Gracie & Friends Birthday Café - First 8 Studios at WGBH

This review of Gracie & Friends Birthday Café was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 26 March 2019.

About the app

This section contains details about the app provided by an ACCM Reviewer.

ACCM review

This review of Gracie & Friends Birthday Café contains the following information:

• The level to which the game was reviewed
• App description
• Reviewers comments
• In App purchasing
• Online information
• Gambling
• Advertising and product placement
• Gender stereotypes and sexual references
• Coarse language
• Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents
• Other

The level to which the game was reviewed

Our Reviewer played all levels of this game.

App description

Gracie and Friends Birthday Café is a fun app for young children in which they match corresponding items to the number of friends at a table. It begins with the player having to move one friend to be seated at a table with the number 1 on it, by swiping with a finger. A tray rolls along at the bottom of the screen with food/drink items on it and the player has to choose the plate with one item on it and move it to the table. This progresses to pairs and then groups of three, four and five friends. At the highest level there are several different groups which have to be seated at the numbered tables with the corresponding seats and given plates with the correct number of food items on it. The game is interspersed with counting of a group of objects numbering 1 – 10. At the end of the game the display announces that you’re a winner.

Reviewers comments

Gracie and Friends Birthday Café is one of four apps by the same developer that are based on the concept of 'subitizing'. This is the ability to instantly recognise sets of numbers, in this case one to five objects, without counting. Subitizing has been shown to help children with mental arithmetic and is used in Montessori schools and others. This app also teaches the number symbols from 1 – 5. It is quite a fun app, if somewhat repetitive but this is obviously part of the learning process.

The parent/educator section can only be accessed by entering a succession of numbers which are written in words so it is unlikely young children will be able to access this area.

In App purchasing

There is no In-App purchasing in this game. 

Online information

• Access to the app store is available in the parent/educator section but this is protected by a strong lock.

Gambling

At time of review, the reviewer found no simulated gambling content.  If you discover simulated gambling content in this app, please contact us with the details so we can update our review.

Advertising and product placement

• None noted.

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

• None noted.

Coarse language

• None noted.

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

• None noted.

Other

N/A.

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