)

3. Listening for fast sentences

4. Listening for missing sounds ( auditory closure)

5. Listening to stories and answering questions ( you can add background noise too)

This app is by far, one of the most challenging ones, my son has worked on till now and I hope it helps your son too and other kids who are ready to move onto the next level of auditory comprehension. Take a look at the video demo of this app:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPVFx1jyCic

I am sorry for disabling the comment section of the blog as it was getting spam messages. But you can always get in touch with me using the contact form on the blog. Do reach out with your comments and requests, if any, and I promise to try my best to help.