ISO Kids Game
Dear Lazyweb:
I’m looking for well-designed computer games that meet the following criteria:
(1) Appropriate for a bright four-year-old with low vision (but able to read large print)
(2) minimal/no advertising
(3) preferably Flash/web-based
(4) some educational value (math, reading, etc.)
A few Google searches haven’t turned up much promising. Any suggestions?
vittorio Dec 23
…here’s my four-year-old today favourite:
http://www.pimpa.it/home.html
fits all your requirements, but additionally requires italian reading skills
jimcooncat Dec 23
Some classic arcade games at this site fit the bill for criteria 1-3:
http://www.neave.com/games/
On any of the game pages the link is in black and says “Play {game name}”. Then click on the ^ arrow to make it fullscreen.
Russell Coker Dec 23
In regard to vision issues, is there any reason why you can’t just get a big monitor with a relatively low resolution and change the DPI? I’ve found that to work reasonably well for some elderly relatives. But I guess that depends on how large the print has to be.
Web sites often specify things in pixels, is there a way of running an X client with replacing each pixel with 4 or 9 pixels? Maybe some sort of Zephyr option or something?
CRT monitors allowed us to set a low resolution on a large monitor, but that isn’t as easy on LCDs (they tend to make things fuzzy). Have you tried finding an LCD monitor that allows running the computer at a resolution that is exactly half the width and height of the display?
adam Dec 23
We do have a 24 inch wide-screen LCD that is pretty good for most sites. But some games just seem to be better set up for people with low vision — i.e., higher contrast, or just games where the skills involved are not primarily visual.
Adrian Silva Dec 24
Two non-web based suggestions.
My nephews are usually entertained by gcompris. Lots of entertaining activities for a wide range of ages and skills.
Scratch and the gallery of community projects can also provide some amusements. Most interesting on the gallery I find the projects teaching real-world skills (i.e. learn to draw an eye)
http://gcompris.net/
http://scratch.mit.edu/
Dmitrijs Ledkovs Dec 24
http://www.neopets.com although they have a lot of “requirement 4)” majority is not. Remember hand & eye coordination is very important as well ;-) plus gamers perform better in college!
adam Dec 24
gcompris is just the kind of thing I was looking for. A few of the games are buggy/nonfunctional for me, but the other ones are very appropriate. In full-screen mode the text is perfectly legible for my daughter.