The Risks and Benefits of Sharing An iPhone With a Five Year Old

I am a long-time advocate of hands-on learning, but sharing my new iPhone with young children is a touchy topic for me, and I can understand that others may feel this way, too. However, I do share my iPhone with my five year old nephew, Billy, safely, with strict guidelines. In fact, he has used my phone regularly throughout the past few months.

My iPhone rules: 1) Clean hands 2) Sit on the couch 3) No arguing allowed 4) Aunt Kathy or another adult needs to be in the same room!

I purchased the most protective case I could find, and covered the screen before walking out of the phone store. The extra protection resulted in less worry for me as I shared this useful tool.

Dozens of learning applications (Apps) are available for download from the iTunes store. Many are free. The focus for this article will be on favorite iPhone learning tools and apps for young children as a result of watching my nephew gain independence and learn skills while using this interactive techie toy.

Billy's Dad wanted him to practice some skills that might prepare him for entering kindergarten, so we began with some free and inexpensive apps designed to teach letter recognition, letter sounds, manuscript printing, and number sense.

• Five Little Monkeys
• ABC Pocket Phonics
• First Words Sampler
• iWrite Words Lite
• Letters A to Z

I also thought that it might be fun to get some apps that Billy and I might enjoy together. The goal was more for fun than to focus on academic learning. The fun apps included the following:

• iPopcorn
• Magic Wallet
• ChalkTalk
• Flick Fishing

Before I share my observations and informal assessment of learning, from the perspective of a teacher, please guess what app resulted in more learning?

Billy enjoyed all five learning games as he learned to navigate and independently use use the iPhone. He played all of the preschool learning games over multiple times. He especially enjoyed the challenge of using IWriteWords. I do believe that the time that Billy spent playing all of these learning games have increased his interest and awareness of numbers, letters, sounds and words. This interest did not stop with technology. He looked for opportunities to write letters and words on paper, pieces of wood, and other objects all summer long!

Check back later this week to find out more using iPhone Apps with a young child and my informal assessment/observation of the learning that resulted.

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