Pre-K Letters and Numbers
by BrightStart LLC

Approximately two months ago, development group, BrightStart launched an educational app designed for those approaching school age. With a growing amount of preschool to pre-kindergarten age apps already out in the App Store, what makes this one any different? Pre-K Letters and Numbers encourages your little one to recognize numbers, letters, and sounds as they interactively develop counting and language skills. As your student or child begins to develop and encourage various academic skills, users will also be reinforcing their fine motor skills. Along the way, unique characters like Elel, Momo, Lili will support your student(s) or child(ren) with both positive and negative reinforcement. With the assistance of number bubbles, users will be visually guided to write the letters of the alphabet and numbers 0-9. Just be careful not to go outside the lines as certain letters or numbers may be a challenge for yes, even adults! It is graphically appealing and easy for little ones to be independent while they have some fun.

Still wondering what sets this development group apart from others? Whether you are an educator or a parent, this ABC 123 app offers up to five accounts. In addition, it will calculate reports on each user based on their average score, total plays and the time spent in the app. With this ongoing debate as to whether or not young children should be using mobile devices in the classroom, having a way to be held accountable through such a report is useful. However, I wish the report had a bit more detailed information based on the average score that my student or child received. This report could guide the teacher as he/she builds future lessons and creates academic groups during teacher instruction. No matter what your role happens to be, it might be interesting to see where the “academic bumps” occurred. What letter(s) did the user struggle with? What phonogram or blend did they miss? In addition, in a future update it might be interesting to also see a review category option for those high flyers in a quiz like format. As children return to the app, might it be possible to turn off the numeric bubble guides to show progress of a users written skills as well.

While reading this review, you might notice in the app logo the word “free.” As a parent and teacher, free downloads are always a plus. However, it is important to note when downloading Pre-K Letters and Numbers that it is in fact a trial version being added to your library of apps. Initially users will only be offered three letters of the alphabet (upper and lower case) and numbers 1-3. To truly unlock all that BrightStart and Pre-K Letters and Numbers has to offer simply click on one of the locks and it will prompt you to complete an in-app purchase of $1.99. Overall, Applicable2U believes this educational app has a great deal of potential. It will be interesting to see what future updates will be made as we look forward to following them along the way. If you would like to learn more about BrightStart LLC, please visit their website here. If you would like to begin your trial version today of Pre-K Letters and Numbers, then simply click here to access it from your iTunes library.