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Software (and Appropriate Input Device) For a Toddler?
An anonymous reader writes "I have an 18-month-old who loves bright screens (TV and computer), loves loud noises, and loves to mash buttons. He targets my laptop with the button-mashing, and I sort of hate having to tell him 'no' when he wants to explore a computer. I was wondering if anyone knows of some fun (and maybe educational) age-specific PC software that also comes with an age-appropriate input device. I've seen those big-button devices in retail stores that seem to just hook up to the TV, and I've also seen some PC software that requires keyboard/mouse input, which does not seem like the right input device for a toddler."
Just buy, beg or borrow an old electronic keyboard. Much more fun for an 18 month old. (Was for mine)
Check out your local Wal*Mart like store for stuff like this Fisher-Price edu-toy. My nephew has something a little less complex (and more appropriate, possibly, for your situation) but I cannot remember the name of it, only that it's from Fisher-Price. (:
This might be helpful, too.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Your son is obviously autistic.
His actions are highly unusual, get him in to an autism specialist immediately.
With early treatment he has a chance of leading a semi-normal life. Good luck!
Try the Leapster system. My 2 year old figured out the Dora game on that pretty quickly. Needed some help to get started initially, but great for learning numbers and letters before the age of 3 and it can handle the rough treatment from a little one.
Meus subcriptio est nocens Latin quoniam bardus populus reputo is sanus callidus
The best toy for a kid that age is a good sized cardboard box. Nothing else comes close when it comes to stimulating their imagination, curiosity and social development. If you for some reason are opposed to cardboard boxes: How about some real world open ended interactive toys like blocks, teddybears, a tricycle, a pail and a shovel, some toy cars or a ... gasp... big red ball?
Both my kids started out with a great little app called Keywack.
I took an old Mac Classic sitting in my basement, ran Keywack and the kids loved it. Never trashed the computer either, which I was sure they would do.
Keywack runs on anything, Win/Mac/Lin, and helped me get my kids learning about tech at around 18 months. The fact they are both capable programmers (one a senior in high school, another im middle school) might have something to do with their early comfort level, or it might not. But give it a try...
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
18 months is waaaaaaaaaay to early to introduce stuff like that.
Let the toddler be a toddler. All that baby Einstein-esque crap has been proven to be nothing but trouble for your child's NORMAL development.
I've been using BabySmash! from http://www.hanselman.com/babysmash/ with my 7 month old since she was around 2 months old.
She can press any key on the keyboard to get sounds and shapes/letters. She absolutely loves it.
I'm now looking for software that is slightly more advanced, but there seems to be a lack of games in this age range...
I was thinking about getting a used rugged laptop and putting a very simple console editor on it, since my 18-month-old does seem to like what comes out when he bashes the keyboard, and there's enough to do with ASCII.
OTOH, he also likes to play simple games, like tux racer. The main problem is that the software is designed to receive precise input. Any program that can't be quit, paused or otherwise disabled would do the job of letting him explore. I was planning to put together a couple of simple games for him in Blender but haven't got to it yet.
We used to let my son use the computer a lot. He seemed to enjoy it, but we noticed that that was all he did. For the past few months we have completely banned him from the computer. Since the banning (and getting over the initial withdrawal) he has been much happier most of the time. I would recommend giving your kids toys (blocks are the best thing in the WORLD no matter the age of the child) and let them play with them.
An iPod touch or an iPad aren't bad options.
The interface is about as intuitive as you can get, and there are child-friendly apps available. My 21mo daughter loves to play with the touch screen, and can figure out that she needs to touch the icons to get it to do stuff. A friend's slightly older daughter does about the same with their iPad. Both are also synced with a computer, so it's difficult for them to do irreparable damage. Purchasing music/video from the device requires you to enter your iTunes password, so it's not likely they'll be able to buy stuff either.
The downside is that they're fairly expensive, so if your kid is big on jelly-fingers or throwing things, it might require keeping a very close on them.
