Guided Access

My son, Matt, told me about Guided Access a little while ago, and I LOVE it.  This  is a feature already on your IOS6 iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Guided Access limits your device to a single app and lets you control which app features are available.   This comes in particularly handy when a toddler is using your iPad or iPhone for an app.  It can also be useful, however, for older children that may like to cruise around the device.  Even the adults in the family might want to use it to keep track of where they are!

Guided Access is a new feature in iOS 6 that helps users with hearing, learning, vision, and mobility disabilities use iOS devices. With Guided Access, certain areas and features of any app can be disabled. You can also prevent a user from exiting an app by disabling the hardware buttons and touchscreen sensor. It’s a pretty nifty feature that can be useful in many different situations.

Use Guided Access to:

• Temporarily restrict your iOS device to a particular app
• Disable areas of the screen that aren’t relevant to a task, or areas where an accidental gesture might cause a distraction
• Disable the hardware buttons

Tap Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access to set up Guided Access. From there you can:

• Turn Guided Access on or off 
• Set a passcode that controls the use of Guided Access and prevents someone from leaving an active session
• Set whether the device can go to sleep during a session

Start a Guided Access session

• Open the app you want to run.
• Triple-click the Home button.
• Adjust settings for the session, then click Start.

Disable app controls and areas of the app screen (this is great for those apps that seem to be riddled with ads wanting you to buy more)

• Circle any part of the screen you want to disable. 
• Use the handles to adjust the area.

Ignore all screen touches

• Turn off Touch.

Keep iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from switching from portrait to landscape or from responding to any other motions

• Turn off Motion.

End a Guided Access session

• Triple-click the Home button.
• Enter the Guided Access passcode.

For those who learn better visually, here's a good video with details about Guided Access.