iCan Special Education Fun

iCan Special Education Fun is a collection of activities and games that teach life-skill routines in addition to vocabulary related to letters, numbers, colors, and emotions. Each category (e.g., letters, routines) includes eight activities to reinforce these skills using matching, tracing, sequencing, jigsaw puzzles, memory games, and coloring. A video section includes downloadable videos. When playing, users choose a content area and then a game to reinforce the skills in that particular area. To use the app successfully, teachers will need to have an understanding of the student's skill and knowledge level, especially when using the routines section, because there's no way to filter the options or choose from a menu of preferred skills. Content included in each section appears random, rather than built on prerequisite skills using a developmentally oriented curriculum.

iCan Special Education Fun is a solid supplemental learning tool for teachers who are willing to pick and choose the games and content that are most appropriate to help an individual student's needs. The routines section is a highlight, and may be the best section for kids to learn about the daily sequences they must participate in to gain new skills. Some of the photos in this section are small, and the order of the routine steps could vary slightly from one person to another, and this might otherwise be indicated as "wrong" in the sequence of the app when placing the cards in order. While there are lots of embedded vocabulary words in each category, the games and activities are repetitive and will likely become tedious for some kids. There aren't a lot of settings to help teachers prioritize the amount of content shown at once to a student, which would be helpful for those kids who struggle to focus with too much information present. There's no data or a skills progression to show individual progress or proficiency of the user.