Who Said There Weren’t Fun Games on the iPhone for Babies and Toddlers?

As you likely know, I’ve been using my iPod touch for tracking my son’s development. At 7.5 months old, now, I’m looking for ways to entertain him. (He is most enthralled by my wires and none of his toys.) I have downloaded a fair share of games for his enjoyment but fell in love with a suite of games by zinc Roe. The three games I tried are called Sound Shaker, Count Caddy, and Sort Slider.

The game illustrated above is Sound Shaker, which is the closest one for my son’s age. The idea behind this game is that you choose one of the above six “sounds” and touch the screen and sounds are made. This teaches children and babies what noises to expect. The little balls of items roll across the screen so there’s an added element of fun. Anyone can play this game, and as my son simply moved his hands across the screen, he was able to hear the accompanying noises.

We’re starting to teach my son how to count, but Count Caddy was tried for good measure. The idea behind this game is that you drag little balls of yarn into the center piece and count the number of balls that have been collected. My son didn’t understand this but he definitely will in due time!

Sort Slider is a cute little matching game where you either drag an item to its match or you tilt the screen to let the item fall on its match. This is probably the farthest off for my son, but I can see it having utility in the future for any young child.

zinc Roe has a lot of great games and babies and toddlers and even older children will certainly benefit. They’re probably going to want to do something with your phone when they’re older, so you might as well be sure you’re equipped with entertainment for them when the time comes!

Tamar Weinberg is a blogger and author of The New Community Rules (July 2009), a book on social media marketing and how to leverage existing communities for awareness and profit. She is also a new mom.