By: Manuela Pinto
For bilingual parents who are looking for books, games, movies for their children in different languages, apps for mobile phones and tablets offer new and fun possibilities. Every now and then I search the internet or visit the Apps store on my mobile phone. But more often I just read the interesting reviews on the Italian Bilingue per gioco, which can also be found on our list.
In this Feature of the month I want to share our discoveries with you. It is only a brief list but, hopefully, will give an impression of the versitily and high quality of the material which one can find. Most apps are of course in English but if you put a bit of effort into your search you will see that apps in other languages are also increasingly being created.
This brief article also intends to encourage everyone to share their experiences in this area with us all. It would be a great idea to give this topic a separate spot on our website. If anybody has the time and interest to do this, please let us know!
Listed below are a few language apps suggestions.
For very young children:
http://www.technolio.com/toddler-puzzle-games/
Games where children need to sort forms. The child is asked to find, for example, the triangle between a selection of possible forms. Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hebrew and Italian.
http://www.technolio.com/toddler-puzzle-games-2/
Uses the same method as above but with different topics/themes (e.g.g transportation, fruits, ocean) Available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The transportation theme is also available in French, Italian and Hebrew.
The following app uses no text so can be played by speakers of any language:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toddlers-seek-find-my-zoo/id422272073?mt=8
The child presses different areas of a picture to discover which parts move, make sounds, etc. There are three scenarios: the farm, the zoo and the forest. In the most recent version the pictures portray different times of the day.
A good example of a book being read to a child in English is:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/story-mouse-talking-books/id390726873?mt=8
For older toddlers and children who are learning to read and write:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fantastic-flying-books-mr./id438052647?mt=8
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” (in English), a beautiful story about the love for books, has won an Oscar for best short animated movie. An app version is available.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-cat-in-the-hat-dr.-seuss/id353473931?mt=8
Dr. Seuss’ classic “The cat in het hat” (in het Engels). The child can listen to the story or read it him/herself. Every pictures is also independently clickable and provides both text and pronunciation.
To help parents and educators decide between all existing educational apps, Apple developed the following (free) app. However, it remains difficult to make a choice between the 20.000 apps which are listed in this.
http://www.kindertown.com/
Last but not least: http://jekolab.com/libroblo-il-grattacielo-delle-fiabe/#. Searching for apps in Italian I discovered JekoLab, a young Italian company which develops educational apps for children from 3 to 12 years old. Amazing to finaly find material in Italian. Their apps are however also available in Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Kanuri, Northern Sami, Protugese, Russian and Spanish.
We would love to hear your responses about all this on our forum.
Have a nice summer!