The Social Express II
The Social Express II gallery
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that The Social Express II is an excellent, animated app for boosting kids' social-awareness skills. Each lesson presents interactive social situations using video modeling, "hidden rules," and suggestions for how to problem-solve in daily life. While the app is free to download, access is managed through a subscription. Parents must sign up directly through the developer's website. Though all kids could potentially learn something from this app, its approach is perhaps best suited to kids on the Autism spectrum or kids who have difficulties navigating social situations. Parents should note that kids have the option to participate in The Social Express' private social network, where they can reveal their real names and hometowns. We don't recommend allowing kids to reveal this kind of personal information.What kids can learn
Exquisite graphics and animation. Kids will feel as if they're interacting with a character from their favorite animated movies. Each scenario will be familiar to elementary and middle school children, making this a go-to app.
Kids are actively involved in determining appropriate social cues as they help the characters make choices in a variety of real-life situations. These are skills kids can use while playing with friends and classmates.
There are few in app guidelines for navigating anddeciding how to wade through the webisodes, but the companion website offers more help. Together with the website, there are plenty of resources available to explore.
What's it about?
After setting up or selecting a profile, parents or kids choose a beginner, intermediate, or advanced webisode. The fully animated lessons target many of the social skills kids encounter in their day-to-day lives and kids must help each character make good decisions to successfully navigate social situations. Beginner lessons encourage kids to explore nonverbal cues and the importance of eye contact. More advanced lessons help kids transfer social rules into real life. Every lesson offers the option to stop and replay. The app works in concert with a companion website where, among other things, parents can track kids' progress.
Is it any good?
Interactive webisodes do a fantastic job of offering kids a natural way to understand and practice key social cues and skills that are needed for success in life. THE SOCIAL EXPRESS II uses beautiful visuals and animation to present realistic day-to-day scenarios. Each lesson offers kids the chance to make decisions about the choices the characters make -- and witness the possible consequences of those choices. When it's time to make a choice, it's not always clear what the different options represent, so kids may just choose at random. Kids try again until they make the "best" choice. Sometimes the action choices presented feel black and white and the resolutions lack nuance. Parents may also feel that none of the choices are really the best possible outcome. For these reasons, The Social Express II may not be a good resource for all kids. However, there is always a better choice in opposition to "not so good" choices, which puts things in very clear terms for kids who struggle with social situations. Printables allow kids to have a tangible reminder of coping strategies, feelings, and more; kids can carry these with them or post them on a wall.
Part of what makes the app shine is the guidance it gives parents, from the guide for parents (available on the Social Express website) to the "teaching tips" that appear during a lesson (tips can be turned off for kids using the app independently). The clubhouse social network raises some privacy concerns because kids can reveal personal information. Parents can monitor their kids' activities, and it's optional, so parents could also simply choose not to allow kids to participate and kids can enjoy learning with the other parts of this fabulous app.
Families can talk about...
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?Spend some time on the Social Express website before introducing the app. When logged in, you'll see a "Getting Started" guide that's not available thorough the app.
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Help kids make connections between what they're learning with The Social Express II and real-life social situations.
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Check out the My DPS app, which can help kids with coping strategies on the go.
App details
| Device: | iPad |
| Price: | Free to download; subscription required |
| Pricing structure: | Free |
| Subscription price: | $4.99/month; $53.89/year |
| Release date: | August 7, 2015 |
| Category: | Education |
| Topics: | Friendship |
| Size: | 107.00 MB |
| Publisher: | The Language Express, Inc. |
| Version: | 5.1 |
| Minimum software requirements: | iOS 6.0 or later |
