Children's Software for the IIgs
by Kevin Noonan
Copyright (c) 1995 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
I have added to my software collection in recent months. So what, that is a constant process for any computer user. The difference now is that my almost three year old son has developed a major interest in the 'puter (when he was young that was the only way he could pronounce it) and that therefore the additions have been aimed to stimulate his interest and help him learn.
I must be honest and state that he has been exposed to the world of computing since he was a few weeks old. I would hold him in my arms as I typed, telecommunicated, and played games on my GS. He first started to play with the keyboard when he was only a few months old. I had an old and very simple BASIC program which changed the screen colours and made a sound whenever the user touched any key. He rather liked that.
There are three categories of software in my collection; specially designed commercial children's software, general purpose software that can be used for or by children, and public domain (PD) software. Obviously the last category is the cheapest in terms of dollar outlay but it isn't necessarily the worst in terms of effective child use.
This brief article will address all three categories. It is not an exhaustive list. I would value suggestions by other Apple II and Apple IIgs users so that I can expand my collection. In particular I would like to know of any PD software and the way in which it is being used. My e-mail address is listed at the bottom of this article
The very best I have seen so far is a wonderful set of IIgs SuperHiRes dolls and their clothing which can be printed out, mounted on a sturdy cardstock and played with at will. We all probably had something similar when we were young. Various cardboard dolls of different look with mix-and-match clothing that one could clip over the dolls shoulders or hips. Clearly this is a non-interactive use of the computer... but why limit ourselves. The technology can be very useful with having to turn it on! A more advanced use of this (and I have not started on this yet) would be to use a paint program (I have the commercial program Platinum Paint, though I suspect that the Paint module in AppleWorks GS would be more likely to be available for many users) to allow and encourage the child to colour in the clothes and dolls before they are printed out. The author/designer of this series was the winner of a contest on desktop publishing in A+/inCider a few years ago. A very innovative use.
I have also a strong recommendation for HyperStudio and/or HyperCard. Both are beyond a child of my son's age to design their own stacks, but it is possible for the parent (or an older sister or brother) to design simple stacks that help the child learn about the computer. My son has been learning about mouse use by a simple HyperCard stack I wrote that has a few simple animations and graphics, and his own voice saying his name.
Various different things happen when he moves the mouse to the appropriate area of the screen. It is easy to modify this as he learns more to make it necessary for him to click the mouse button to make things happen (in the language of HyperTalk, I have it set to do an 'on mouseEnter' but you could easily modify it to do both this and an 'on mouseUp' I recommend 'on mouseUp' rather than 'on mouseDown' as the child has to learn to release the mouse button, though perhaps this should also be a two stage learning process).
The simplest use I have for any program is to use a good quality Apple IIgs colour word processor. I use the PD program WriteAway. This allows me to choose a nice big font, in colour and let my son type to his heart's content. He is learning about the delete, return, and spacebar keys as special keys. His favourite font is a 30 point Zapf Chancery in bright green! As far as I know there are no equivalents of this program for other Apple II machines.
One program my son and I have no experience with is Mixed Up Mother Goose. The aim of this program is that the young child (one that can read) has to sort out a mix up in a nursery rhyme or had you already guessed that? This is commercial software and has high quality components including a laminated map, good graphics, and interesting sounds all intended to keep the child absorbed. My guess would be that the intended child should be in early primary school. Certainly the documentation mentions both parents and teachers. The oblique view graphics (often referred to as 3-D graphics) are a bit hard to master as an adult. I suspect that a child would have greater problems.
The greatest fun my son had when he was younger and still finds considerably entertaining now that he is 'grown up' is using the HyperStudio sound digitiser that I have in my machine to digitise ('copy') his voice or mine and then to play it back. I mentioned above that I used his voice in HyperCard. The best reinforcement is his own voice played by the 'puter.
The last program I wish to mention is one that I have a very high opinion of. In 1992 I bought a program called My Paint. This is a simple paint program specifically designed for children. All icons on screen are animated and have associated sounds. The child does not have to know how to read. There are no words on screen (except for a secret parents option screen). The marvel in this program is that it displays a library of existing graphics which the child can then colour in. The colour icons give different sounds, each graphic has a sound appropriate to it, for example, the dinosaur graphic has a good quality roar, the car graphic has an equally good car noise. There is an option that the child can choose which presents a blank screen which only takes shape as you start to paint it, sort of like those old blank pieces of paper that had been treated so that when you painted water over them the picture appeared. There are many different libraries of graphics available. The big disadvantage with this program is that the formats for both graphics and sound are non-standard and the parent cannot therefore add to the existing library. I have seen three libraries (Original, Alphabet, and Majelix) and can vouch for their high quality. My son absolutely loves the dinosaur picture and will spend hours (any time seems like hours to a housebound parent) in front of the computer painting it different colours, and listening to it roar.
Clearly there is a vast range of quality software available in all three categories for older children. As a teacher it is my experience that for many students the lack of word play and reading is a major obstacle to success. For the IIgs and a child of late primary age and beyond (including adult!) there is nothing better in the word games area than a trio of games by Kenrick Mock (Boggled, LetterSlide, and VIAD). There are also many fine word games available for the Apple //e,c which work perfectly well on the IIgs. Whichever you choose, remember that good software should not give negative reinforcement, that is, it should never stress that the child has done the wrong thing. As an example, my HyperCard stack referred to previously only gives a response if my son moves the mouse to the right area of the screen. It does nothing if he does not move it properly. Only reinforce positively.
I cannot let this article end without the brief comment that the advantage we Apple II (IIgs particularly) users have over our many of our macintosh friends is that we have colour machines with none of the complexity of having to turn colour on and off depending on memory availability. Clearly none of the non-colour mac owners have even this possibility. We Apple II users are in a decided minority (and getting to be an even smaller minority) but we can still get a lot of smilage(sic) out of our machines.
Contact me with suggestions and thought via the Internet at; knoonan@cleese.apana.org.au

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