What does an Ipad do, and would it help my DD???

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, could someone please explain in simple terms what an Ipad does please? I'm thinking of getting one for my 8 year old daughter with SEN's, to help her with her learning. I don't want it for games, unless they are educational and I don't want her to have access to the internet, so there would need to be a password. Do they take pictures and film?
Also what is the difference between an Ipad and an Itablet?
Do you think this would be a good investment? She uses one at school and is getting on really well with the reading and writing apps etc.
Also, which would be the best make to get? Thank you.

[nannynick]

I think you will struggle to use it if you don't let her have games. It is through games that they learn things. The 2 year old I care for learns shapes, numbers, identifying fruits, recognising letters, odd one out, through playing things like (links to YouTube video of gameplay on iPhone which is very similar to iPad gameplay).

Yes they do take photos and video.
Stop Motion Studio Pro enables cartoons to be created.

[nannynick]

There are educational apps like those from Kids Discover, they often involve quite a lot of reading.

There are apps like Human Body (TinyBop) which don't use writing, see and .

Itablet - think that is a Windows device, so not the same apps as on Apple. If she uses the iPad at school, then get the same thing for home as then she will be able to use it. You could also ask school what apps they use and get those yourself.

Internet, you can disable access to Safari, the brower that the iPad uses. See Parental Controls/Restrictions

You can also disable In-App Purchases, so that a child can not buy anything.

There are also age content restrictions but I have not tried those, you you could restrict access to purchased movies which are not rated U or PG for example, yet you can watch them by entering a pincode.

The iPad will need internet access, typically via WiFi. That is how you get software (apps) onto it, plus updates and it will enable watching of online content if you were to use an app like NetFlix.

[mummyloveslucy]

Thank you. I will let her have educational games like that, but I just don't want her playing the kind of games that have no educational benefit. I'll look at the utube link after dinner.

[mummyloveslucy]

THe ones that don't use reading would be better at the moment, as she's only just learning to read 3 letter words, but still has difficulty blending the sounds.

[nannynick]

There are phonics apps, for help with reading and saying words. Some are american.

If you can get to use a friends iPad at their home, you can look through the App Store to see what sort of things there are. There are so many apps for different things, some free, some low cost, others several pounds. Quality varies but many can be fun and educational.
PECS, Social Stories, Logic puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, Science like the solar system -