Shelby's Quest App Review {+ giveaway!!}

Shelby's Quest is an engaging pre-writing app that was developed by occupational therapist, Kami Bible, OTR/L, to give children a fun way to practice fine motor and visual perceptual skills. In Shelby's Quest, the child helps guide Shelby the dog on a journey through the forest, while developing pre-writing skills.

Shelby's Quest consists of three different quests, with each one focusing on a different skill:

In the first quest, the child helps Skip the Salmon find his family. This quest develops visual motor skills by dragging Skip through the stream, while staying within the boundaries.

The second quest develops a pinching motion while helping Samantha the Squirrel place her acorns in the correct bins. This also helps develop basic sorting skills.

In the third quest, a stylus or finger can be used to trace shapes while helping Maurice the Moose find the trail.

*Each quest contains three levels, which get progressively more challenging.

In addition, you can easily collect data on multiple students.

How I use Shelby's Quest in therapy:

With handwriting and pre-writing apps, I like to focus on transferring the skills developed on the iPad to paper. With Shelby's Quest, I do this by printing out a screenshots of some of the quests, placing the sheets in page protectors, and then having the student complete the quest using a dry erase marker (or you can use my favorite, Crayola Dry Erase Crayons). 

I also use the screenshot printouts as a way to incorporate multisensory learning. Here I used colored sand, but you could use shaving cream, gel, rice, playdough, etc. 

**If you're going to use screenshots in this way, I would recommend printing them in color for better contrast and using a lighter colored sand.  
 

What I like about this app: 

• Fun and engaging
• Cute graphics
• Developmentally appropriate progression of pre-writing skills
• Good voice over directions
• Can track student progress, including multiple students
• Admin account is very easy to create 
• Easy to use  

 

Best for ages:

Children who are developing pre-writing skills, typically between 3-5 years of age, although it would be beneficial for children of any age who are working on developing pre-writing skills.
 

Bottom line:

This is a great app for parents, teachers, and therapists alike. Shelby the dog is cute and engaging for children, and the progression of skills is great for developing pre-writing skills in young children. These skills can then be transferred to functional pre-writing tasks on paper.

For a demo, see the video below:
 
 

App information:

Name of App: Shelby's Quest
Publisher: Doodle Therapy Apps
Compatible with: iPad. Requires iOS 5.1 or later.
Price: $4.99 available for purchase from the iTunes App Store.


App information was correct at the time of publication of this review, but is subject to change,especially compatibility and price, so please confirm prior to downloading.

How to enter the giveaway: For a chance to win a copy of Shelby's Quest, all you need to do is leave a comment below telling me how you would use the app. All comments must be received by 11:59 PM EST on February 28. A random number generator will be used to select the winner. The winner will be announced on March 1 and will have one week to respond to claim the prize. If you leave a way for me to contact you (email, Twitter handle, blog url) in your comment I will contact you directly. If the winner does not respond within one week, a new winner will be chosen.

Disclaimer: This app was received via a promo code provided by the Shelby's Quest app developer. However, all opinions expressed are entirely my own. This post also contains affiliate links,