Seeing kids glued to their (or their parents’) smartphones is no longer a novel sight. Today, every day, when parents return from work, their kids cajole them to give them their smartphones and the little ones soon get going – playing, socializing, learning, and more.
However, mobile technology can be used effectively for improving children’s learning in a big way. It can be used for encouraging activities that support the healthy development of children. Access to mobile apps promotes their school readiness and early success.
Potential Benefits of Mobile Technology
Parents tend to focus more on the perceived dangers of children overusing mobile phones rather than the potential benefits of this technology. Playing on mobile apps should be regarded as a normal part of today’s childhood. Just keep a watch on what your children are playing and you may actually be able to help them learn skills that they didn’t possess before. Or even better, you may yourself download a few chosen apps that are more than leisure-time games. See if these apps can supplement classroom teaching and help kids pick or hone skills that would be useful for them for life.
Apps Can Be a Powerful Tool To Help Children Develop and Hone New Skills
According to a research paper that featured in the ‘Review of General Psychology’, games can be a powerful tool to help children develop crucial life skills. A game that requires a child to search, negotiate, plan, and try different approaches to advance can help them inculcate problem-solving skills and be creative. They will do so by developing an understanding of a game’s rules and structure. Even the games that are not labeled as educational teach children how to make decisions, anticipate the consequences of an action, and devise strategies.
Apps Preparing Kids for Future
Parents often try to persuade kids to keep away from mobile games, mostly to no avail. They want to tie children with books and tend to keep preaching to them about history, culture, and geography, which is often very complex for kids. And when children don’t comply, their parents feel frustrated. Instead, you can use mobile apps that serve as a preparation for future. Hunt for immersive apps that teach kids life skills, albeit in an interesting manner.
Examples of Two Engaging Apps
Sikh Puzzles is a mobile app that enables children to learn the Punjabi vocabulary while playing a game. It is a simple drag and drop game that allows kids to learn and practice their knowledge of Sikhism-related words and expand their vocabulary in the Punjabi language. What makes Sikh Puzzles an engaging app is pretty graphics and pleasing sound effects. Easy to master, the game will keep the children entertained while enabling them to learn new things.
Kids’ Calculator is a fun app having the functionality of a calculator. The app has been specially designed to boost the imagination of children and entertain them while they do their calculations. It emits a musical sound every time a user clicks a digit, equal to sign or the direction wheel. Its jungle background and flying birds create a natural ambience that impresses kids.
Immersive Learning
These apps are based on the pedagogical principle of immersive learning, wherein knowledge and new skills are not thrust upon users. Rather, they learn them by simultaneous hearing and seeing, and understanding things through a particular context.
Available on Google Play, these apps make learning easy and fun for kids. Such apps make the concept of immersive learning go digital, enabling kids to pick skills while they enjoy themselves.
Allowing children play with engaging immersive apps on mobile phones will no doubt help give a boost to healthy entertainment. Parents will be able to connect with their kids better, share their joys and opinions, and provide them an engaging activity that teaches them as well.
