Mack the Dog Early Language Development 2

You will be able to work on a variety of language skills!

I am a private elementary tutor. In an effort to find additional apps that would help one of my second graders, I came across Mack the Dog and purchased it. What’s 99 cents. I wished I had never purchased it because my 99 cents was wasted, and here’s why: The story is 2nd grade level, as far as the words are concerned, but the layout makes it difficult to read. And, the activities NEVER use the text, which is what needs to happen to conduct and/or measure any level of comprehension. What makes this more of a problem, is that the activities are kindergarten level — not first or second grade level. To make this app exponentially worse, its based on Australian/English (Great Britain) nomenclatures: the sink becomes the tap, the stove becomes a hot plate, the baby carriage becomes a pram, the trash can becomes a bin, etc. This served to totally confuse my student. Two additional issues: When one particular activity asked my student to identify certain items in a picture, it gave him no way to identify the items. His voice didn’t do it, and he could not type in the words. So, I have no idea how in the world he was supposed to identify anything. There were NO instructions at all. Lastly, when asked to touch particular items in pictures, there were more options than the one that ultimately ended up being correct. Example: When asked to identify something with a handle, the correct answer was a cabinet door. But in that same picture, there was a stove with a handle and a sink with handles. So how was my student to know that the stove would be incorrect. If you are going to ask students to identify specific things, then you need to make sure there are no other items in the picture that can or will confuse the student. The long and short of this whole review is to say this: Until such time as the developer makes this a professional, workable, teachable app, I can’t recommend its use for any reason.