Bugs and Bubbles is an app for the iPad ($2.99) from Little Bit Studio, LLC, the same creators of the infamous and wonderful Bugs and Buttons.  The graphics and amazing attention to detail in this app are truly some of the best available.  This app has 18 games to choose from and various levels in each game that automatically adjust the more you play.  Kids of all ages love to pop, pinch and interact with these gorgeous bubbles.

This app offers OT’s such a wonderful variety of options to focus on isolating finger use in Bubble Harvest, and academic skills such as Patterning, Colors, and Letter Matching.  In Counting, you count the colorful bubbles and they remain clear in the box.  You then move the correct corresponding number –which turns out is a packing slip into the box–to a soothing Pachelbel Canon in D.

In the Racing game,  developers have added the elements of crossing midline, and  rotation.   The bugs will give a “Yippee” or a frantic “RUN” at the start.  Really clever and engaging.

One of my favorites is the Follow Me game where a fly leads the way for letter formations.  The screen has the appearance of a foggy window and you use your finger or stylus to “follow the fly”. When you trace the line it sounds just like a finger on glass!  Maybe I am just old fashioned, but I still get a big kick out of those kinds of details!  And you do this to the Nutcracker Suite–adorable.

The app also has two games in which you use two hands and tilt the iPad to complete tasks.  Great for bilateral awareness and motor planning.  In Bug Chase, the roly-poly bug rolls into a ball and you move it around to get rid of the green dots and the more you play the tricker it gets.

In Load Balance you tilt the iPad to move the load into the truck.

I highly recommend you add this app to your iTool kit for the graphics and shear number of inventive and challenging games!

Carol Hesch, OTR, – OT’s with Apps reviewer.

Carol Hesch, OTR is an occupational therapist of 23 years with a passion for helping children learn. She has experience in pediatric acute care, rehabilitation, early intervention and school based therapy. As a member of an iPad team for a large school corporation, she has been exploring the use of mobile technology as a “new age” modality with her students.