Video Touch: Animals

Although these apps were designed for babies and toddlers, I've purchased every one of the Video Touch apps for my daughter who is a young adult with special needs. Autism is one of her many issues and the ability to control what she watches and to watch the same videos over and over if she chooses makes her so happy. Now I have a grandson who is old enough to enjoy my iPad and he is intrigued as well. We can talk about the pictures before he starts a video and discuss what is happening just like reading a book together but with moving pictures instead. The ability to set a minimum length to each video and to choose how to close the video - with a touch anywhere on the screen or by an arrow icon - are very useful so that a very inexperienced user can control the screen and then advance to a more sophisticated method when they are ready. Another nice feature is that if you own more than one of the apps you will find that you only need to open one of them and all the rest are accessible from little icons at the bottom screen. I have purchased quite a number of apps specifically for my daughter and the Video Touch apps are among the best that I own. Each video is recorded beautifully and intriguing to watch and the developer has continued to augment and improve them over time. I highly recommend all of the Video Touch apps.

For those familiar with the app this is built from, sound touch, it's a wonderful update. All the animals instead of being still photographs are short video clips, 10- 20 seconds, and each animals has 4 clips to rotate through. It is a stand alone app, but if you purchase the companion apps (wild animals, vehicles) they integrate into the app with a button at the bottom of the page to switch, just like sound touch. My baby loves this upgrade, he was know to spend 30 minutes on my lap going through the still animals, and now being able to watch them move, he's thoroughly enjoying that! Even our older children watch as the horses play, the rooster flap and crow, and the dogs bark at you. I'd recommend this to any parent looking for an educational fun app for baby to preschooler!

This app goes along with two other Video Touch apps, but when you purchased two or more, the icons for all three appear at the bottom of each app to easily switch back and forth. The apps are similar to Sound Touch, but with videos instead of images. There are 12 items per app (for example, 12 animals in the wild animals category, including elephant, wild cats, bear, primates, zebras, etc.). When you touch an item, zebra for example, it brings up a video of the animal or vehicle that ranges in length from 5 to 30 seconds. There are currently four videos per item, for a total of 48 videos per app (be warned—this takes up a lot of space on your iPhone or iPad!). The videos are accompanied by sound, but the name of the animal is not announced. The videos are all HD quality. It is easy to navigate for little ones with large icons and a tap anywhere on the screen to move from a video back to the menu (or the option of an arrow). The video will loop repeatedly (iPad only) until the screen (or arrow) is touched. The videos are educational, showing the natural habitat or behavior of animals, and how machines and vehicles work.