20 Great android apps for Kids with cvi/Low Vision

by Thinking Outside the Light-Box: Vision Therapy Support Group on Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 10:36pm ·

iPad hogs the spotlight these days, but considering the switch accessibility features of Android devices, and the up and coming market of Android tablets that strongly compete with iPad, I plan on spending a bit more time focusing on this alternate technology.  To start, here are a list of 20 great Apps for Android that posses certain characteristics that I find helpful for kids with cortical visual impairment and other forms of low vision.  This is by no means a complete list, but it's a great start, especially if you're looking for Apps for kids in the early developmental stages.  I picked these Apps for their visual properties and ease of use, making them great Apps to try with kids with CVI and LV.  However, many if not ALL of these Apps are great for kids with a variety of special needs.    

You can get all of these Apps in SNEAK's Android aStore! 

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1.  Knee Bouncers Big Little Games: Vol. 1 (5 games in 1) has bright, contrasting colors, is visually simplistic but engaging, and requires simple interaction for cause-effect and engagement.  Games included are: 1)  Choo-Choo: Your baby or toddlers will love this bubble blowing train.; 2).  The Alphabet game: Introduce your baby or toddler to the letters of the alphabet in this fun interactive game.; 3).  Pop-A-lot: It's a bubble bursting bonanza. ; 4)  It's Colorific: Your baby or toddler will begin to learn all the basic colors with this big, bright and colorful game.; and 5)  The Big Top: A three ring circus comes to life as your baby or toddler taps the screen.

2.  My Baby Drum is designed for the development of your baby’s senses. This app provides various children's songs and authentic drumming.  Add drum sounds to children's songs to make exciting musical performance.  When touched, the program activates animations and vibration to stimulate children's curiosity. Bright drums in a rainbow of colors on a white background make them easier to see with large surface area for each drum allowing for easier interaction.

3.  Kids Xylophone encourages interaction through music and a  bright, simple, visual display.   Play  your own songs or play along with favorites, this App encourages cause-effect, imitation of sound and rhythm, and visual attention.

4.  Little Piano is a  high-contrast, black and white toy piano that encourages exploration and touch screen interaction.  

5. BalloonMaker is a simple but engaging App with a bright, high-contrast display.  This fun App encourages interaction through sound and movement.  It's  simple visual display and easy activiAtion make it great for kids with CVI and other challenges.  

 6.  Balloonimals is a favorite for iPad users now on Android!  This great, cause-effect game lets children use different touch screen gestures to blow up balloons, create a balloon figure, interact with the figure, and then pop it!  Great selection of balloons to choose from and easy gestures for interaction.  High contrast with bright balloons on simple white background, great animation, and sounds!

7.  Pop Goes the Bubble Every kid loves bubbles but these are easier to see and therefore, easier to track!  The app has 4 game modes, each offering different skills to target.  You can expand on language skills by talking to your child while they play, improve tracking and hand-eye coordination, and foster independence as this App is a great one to let your child play alone or with support.  

8.  Sound Touch was designed to help expand vocabulary knowledge through sound and picture associations.  Thiss visually simple, easy to use App will encourage sound imitation, visual attention, touch screen interaction, and case-effect.

9.  My First Race for Babies is a colorful App that resembles a toycar on a race track.  Drive the car with the touch of a finger! This App helps children with sensory and motor involvement interact with pretend play schemes more easily!

10., 11., & 12.   Kids Doodle - Movie Kids Drawing, Neon Draw, & Picasso-Kids Paint Magic are three great drawing Apps with high-contrast, neon on black displays.  Kids Doodle records doodles to playback as a movie!  These Apps are great for early touch screen skills, exploratory play, and for use as a learning tool like an interactive whiteboard (but black).  

14.  Mazeball is not as simple as some of the others but it offers a great, high-contrast black, white and red display where you lead a red ball through a black and white maze.  There are different levels of difficulty within the App that you can adjust.  Mazeball is great for tracking for higher level kids and for practicing more advanced touch screen skills

15., 16., & 17.  Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, and Five Little Monkeys are creative expansion of these favorite children's songs.  These Apps are  very interactive to build language and cause effect.  Highly engaging movement, colors, and simple visual display make them more accessible to kids with visual limitations.   These Apps encourage imitation of sounds and song, as well as visual attention skills. 

18.  Lightbox (Premium) turns your Android device into a Lightbox! 

 Need to Kid Proof Your Android Debice?  Here are two apps that do just that! 

19.  Kids Place with Child Lock  Childproof any app just by adding the ones kids use on your device to Kids Place. The custom launcher will display only parent-authorized apps. Use the Child Lock feature to protect your data and the Toddler Lock setting to enforce locking for apps launched from Kids Place. Other settings let you disable wireless signals as well as block or allow incoming calls while the Kids Place app is running.

20.  KinderTube is a kid-friendly video app that embeds links to over 100 per-screened You Tube videos for kids, so you don't have to worry about them seeing inappropriate content if left to explore unsupervised.