Just buy him a copy of Duke Nukem Forever. It'll be age appropriate.
Numerous studies indicate that is is best to keep children under 3 away from all tv's, including dvd's, normal tv programming, movies, video games,etc... and to limit video exposure only increasing allowed hours per day gradually as the child gets older.
No tv under 2, limit to under 2 hours for 3 year
No tv under 2
Anarchists never rule
starting age 2½, it was an expensive machine when I was young, but under supervision. What matters most is spending time with your child ad teach him/her LOVE, and yes, he should learn the meaning of "no", it's important, you know better than him/her, electronics (tv, computers) can wait a couple of years.
Tomorrow is another day...
That should be about the limit of technology your toddler should be exposed to. The American Academy of Piedeatricts actually discourages parents from letting kids under 2 watch television. I'm sure computers are the same.
Monstar L
WARNING
...you may get this result.
If you leave this unattended...
Better yet, give him a Big Wheel and box full of Legos. Maybe spend time with him outside with a ball and mitt.
I know you mean well, but the kid's going to have plenty of time to develop a sedentary lifestyle and sit in front of a screen and keyboard. Let him at least have a chance to be healthy and active for a little while. Maybe he'll develop some good physical habits before becoming a computer geek like Dad.
I'm joking about "being a computer geek like Dad" but not about letting the kid run around and play and get some exercise and wait until he has a use for a computer before you plant him in front of one. How about this? When he comes to you and says, "I need a computer so I can..." THEN, you can set him up with a nice Ubuntu box, but only if he wants to do something worthwhile with it.
Take good care of that kid. The habits he forms now will most likely stay with him forever. Don't assume that because you love sitting and working at a computer that it's the best thing for him.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I agree a PC would be a bad idea, but what about a Sega Genesis? Those can be found quite cheap all over the place, the old three button controllers were hell to kill, and most importantly there was plenty of games like Barney and Sonic that were easy for little ones. even when they don't have the skills to actually play a game they can still amuse themselves for hours, for example my oldest one loved to have me set up eternal Champions to practice mode when he was a year old, just so he could mash the buttons and see the character " jump jump" under his command. And of course as he got older he quickly went to harder games and then finally a PC. Since he just started medical school two weeks ago I guess that "video games ruin kids" bunk was just that, huh?
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Sounds like about the right stage of development for an iProduct.
When my son was around 2 or so he was very interested in using the computer. There was a great piece of software, Mickey Mouse and the alphabet. While the program ran it locked out everything else and would only respond to letters of the alphabet being pressed. When a key was pressed, say A, Mickey would perform some action, say the letter and the word. For A, he would go to the refrigerator and get an apple to eat. When using the software my son learned his alphabet and had great fun having Mickey perform different actions. There are some older versions of the software still available, I also noticed some suggestions for other similar software.
I used to be an adult but then I grew up.
And the all important job of steering from the passengers seat when dad needs to retie his shoes.
18 months? Are you serious?
Why my daughter was that age, I gave her an old PC keyboard that wasn't connected to anything else. She loved banging on it and pretending to work with Dad.
Give your kids something simple that will make them use their imagination. You don't want to kill off appreciation of simple toys by the time they're 4.
The best devices I've found have been both input and output. To wit:
Sure, it's great until the kid spontaneously decides to pick it up and throw it across the room. 18 month olds do not have good impulse control and are just barely starting to perceive that actions have consequences. I guess if you have lots of money to throw around you could give your 18 month old a fragile $600 device, but I think the smarter move would be to go with something designed to survive the kind of abuse kids that age tend to dish out to their toys.
As babies smash on the keyboard, colored shapes, letters and numbers appear on the screen. Baby Smash will lock out the Windows Key, as well as Ctrl-Esc and Alt-Tab so your baby can't get out of the application. Pressing ALT-F4 will exit the application and Shift-Ctrl-Alt-O brings up the options dialog.
