I’ve found a lot of creative ways to teach my pre-school age daughter her alphabet and to begin putting letters together. We’ve cut up straws in different lengths to use to form letters. We’ve done a lot a tracing experiments. And a new one is coloring hair gel and putting it in a sealable bag so she can trace with a Q-tip. But these activities aren’t very portable nor always on hand. Christine Dehne, Brooklyn-based mom, educator and multimedia artist has shared with us her favorite alphabet apps out there.
When I first decided I was comfortable handing my daughter my iPad, I downloaded a bunch of free or close-to-free “educational” apps willy-nilly. She was interested in the alphabet song at that point, so that was the only focus I had when I selected apps. We ended up with a few winners and a few duds. I’m sharing a few from each category here in the hope it will help you to understand the variety of apps available. There is certainly no shortage of apps about the alphabet, so please don’t think this list is exhaustive.
My Alphabet Coloring Book (free)
This is really too simple to call it a coloring book. Each letter has an associated object that the child can color in just bytouching the screen. My daughter found it very limiting because the object colors in completely with one touch. The alphabet is really just there as a letter for each object, there is no sound, and I believe my daughter played with it mostly without even realizing it had anything to do with letters. Also, there is a button you have to push to get to the next or previous letter, which is much more clunky than a screen swipe. I’d put this in the dud pile.
ABCs and Me (free)
This is a simple app that goes through each of the letters stating the name of the letter, giving its phonetic sound, and then an object that starts with the letter. It also other screens that focus on learning shapes, numbers, colors, and common objects. Not bad, especially since it’s free.
ABC Alphabet Phonics (free)
A quiz game, the child is instructed to touch a specific letter and the game gets slightly harder the more correct answers the child gives. There isn’t much in this to sustain interest. While it isn’t horrible, there are just much more interesting apps out there. Oh, and as far as we got, it was just straight letter recognition, no phonics.
Alphabet Jumbled ($1.99)
This app is nice because it incorporates some more challenging games in addition to the basics. The child can choose to just listen to the entire alphabet, listen to it phonetically, a flash card section, and various jumbles in which the child places the letters in order. The jumbles go from very easy to much more difficult, timed games, which should keep a child interested in this app over several months.
Endless Alphabet (free)
Pushing beyond the alphabet, this is an adorably animated app in which a word beginning with each letter of the alphabet is spelled out. The letters are scattered by a stampede of characters and the child must place them back into order, which isn’t too challenging because there are clearly defined spaces for each letter. The letters enact their phonetic sounds, the word is pronounced, and then the word is animated and defined. A bit cheeky, including words like belch and nosey, but really very engaging and a steal while it’s free.
Elmo Loves ABCs (iPad only, $5.49)
We started out with the free “lite” version of this app and it was a huge hit, so this was the first app I actually paid for, and it remains one of the more expensive apps I own. But my daughter has been playing it for over a year now and still goes back to it. You can’t beat the content: a beginning letter-writing feature that doesn’t penalize the child for drawing outside of the lines, tons of video and animation including classics you may remember from your own days watching Sesame Street, and other various games.
– Christine Dehne is a Brooklyn-based multimedia artist and educator and a mother of two girls. She strives to teach her children and her students to be happy but conscious consumers of media. You can reach her at christinedehne (at) gmail (dot) com.