Soundboard apps can be a hoot with baby

Since Maggie was so enthralled with the big CAT truck and pushing buttons to make things make sounds (she also has a wookie doll with a pushbutton she’s fascinated by,) I decided to re-case the iPad in the baby armor and see if her joy in making noises by pressing things might extend to a soundboard app.

It did. To her great joy every soundboard app I installed she went through pressing the buttons, hearing the sound, and then turning a joyous look at me and saying something that I assume is either “dada,” or “dude, did you hear that? it’s totally wicked man.” I’m actually leaning toward the second interpretation of those sounds as that would match the facial expressions.

We went through a few soundboard apps on the iPad before I got tired of the huge advertising click-outs that she kept pressing. finally went to Android soundboard apps where at least with a smaller screen I was able to block off most of the escape touch areas with a hand.

During a marathon 15 minute session I think she learned to tap with a finger as opposed to mashing a baby ham-fist into it, but I’m not entirely sure. I’ve been seeing more fine motor control out of the little one so this may have been her experimenting with touch rather than realizing that you don’t have to slam a button.

After about 15 minutes of playing with soundboards, she was more interested in getting everything in the house that makes noise at the press of a button and seeing if she could make new and interesting noises.

Playing with a few of these apps was a hoot for both of us. I’ll advise though play with one of them beforehand because if there’s a large “buy more sounds” button it’s going to be pressed over and over again by a baby who just wants to make more chipmunk noises.