• Editor Rating

  • Rated 4.5 stars
  • Highly Recommended

  • Dress Up Party
  • Reviewed by:
  • Published on:
  • Last modified: November 19, 2019
  • Quality
    Editor: 100%
  • Education
    Editor: 80%
  • Entertainment
    Editor: 90%
  • Value
    Editor: 80%
  • Child Friendly
    Editor: 100%

Review Summary:

Dress Up Party is a colorful and creative way to learn a little bit about the cultures of India as players dress characters in traditional colors and styles.

[appimg 919397509]

App Info

Price: [app 919397509] {price}
AppStore User Rating: {stars}[/app]

Download on the App Store

Overview

Dress Up Party gives children an opportunity to let their imaginations run wild while exploring different cultures from India. Players can dress any of three characters in traditional fabrics, colors, styles and accessories while they hear the names of the items in one of eight different languages from the Indian Subcontinent.

Features include:

  • Includes 9 traditional fabrics and 24 accessories
  • Includes native words for each item
  • Simple interface accessible to preschoolers and even toddlers
  • Exposure to eight different languages and cultures
  • Endless opportunities to create and explore

Quality

Dress Up Party is very easy to use, creating a high-tech version of traditional paper dolls. Children can easily experiment with colors, patterns and accessories, and when the character looks just right, one touch to the music button will send them on a dancing spree. The app’s intuitive interface is perfect for the very young or those who are inexperienced with the technology, making it a very good choice for early learning.

Education

This app offers an appealing introduction to one very important aspect of Indian culture-traditional clothing. Children will delight in finding new and creative combinations of the fabrics and accessories. As they play, young learners will be honing many skills that are important to later school success, including sequencing, cause and effect, and memory skills. The app has a feature that allows users to snap a photo for a gallery, as well, and that will appeal to those who adore collections. Each cloth’s and accessory’s name is voiced in the language of the region from which it comes. When the character is all dressed, the child can high five with it and here the phrase “Looking good” in the language matching the region of the fabric’s origin. The character then will dance until the user chooses to continue with another round.

There is also a lot of helpful information in the protected parents’ area, including the written names of each item and the region of India where it originates. Parents are advised to use the app as a conversation-starter to encourage children to learn about the cultures of India, to share books and other resources, and so forth. Without this extra support, most children will simply view the activity as a silly dress-up game, never realizing that the outfits represent cultures different from their own. For this reason, I wish that developers had included a few resources to help parents make the most of this app. The parents’ section could offer names of books or links to web resources at minimum. It would be really nice if the developers had included a few more resources to explore in the app itself, such as a video explanation of some of India’s major holidays or an ebook version of a traditional story or two in English. Pictures of family life, buildings, children or information about schools in India would be additional ideas. As it stands, the main teaching about diversity will have to come from parents, and without ready resources, that may not be a realistic expectation. It would be a shame to let this app languish as just a simple dress up game when it could go a long way to helping young children better understand a different culture.

Entertainment

What young child doesn’t love to play dress up? This app offers a virtual dress up party with a multitude of unusual clothing and accessories. Kids can experiment with colors, styles, turbans, shoes, jewelry and more. They can add as many items or as few as they wish, then give their character a high five and watch the dance. When they tire of the dance, they can head back and do it all again with the same character or choose a new one.

Children who enjoy visual expression of this sort will have hours of fun with creating different combinations of clothing and accents. Many will also enjoy the app’s photo capability-they can snap screenshots of favorite outfits and keep them in a gallery. However, some children may tire of the routine, since the app only does those two things. It’s possible the appeal will wear thin more quickly than developers intend.

Value

This app is a good value for young children who will enjoy the creative possibilities of dressing up. It’s also a good supplementary resource for those who are being intentional about including other cultures in their children’s experiences. It may not have the staying power of some more elaborate apps, though, and it would really benefit from some additional types of cultural resources, such as pictures, traditional stories, or video clips.

Child Friendliness

Dress Up Party is very child-friendly. The app has no outside advertisements, no in-app purchase, or links that are accessible to children. The parents’ area is protected by an effective parent gate. Inside the parents’ area, adult users will find good information about how to use the app and how to extend the learning, but developers may want to consider adding additional specific resources, such as helpful web links or titles to books. There are protected links to social media and to email, but they are not accessible to children.

Dress Up Party is a colorful and creative way to learn a little bit about the cultures of India as players dress characters in traditional colors and styles.

Editor rating
Rated 4.5 stars