ITunes and Play Store along with other major app stores categorise thousands of apps under the section, learning apps for kids. As a parent, you could be mesmerized by the wide choice of educational apps that are available in these digital stores. But, have you ever had a second thought about whether you are going to spend money on something that could be valuable for your kid’s educational needs?
This article will give you a fine idea on what has to be your considerations and not as a responsible parent, while selecting the same.
1. Minimalistic Distractions
Parents readily find it satisfactory and relaxing to choose an app that offers too much gameplay or noisy stuff thinking that these kind of apps could keep their children interested for long.
Although learning apps for kids should have a sufficient amount of entertainment value, it will be unwise to include too much distractions in them. Unwanted elements could keep your kids very far from reaching the goal. The best tactics will be to provide entertainment in an amount as much as would be necessary to keep them on track.
2. Avoid Inappropriate Content
Not many parents will give enough attention into checking whether the app content is appropriate for the age, individual ability, and cognitive development of the child. It is unfortunate that there is no regulatory systems that are in effect, which monitors the quality of the educational apps at present. As a result, anybody could make claims and is not required to answer to an authority. So, the responsibility to choose beneficial learning apps for kids lies in the hands of the parents and teachers alone.
It is advised that the apps should be checked properly to ensure it being fit for use by children. As children often imitate what they see and hear, it is very important that the apps should be devoid of violence or other kinds of information that may spoil your child.
3. Choose Apps that Encourage Social Involvement
Guidance is always part of the learning process. Choose apps that promote a good amount of parental interaction and team play. Your child will learn more when there is competition and support from peer groups.
4. Say No to Apps that Try to Market to Your Child
We are all happy with free for use stuffs. But, never take that approach with your child’s learning. What comes for free, has got its disadvantages.
Almost all of the ‘free’ and ‘lite’ apps that are available in the market do make efforts to market to your child. Offering in-app s, advertising for attractive paid apps, and restricting part of the content only for premium users are common marketing strategies used.
5. Look for Ratings and Reviews
Taking advice from teachers, parents, child psychologists, and interaction specialists is a crucial step during the educational app development process. This is because a lot of factors like content appropriateness, psychological influence of the content, average learning pace at the age etc. are to be considered before deciding the information that should go into an app.
So the parents should not blindly fall for the promises and claims given in the app’s description. Instead, they should check if the app has succeeded in building trust among the public. Each should be based on the popularity of the app. Look for brands that are already established in the field.
Though learning is something that is not detachable from one’s childhood, too much emphasis on the matter is also not good for a child’s overall progress and development. At times, children should be allowed to enjoy non-educational content too.
Also Check : Latest Updated Educational Apps Directory List