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V-tech to the Rescue

Posted on Jun 4th, 2009 in Fatherhood | 0 comments

A recent article was released saying that children under 2 should not watch any TV because it can retard a child’s ability to learn new vocabulary. And that may be true… if parents use it as a crutch insteadof interacting with the child. My child has been watching Dora and Diego and other Noggin shows since he was one and a half, and I can honestly say he has had no trouble learning new words. In fact, he has a larger vocabulary than any other 2 year old I have met. Seriously. he is making 5-6 word sentences, knows a dozen prepositions, can count to twenty, recognizes the alphabet and can repeat it, knows his shapes (can differentiate between octagon, hexagon and pentagon), and knows his colors (he can even differentiate between lightand dark shades of the same color). And why? Because we sit down with him and read four to six books with him every night. We interact. We ask questions. I even quiz him during bathtime. Kids love it! Kids love to learn with their parents every minute of every day. Its what they do. So do it. His new thing is quite cute. He will hold up a car and say to me “What color the car?” he doesn’t want me to answer the question, he wants me to ask him the question.

TV is not the problem. TV can even help to solidify words and concepts in a child’s brain as long as the parents are spending adequate time teaching the child! TV, when used properly, can help to expand vocabulary as long as it is not the sole tool of learning. True, today’s shows, like Dora, encourage interaction, but that interaction is for older children, not for younger children. Younger kids need one on one learning with parents every night for television to have any value.

Anyway, that wasn’t what I meant this post to be about, but I figured I would lead into this with that.

With a new child coming and the demolition of my office to make my son’s new room, we got a laptop for the dining room table. Now, whenever my son is bored and he sees me on the computer, he will come over to me and start saying “numbers”. he wants to sit o my lap and play on the keyboard. Stupid me, I though I would make it work. You know, open up Microsoft Word and set a very large font, type some numbers and letters and let him identify them, and then ask him to find some numbers and letters. yeah, great idea. In theory. Worked for about a minute, until he got bored and just wanted to pound away on the keyboard with his ham fists. And then he ran his stained fingers over the screen. Complete disaster. Now I don’t let him on my lap and he cries.

So I went out and bought this V-tech keyboard/computer for $20. It has thirty or so little programs on it, but he is only old enough to really do 2 or 3 (It is made for 3 years and up). But there is a program for identifying numbers, and one for identifying letters, and one that asks him to identify the largest of three objects. So it will be more useful as he gets older, but it gives him a keyboard he can bang away on without destroying a $700 dollar piece of computer equipment. He absolutely loves it!

Of course, he saw me putting in the batteries, and after playing with it for 30 minutes, he flipped it over and demanded that I open the battery compartment for him. I didn’t, and he cried for a bit. Hopefully he will forget it is there.

Though made for older children, if you have reached a point with a younger child who is bored with pointing out numbers and letters in a book, this is a great durable and relatively cheap toy to make learning more interactive. And since it looks somewhat like a laptop, your kid will think he is a big boy, too.

Peace out.

And remember, TV isn’t a substitute for time spent with your child, but it can be a great tool when used to enhance what he or she already knows