Developer Luca Lashes, LLC in conjunction with FlyingWord has created a series of books available as regular and enhanced ebooks and as interactive, narrated apps which help young children get through first experiences without fear and anxiety. The stories bring to mind the Froggy books by Jonathan London which helped prepare my ASD child for sleepaway camp at the tender age of six.
Continue reading "Luca Lashes The Brown-Eyed Boy with Magic Eyelashes: Introduction" »
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Bottom Line: A cute furry friend, positive lesson and great narration fail to make up for a slow story and less than stellar interactivity. A portion of app sales goes to support protecting red pandas though.
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Bottom Line: Inspiring introduction to the early life of the man now known as the Steve Jobs of his time that would be even better if it stuck to the facts.
Continue reading "Thomas Edison: "Little Al, the Inventor" - Famous People Series" »
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Bottom Line: Finely crafted picture book that's a cut above. Much more than what first meets the eye.
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Bottom Line: Routinely is a niche app at a good price. Recommended for putting together task analyses for children but need to see a couple of upgrades before rating it a Top Pick.
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Just as so many subjects in "real school," the preponderance of educational apps help teach the ABCs and 123s, as opposed to addressing emotional development in any way. Enter Be Confident In Who You Are ($3.99), an eight-chapter graphic novel that deals with several important topics such as bullying, friendship, stress and body image.
The app presents a number of very critical, but oft-neglected concepts. The perception, I believe, is that the sex/drugs talks are the ones to worry about for parents with children in this age range, but I think a bullying talk is of equal importance.
Each chapter presents its own significant topic through a story with a conclusive point as the end. I thought a more direct approach might have worked better in a few places, but that may be because my oldest just turned 10. More important than that, however, is that developer Electric Eggplant is putting these topics out there in a format (graphic novel) and platform (iOS) that can reach their target audience.
There is also a section just for information about the characters and their specific concerns. They can even be emailed, which is quite a unique feature...but my seven-year old said "but they aren't real, are they?" so I'm not sure if that will work. I like the idea, however, that the developers tried to reach out to children who identified with a certain character.
There are thousands of apps teaching reading and math but not many developers are taking a shot at this kind of delicate, but extremely important material. I recommend Be Confident as sit-down-together reading if your children are within the suggested age range (8-14), and I especially recommend it for the 8-10 age-range, before a lot of that dreadful teen angst starts to creep in.
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