Kid apps explode on smartphones and tablets. But are they good for your children?
By Cecilia Kang, Published: November 17, 2011 Washington Post Article
For Paula Mansour of Falls Church, allowing her 2-year-old, Maggie, to play a few rounds of Angry Birds as she prepares dinner helps her keep the household running smoothly and stress-free.
She monitors Maggie’s smartphone time — and that of her 6-year-old sister, Kayla — and does not see the harm in short sessions on her Samsung Galaxy a few times a day.
Aside from Angry Birds, Maggie plays with Kids Doodle and ABC Views — apps that promise to help children get an early start with preschool skills. “She’s learning and having fun,” Mansour said. “I don’t see any harm in that.”
Kid-app explosion
Just about every category of learning is covered in Apple’s and Google’s app stores. Get your toddlers to trace letters with their fingers on one of dozens of apps aimed at budding writers. Baby Sign Language teaches infants the signs for cow, foods and other objects. Math Ninja offers drills on multiplication and division.
Want to read “Humpty Dumpty” to your newborn? The Nursery Rhyme app will do that for you. BabyPlayFace has been featured in Apple’s iTunes store, with 250,000 downloads. It teaches infants first words in different languages through animated baby faces.
Apple and Google tout their mobile devices as revolutionary tools for learning and fun — and helpful distractions for the modern parent. They promote Angry Birds and Cut the Rope as children’s games that consistently rank among the most popular apps.
“Every parent could use a hand. Keep up with your kids or just keep them busy with family-friendly iPhone apps,” Apple pitches to users on its iTunes store. Apple rates apps with a minimum age of 4. Apps on Google’s Android system do not have an age minimum.
Sherri Richardson Burgan of Portage, Pa., is convinced that her iPad is making her toddler smarter. Two-year-old Colton won’t sit still to draw with crayons and wriggles out of his mother’s lap during story time. But on the tablet, Colton enthusiastically points to shapes, letters and colors and identifies them by name.
“A circle! I did it!” he cheers.
So, like scores of parents, Burgan has been on a frenzy downloading games, educational programs and videos for her youngest. Colton is usually on Burgan’s lap or at least nearby when he is on the iPad, so she does not put any limits on his time using the tablet.
The apps will “let him reach his full potential,” said Burgan, a stay-at-home parent with three older sons. “He got it right away. He knows how to turn on the iPad, find his favorite apps and get started.”
Kid apps are among the fastest growing in Apple’s store. BabyPlayFace founder Jacob Slevin said Apple sent a team to New York to meet him last week to help improve the app, which he hopes to expand into various baby body parts. Parents have sent him video testimonials from around the world, saying how much they love the app.
Slevin does not have children. He is not an educator. But he did help his younger sister with speech therapy exercises, and he is a tech enthusiast who sees no limit to the potential of apps.
“My pediatrician is now a consultant for us and is replacing all the silly toys in his waiting room with iPads,” he said.
But before one tosses out toys for tablets, parents should remember that nothing beats real-life learning, said Howard Gardner, a professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
And parents are modeling their own smartphone addictions to a whole generation of children growing up with apps, he said.
Gardner’s advice for those parents who want to get their kids ahead: walks in the woods, visits to museums and building with tinker toys. “You can’t replace the human imagination,” he said. “There’s no app for that.”