App review: Animals iSpy Junior
Choose your game!
We’ve got a new favourite game on the iPad! Animals iSpy Junior is a free puzzle game for toddlers (and young children) on the iPad. It has a range of boards to choose from, with a different selection of animals or characters on each. When you open a board, the animals are displayed in place for a second, and then scattered across the board, leaving a blank placeholder for each one.
To complete the puzzle, the child must drag each animal or character to the correct placeholder. When the child matches an animal to the correct shape, a voiceover announces what the animal is, saying “I am a cow” for example.
Match the animals to their shapes
It’s simple, but it’s really effective. Within a few games, Little Man was able to point out the cow, the fox, the horse, and even distinguish which was the chick and which was the chicken.
Then once all of the shapes are matched, the voiceover asks you to identify each animal in turn. It took a while, but once he got the hang of it, Little Man started to love this part!
Can you find the chicken?
There’s a lot of positive reinforcement built into the game, and plenty of encouragement when the child gets the answer right, and some hints when they get it wrong.
Play with animals in different environments
Once Little Man started to get bored with the first puzzle, we moved on to the next one. The different puzzles offers a variety of environments and a selection of animals in each one.
You can even play under the sea!
You can also switch between four different languages: English, French, German, and Spanish. Oddly enough, Little Man seems to enjoy the Spanish version as much as the English version!
Animals iSpy Junior is available for free in iTunes:Animals iSpy Junior
