Reading and math readiness skills prepare preschool age children for the task of reading and understanding mathematics, two of life's most important skills and the basis for all learning. The ability to identify and name colors and shapes are essential components of reading and math readiness.

How do children learn to recognize colors and shapes? Each child passes through developmental stages at his or her own pace.* For most preschoolers, learning the names of colors and shapes is a simple process of learning the names of the colors and shapes and associating them with everyday objects.

After a child can identify colors and shapes, he or she will be ready to find similarities and differences between objects. How many sides does a square have? How many sides does a triangle have? Which shape has more sides? Which shape has less sides? What is the difference between an apple and an orange? Being able to answer these kinds of questions is called 'critical thinking' and is an important part of reading and math readiness.

Classification is another developmental skill that is an important part of learning colors and shapes. Separating groups of objects based on color and shape paves the way for more advanced classification skills.

As a parent with a busy schedule, how can you help your child learn colors and shapes? Chances are, you’re already doing it. Talk to your child about everyday objects. What color is your apple? How many sides to your slice of pizza? Listen when your child talks. Point out the color and shape of objects that you encounter together when you are with your child. You’ll be amazed at how much your son or daughter will learn if you’ll simply talk about the color and shape of common household objects. How quickly your child will learn to recognize color and shape depends on a lot of factors. But once your child has learned to recognize colors and shapes, he or she will want to practice finding examples everywhere.

Colors and Shapes is a fun, convenient way to introduce and reinforce the basic concepts with your preschooler. For all the times you and your child have a minute or two, this iPhone application is the perfect opportunity to review colors and shapes. It will entertain both of you while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, sitting in the waiting room at the dentist, or traveling by bus or train. The possibilities are endless.

*In order to recognize colors, first a child must be able to perceive color. Color blindness or color vision deficiency is the inability to perceive differences between some of the colors that others can distinguish. In the United States, about 7 percent of the male population has color vision deficiencies that affect the ability to perceive color.

Color and Shape Flash Cards

Color and Shape Flash Cards teach recognition and identification of colors and shapes in a variety of ways. Shapes appear on the screen and dissolve into cartoon characters based on a similar shape. As each shape appears, its color is pronounced. As the screen fades into a cartoon character with a similar shape, the name of the shape is pronounced.

The child controls the pace of the learning experience by either swiping the screen or clicking a button to move to the next flash card.

The Preferences screen provides control over a variety of options. Sound effects can be turned on and off. Whether the name of a shape or color is spoken can also be changed. For variety, and to hold your child's interest, you can select whether the shape or the cartoon character is displayed first.

Shape Buttons

Shape Buttons is an interactive game where the child touches a button that is labeled with one of sixteen different shapes. When the shape is touched, a cartoon character associated with that shape appears on the screen.

Shaking the phone randomly selects a different set of sixteen shapes.

When playing this game encourage your child to say the name of the color, and then the shape. Or, say the name of one of the shapes and ask your to find and touch it. Perhaps you and your child can find other variations.

Music Time

Music Time is a shapes and colors Sing-Along Song set to the melody of 'Frere Jacques'. As the child taps the screen, the cartoon character plays the next note on the instrument, and the next set of lyrics appears in the soap bubble.

In addition to helping your child learn the names of shapes, this activity helps to develop a sense of rhythm and melody.