Look in My Eyes: Steam Train 2

What it is: a simple steam train simulator with a special activity for teaching eye contact.

What you do with it: drive a virtual train and deliver missing parts of the European landmarks (the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum etc). Before you can drive the train you need to 'buy' some coal by playing a short game (recalling numbers displayed in children's eyes).
Driving the train includes speeding up or slowing down, adding coal to the firebox, controlling pressure in the boiler, switching views (front/back/side) etc.

What we liked: the concept of using the eye-contact activity as key 'unlocking' the main activity. No time constrains for completing the tasks. We liked the audio instructions/tutorials before each activity.

What we didn't like: for the lower age range the simulator will be difficult to play with without help from an adult. The controls and animations are rather rudimentary. The graphics/illustrations were not particularly appealing to our reviewers. The 'cultural knowledge' content is very limited and in our opinion could be left out or replaced with some other activities.

Additional note: the producer recommends this app for Special Needs children (autism or Asperger syndrome).

Appysmarts