so you can see why i was really excited to be selected to try out and review Tickle Tap Apps. Tickle Tap Apps are age-appropriate educational and interactive games for the iPhone or iPod Touch. the games are simple, colorful, and are designed to teach or reinforce sounds, numbers, colors, patterns, and shapes.
i gave Tickle Tap Apps bonus points for being developed by a leading preschool games consultant and tested by kids ages 3, 4, and 5 years old. perfect.
i downloaded two of the Tickle Tap Apps, Count Caddy and Sound Shaker. at first glance, these apps seemed too simple for BigGirl (age 4). but then i realized, iPhone apps are not really for the challenge but for the fun. so let's give it a whirl.
the child chooses which sound she wants to play with: the chime, whistle, drum, barnyard animals or mystery sounds. and then, by tapping and tilting the phone, the selected sound, depicted by a colored circle on the screen, changes audibly and visually. it's noisy, and it gets noisier the more the child taps and tilts the phone. but it's hilarious. the longer you tap in one spot on the screen, the bigger the circle gets until eventually SUPRISE! a little chick hatches and tweets across the screen. that part cracks BigGirl up every time!
Bubba thought the animal noises were fun, but mostly he wanted to grab my phone and do it himself. uh...no sir.
Count Caddy is cute, too. it focuses on counting by ones, by twos, by threes. BigGirl wasn't too crazy about this one, she didn't get past counting by ones. but Bubba loved it. he watched the screen in anticipation as the kitty cat counted her balls of yarn. he held up his fingers, counting. making me one very proud Mama.
the games teach sounds and counting, but i noticed it also helps with the child's development of coordination, concentration, spactial concepts, and small motor skills, just like the Tickle Tap App website promises.
Tickle Tap App developers zinc Roe design does all the research and testing to create the best apps for preschoolers. i thought they did a great job by making these apps simple, cute, fun, and funny, without being obnoxiously colorful or noisy, or over the top in the design sceme.
my kids are so tickled by the games, i'm keeping Tickle Tap Apps on my phone for sure.
check out Tickle Tap Apps at http://www.tickletapapps.com/ and watch video clips to see the games in motion. they're available for download online and at the iPhone App Store. download Tickle Tap Apps for your little ones to enjoy, too!
{full disclosure: i was given two promo codes to download Tickle Tap Apps for free, and asked to review them.}
