Project Kids Cards app

The folks at Smart Apps for Special Needs are marvelous curators of app deals and reviews for iOS and Android apps. I am not sure how they do it, but they daily feature apps on sale for students with disabilities. What gets tricky, is sifting and winnowing apps that truly are better than currently downloaded apps, are price worthy or useable content. Now, years later with so many apps available,  a boat load of downloaded iPad(s), finding worthy apps seems to be a little more tricky with more discrimination used for selection.

One of the many apps they listed for Free App Friday is Project Kids Cards app (regularly 1.99, currently free until 7/17/14; iPhone/iPad).  It’s a simple app, it requires users to sequence and order numbers and letters without a lot of bells and whistles. I believe this is a good extension activity for learning to write letters and numbers, something that students who like order and a pattern like to do (my students with ASD liked this kind of concrete task).  Certainly learning the order of numbers is an important foundational math  skill.  Learning letters in order may not be imperative to learning to read, but provides a system of learning letters and later ability to organize information in a standard manner.

Project Kids Cards app features basic identification of letters and numbers with ordering tasks or games requiring the user to drag  letters or numbers in alphabetical or numerical order. A game of pairing lower and upper case letters is also provided. Pretty simple and straight forward, this app speaks the name of the letter/number out loud while presenting the task. Not a lot of bells and whistles, no data collecting nor is in-app purchasing present either. Here are a few screenshots of the app:

Pretty straight forward with just skill and drill, not a game format. Project Kids Cards is worth downloading for free, there are few apps I have seen that include ordering numbers and letters in the same app.  One reviewer comment cited contrast being an issue for students with low vision challenges.

Although I downloaded the app and find it stable and an easy to use app, I might think carefully about downloading it at 1.99, as it lacks options of multiple users or collecting data, important for assessment of student progress.

More to consider for your teaching or OT mTool Kit!

Carol

References:

The Importance of Learning Alphabetical Order, March 22, 2014, retrieved on 7/12/2014 from: http://www.bubblews.com/news/2710405-importance-of-learning-alphabetical-order.

Ordering Numbers, n.d., Retrieved on 7/12/2014 from: http://www.mathsisfun.com/ordering-numbers.html. 

Kosur, Heather Marie, 2/8/2012. “Teaching Numbers to Kindergarten Students”, Retrieved on 7/12/2014 from: http://www.mathsisfun.com/ordering-numbers.html.