App review: Kids Shape Puzzle for Android

Kids Shape Puzzle, an educational app for young children, is optimized for Android phones and tablets. It aims to teach children colors, shapes, and image recognition.

Kids Shape Puzzle is actually more of an activity than a game, since there is no way to win or earn points. The goal is to move multicolored shapes into the outline of an object. Once all of the puzzle pieces are in place, the object fills in with a compete image, and a friendly woman's voice gives some kind of encouragement, such as, "Great job!" She then clearly says the name of the object: "penguin," for example.

This app has something that all children's apps should but don't always not have: a child-lock option. You can set it so that your child cannot accidentally close out of the app while he or she is playing Kids Shape Puzzle. Why more developers don't add this option is beyond me, because my toddler often inadvertently touches buttons while he is playing on my devices, and closes them out. Note to developers: Add child locks!

Other settings options in this app are for the categories. Your child can choose to play with images of animals, food, transport, occupations, geometric figures, numbers, letters, and a few other miscellaneous items. They are all easily recognizable as the objects that they are supposed to be even though they are cartoons, not photographs.

When you grab a piece of the puzzle to drag it into the outline of the objects, the app vibrates to let you know you have it. And when you place the piece inside the puzzle's outline, it snaps into place, although that feature can be turned off if you would like to make it a bit more challenging.

All of the objects are right-side-up, exactly as they will be placed in the puzzle; you don't have to rotate to make them fit.

This app holds my child's attention for quite a while, but at 13 months, he is too young to play it by himself. I have to move the pieces myself while he watches. It is a little too hard for babies and probably too easy for older children, but I would recommend it as a fun learning exercise for pre-schoolers.

Kids Shape Puzzle costs $2.99 in the Android Market. A Lite version is free, but it has only 20 puzzles; the full version offers over 90 puzzles. 

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—Natali Morris