Bingo. At 1, I gave my son my old machine when I upgraded. I put ubuntu on it with eCompris. I spent maybe 5 minutes showing him that the mouse moved the mouse icon on the screen, and clicking the mouse made things happen. That and the keyboard. I then loaded the eCompris module that would uncover a picture when the mouse ran over it. It got progressively more difficult. A couple of hours later, I showed him how to turn on the computer, how to load his game, and how to properly shut down the computer. After that, I let him go. He was proficent at getting around withing a few days.
At 2, I formatted the hard drive and gave him the disk to install himself. He did it with no problem. I then used that to mock anyone that claimed that Linux was too hard to install.
At six, he does more general gaming, so he runs windows most of the time now, but he does periodically boot up Linux in VMWare to play around with some of the simple games on it.
There is nothing inappropriat about an adult computer for a 1 year old. Keyboards are cheap. Mice are cheap. If you are paranoid about the wires, just get a wireless keyboard and mouse.
Yes, it's a much better idea to sit them in front of an $800 - 2000 device with latches, ports, springs, hinges, and cords, and other moving parts all over it.
So here's a crazy idea: don't leave the 18-month old child unattended around expensive and fragile electronics of any sort!
I sat with my 22 month old nephew and we played with an iPad for about 2 hours on a recent visit, and he loved it. He had a blast playing with a few different pieces of music software I loaded (Leaf Trombone, Ocarina, some keyboard/synthesizer application, and a drum pad app that he really liked), as well as a couple basic games. Other than a lot of fingerprints all over the screen, it survived just fine, despite him landing a few full force slaps and thumps on the screen.
If you have an iPad, the kid isn't going to destroy it unless you hand him a hammer, an iPad, and walk away for 15 minutes while he stands above a floor surface made entirely of jagged chunks of granite.
Seconded. Especially a virtual analog synth that has friendly knobs which will immediately affect the sound being produced when tweaked.
Or, you could go for a real analogue synth like the Korg Monotron, a tiny, simple true analog synth able to create all kinds of neat sounds.
None of these things will have the bright screen to draw his eye, but they are far more intuitive and engaging for a young mind: pushing different keys and twisting different knobs will effect a definite and immediate change in the sound he hears, whereas pounding on the keyboard of a laptop will generally result in little onscreen action. Synth programming is real programming, too, without the complexity of dealing with language. This will foster his creativity more greatly than any other electronic device, especially if he plays with it as he begins to understand the structure of music.
Korg Monotrons can be bought new for under $80. The only problems I foresee are that Dad might be having too much fun with it to let his son have a try, that adults have a low tolerance for atonal, high-pitched sounds, and that nobody wants their kid to be a starving artist when they grow up =)
Your brain is not a computer.
I'm in my 40s, and my son is rapidly approaching 3.
Get him a pretend laptop - Something like this. (although maybe not in lurid pink.)
Honestly though, keep him away from real computers. At that age, they basically amount to TVs with (mashable) buttons. The interaction is no more significant than you'd get with a Fisher Price toy, and they don't need to be glued to the computer (or TV) that early. The less time in front of a computer or TV, the better.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
on the bottle or on the mom. Kid will get lots of input.
My daughter was doing fine with the keyboard and mouse. By the time she got to 2.5 years (she'll be 3 this month), she realized that when the mouse hovered on an object in the Reader Rabbit games, the objects would respond and she was intelligent enough to place the object in the correct place. At 18+ months she, and now her sister, just enjoyed the sounds and moving the mouse around.
Now, I have been trying to find a decent child's keyboard. I've found some, but they've been unrealistically expensive. I can understand $30-$50. But I've seen some in the $100 range. I'm also thinking of a trackball for the pointing device, but they seem to do well with a mouse.
Just make sure to keep the cheap computer out of reach and use an older monitor, CRT if possible. They can take the hits. A lot of the games don't need special graphics (the Reader Rabbit games were designed at 1024x768 or 800x600 and have a definite Windows 98 VGA feel to them.)
