Common Sense Media Review
By Amanda Bindel
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Parent app offers great ideas for interacting with tots.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 2+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
PBS Parents Play & Learn
Privacy Rating Pass
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
PBS PARENTS PLAY & LEARN includes 13 situations and gives parents four ideas of activities to do with little kids in those places or during those times. Each also includes a brief mini-game targeted for preschoolers. In Bath Time, for example, activities include exploring volume by filling and emptying different sizes of containers, singing songs while bathing the baby, making boats with bath items and seeing what will float, and tracing soapy letters on kids' backs. The preschool mini-game has kids draw shapes on a steamy mirror.
Is It Any Good?
This free app serves as a handy resource to give parents ideas for interacting with their kids in ways that can boost math, literacy, and language skills. The 13 categories cover many situations and locations toddlers and preschoolers might encounter -- from a playground or a party to a library or a bus or train -- and give parents ideas for activities that don't all center around the device.
Depending on how it's used, the preschooler game could be counterproductive to getting kids interacting with their parents, each other, and the environment. Still, PBS Parents Play & Learn is a great, free resource worth checking out.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the app with others who spend time with their kids. PBS Parents Play & Learn could be a great resource for loved ones and caregivers who may not be used to being around babies; share it with grandparents before a visit or with a babysitter.
Talking to your baby or toddler is extremely important for building literacy. It doesn't have to be about colors, shapes, numbers, and letters, either. Just talking to your little one builds vocabulary and improves reading readiness.
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android , Kindle Fire , Nook HD
- Subjects : Language & Reading : naming , speaking , vocabulary , Math : patterns , shapes
- Pricing structure : Free
- Release date : April 4, 2014
- Genre : Education
- Publisher : PBS KIDS
- Version : 1.50
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 4.3; Android 2.2 and up
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
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