Toddler Alphabet for iPad Review

Toddler Alphabet for iPad is an application which teaches letter and word recognition as well as early letter tracing, nicely combining classic puzzle games along the way.

There is a variety of activities in this app. The main focus here is an activity that lets the player select a letter which is then brought to life by a narrator telling short, single sentence stories such as “The owl and octopus friends are playing the organ together” which is illustrated very nicely with cute, colorful drawings. I really like that each of these pages is also a three piece puzzle, tap and drag each piece to it's corresponding space, further illustrating these words and sentences. It’s a nice touch that these puzzles are created to look like a classic wood toy, with the grain of the wood showing. Shadowing is also used in the empty spaces to give these puzzles dimension and further emphasizes where the pieces need to dragged.

Another section is included in which the page is filled with letters, and one must tap all of a specific letter multiple times avoiding other letters to reveal a hidden picture. I like how the image is slowly uncovered as the correct letter is tapped. There is also a section that lets kids trace letters with their fingers. I do wish there was a way of erasing the screen so we can go back and work on the same letter many times in a row - my son's idea.

The alphabet song is also included in which the letters of the alphabet dance to the song. Personally I find this section a little overly-stimulating for my taste, but that said, this app has a lot to offer and does a nice job teaching letters and keeping my son entertained. I am interested to see how other subjects such as colors and numbers are tackled by these developers in the future.