Oh, and let me add that there are some pretty cool videos on youtube for kids. Do a search for children songs or on nursery rhymes. They Might Be Giants "Here Come the 123s" and "Here Come the ABCs" are faves, as well as Eric Herman songs.
18 YEAR olds do not have good impulse control and are just barely starting to perceive that actions have consequences
there fixed that for ya
Just make sure you lock down any wireless networks around by the time he's 8-10, or he'll get a head start on that whole 'the internet is for porn' thing. :P
.gifs back when I was in year 8, and I turned out fine. :P
Then again I remember my friends and I swapping 3.5" discs with half-a-dozen topless
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
The real issue here is whose device the kid wants to play with. He doesn't want to play with *his* fisher-price (or other) Toy, he wants to play with *your* laptop, because he sees *you* using your laptop. The kid wants attention, not the toy. Put the laptop (or whatever) away, and get him involved with something you can both do together.
Having two boys, ages 2 and 4, I know that they do not want their daddy to pay attention to his toys, rather, they want daddy to pay attention to *them*.
Learn to say no right now. It will be better for both you and you son.
You know, despite the contrary responses, you are right. A kid is a kid, and should be given kid appropriate toys. A kid at 18 months doesn't know the difference between a Frisbee and an iPad, except the iPad probably makes more interesting smashey noises when they're done with it.
My daughter is about 3.5 years old now. Sure, I have a plenty of computer gear for her to play with. I've given her pretty much anything she is interested in. Folks have given her all kinds of presents. For Christmas, she was more interested in playing with the boxes, and coloring on them, than the actual contents. Really, despite the cool packaging, most of the toys sucked.
Right now, her favorite toys, in order of interest, are....
Crayons or markers and blank paper. She can do a pretty decent job of basic shapes (lines, circles, triangles, and squares).
Coloring books, until she gets bored with the actual pictures, and draws what she wants over them. She's fascinated by car washes ("car showers" in her terms), even though she's afraid of them. That's one of the things she draws frequently. That and "daddy's car". It's not a technically accurate depiction, but it does have wheels and something resembling a body over it.
Digital cameras. She loves taking pictures, and being able to see the picture right away. She likes *her* picture taken more though, so she'll make me take the picture and show her what it is.
She's interested in computers, but only as far as seeing daddy type 100wpm, so she bangs on old keyboards to type along.
She loves her etch-a-sketch. She can draw, and make it go away so she can start over. She likes to see me draw and write, so when I write things on it, I spell it out, and say the word.
And I made the tragic mistake of showing her http://icanhascheezburger.com/. She wants to see the kitties doing silly things. It's not just seeing them, she has a commentary about each one. It's nice hearing what she sees in the picture, rather than what us adults have learned to see in them.
She has a few shows that she likes on TV, and is amazed that I can show her the same ones on the computer. It just sucks to have a kid take away *MY* toy. :)
On, and on the car, she loves telling me how to drive. "Green light daddy!", even if it's red. She's not confused about the colors, she just likes me to drive fast. For the sake of safety, I just stay in a lower gear so she can hear the engine roar. "Fast" to her is where the engine is running faster, not how fast we're actually driving. :)
Then there's balls, blocks, and other assorted kids toys.
Her grandmother got her a Disney toy that hooks to the TV. She lost interest in that in less than 5 minutes. She likes to dance on it though, even though she's not playing the game right. Hey, whatever, she's having fun, and I didn't waste the money on it.:) It doesn't even need to be hooked up to the TV for her to enjoy herself. :)
She likes to be read to also. She talks about the pictures in the book more than trying to comprehend the reading.
So, for any kid, give them the opportunity to do anything they want (that they can do safely), and you'll appreciate them more.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
When they're old enough, why not? Or did you miss the part about "old enough" or "under close supervision, and specific direction."?
Did no one else get to sit on their parents lap and steer the car?
Or learn to drive a stick by shifting from the passenger's seat because their dad needed his other hand to hold a beer?
There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.