5 ms·

Clearly her previous iPhone experience was paramount.

by ssn 17y ago

adriand 17y ago
This really can't be overemphasized. I have a child about the same age (two-and-a-half) and he's been playing with my iPod Touch since I got it December 2008. He's proficient with it, just like her - able to easily navigate between the different pages of apps, launch new apps, use the navigation within apps, etc. But obviously, it wasn't like that when he first used it. It took time. For example, it took forever to teach him that if the hand that is holding it is touching the screen a little bit, then it won't properly register new touch events from the other hand. Eventually he just learned this, but it took a long time. The other thing to note is that children actually learn how to use computers far more rapidly than you might think. It's not just devices like this, where people will assume that it is the multi-touch and intuitive interface that makes it easy for them to learn it. This helps, sure, but I was shocked when, after a mere two hours or so of usage, my two-year-old had learned how to navigate Flash games in a browser using the mouse. I was about to restart the game he was playing by clicking through the menus but no, he grabbed the mouse and did it himself, to my amazement. Bottom-line: although I sense that many people will assume it is Apple's superior design that is responsible for this child's proficiency, I think that the combination of prior experience, plus the very quick learning abilities of young children, is a more important factor.
- stuff4ben 17y ago
  It's weird, my twins are almost 3 and they have yet to play with a computer except the couple of times I had some Elmo episodes up on Youtube. Most of their play comes with the old fashioned puzzles and dolls and other assorted toys. I figured they wouldn't know what to do with a computer, but clearly I need to revisit that. What kind of things can a 3 year old do with a computer? I admit I haven't the foggiest idea of how to introduce a child to a computer.
  - adriand 17y ago
    Well, for starters, it needs to be a computer you're okay with a kid being on. Mine doesn't get near the Macbook Pro, but I've got a desktop set up in such a way that only the monitor, keyboard and mouse are accessible, so I'm okay with that. Secondly, there's probably all sorts of great educational stuff for them to check out but all I've really done is put him on some simple Flash games. Examples: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Teagames/tg-motocross-2 http://www.kongregate.com/games/Teagames/tg-motocross-2 http://www.kongregate.com/games/light_bringer777/learn-to-fly http://www.kongregate.com/games/light_bringer777/learn-to-fl... http://www.kongregate.com/games/arawkins/dolphin-olympics http://www.kongregate.com/games/arawkins/dolphin-olympics
  - ghotli 17y ago
    My two year olds cant get enough of this game: Open up notepad. Maximize the window. Change the font to 72. Turn on caps lock. Let them have free reign on the keyboard and tell them what letter they are holding down. After about two months of this they are pretty proficient at the keyboard and at their letters. For mouse skills fullscreen Microsoft Paint. Same results.
    - hopeless 17y ago
      You need BabySmash... but it's mostly for younger kids. They hit keys and the letters spin on the screen accompanied by fun sounds.
  - greendestiny 17y ago
    My 2 year old loves my ipod touch. The best thing I have for it is a drawing program called doodle buddy. She loves to scribble with it or do stamps. On the PC there is a great opensource paint program called tux paint - but she can't work the mouse so its a more of a ask Daddy what stamps she wants type thing.
  - frossie 17y ago
    What kind of things can a 3 year old do with a computer? An actual computer? Check out the games on pbskids.org - esp. the Curious George ones. For under <3s, you will probably need to "drive" the mouse while the kids tell you what to do. The iPhone has a myriad of kid-friendly apps suitable for the toddler set. Try AnimalSNAP, Scribble, PreSchool Playground, Matches, and Wild Animals jigsaw. While obviously the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad is not a substitute for real play, it has certain advantages, such as encouraging seriously fine motor control, a level of abstraction, and being a compact source of amusement for plane rides. Also check out the kids books "with synchronised images" from audible.com. It allows the iPod to pretend to read books to your child. Again, not a substitute for you doing this, but a good tool for your emergency arsenal. I have to say though, that the most educational thing on the internet for the preschooler is youtube. There is nothing like, say, talking to your kid about the instruments of the orchestra and then being able to pull up somebody playing the tuba right there and then. Indispensable. That said, get your timing right. I kept my kid away from the TV till she was two, and away from gadgets till she was three. I think the level of engagement you get by introducing things at the right time is much higher than if you expose too early.
- sumeeta 17y ago
  How about a similar experiment about 20 years ago? Has anyone watched a young child try to navigate a command prompt? I mean changing directories, and maybe eventually learning a basic understanding of the filesystem and what files are. I always tell people I learned how to navigate MS-DOS when I was five from watching my cousin do it. I wanted to get on the computer and play games, and I just remembered what he’d typed. I actually have no idea how true this memory is. But I wonder if CLI can feel just as natural to young children.
  - kylemathews 17y ago
    I was running my families DOS computer when I was 6 or 7 and I don't remember having much problems learning how to stick the disk in (ah, the good ol days), type cd B: and then execute the right program. My brother and I would play tons of old school games that way.
  - nitrogen 17y ago
    I learned DOS when I was about that age by watching the commands from autoexec.bat flash by when the computer was booting (the guy who built my parents' first computer didn't put @echo off at the beginning, which probably led to my becoming a computer programmer :). I thought I was king of the world when, at 6 years old or whatever, I exited the Direct Access menu system, typed "prompt SpSg", and actually made the computer do something I told it to do (it took me a few reboots ro realize that it was $p$g, not SpSg).
marze 17y ago
True. But if her previous experience had been with Windows 7, would she be similarly proficient on an HP Slate?
- chollida1 17y ago
  I'm guessing not. By far the more important experience is with a touch screen and not the OS.

Clearly her previous iPhone experience was paramount.

by ssn 17y ago

Clearly her previous iPhone experience was paramount.

This really can't be overemphasized. I have a child about the same age (two-and-a-half) and he's been playing with my iPod Touch since I got it December 2008. He's proficient with it, just like her - able to easily navigate between the different pages of apps, launch new apps, use the navigation within apps, etc. But obviously, it wasn't like that when he first used it. It took time. For example, it took forever to teach him that if the hand that is holding it is touching the screen a little bit, then it won't properly register new touch events from the other hand. Eventually he just learned this, but it took a long time. The other thing to note is that children actually learn how to use computers far more rapidly than you might think. It's not just devices like this, where people will assume that it is the multi-touch and intuitive interface that makes it easy for them to learn it. This helps, sure, but I was shocked when, after a mere two hours or so of usage, my two-year-old had learned how to navigate Flash games in a browser using the mouse. I was about to restart the game he was playing by clicking through the menus but no, he grabbed the mouse and did it himself, to my amazement. Bottom-line: although I sense that many people will assume it is Apple's superior design that is responsible for this child's proficiency, I think that the combination of prior experience, plus the very quick learning abilities of young children, is a more important factor.

stuff4ben 17y ago
It's weird, my twins are almost 3 and they have yet to play with a computer except the couple of times I had some Elmo episodes up on Youtube. Most of their play comes with the old fashioned puzzles and dolls and other assorted toys. I figured they wouldn't know what to do with a computer, but clearly I need to revisit that. What kind of things can a 3 year old do with a computer? I admit I haven't the foggiest idea of how to introduce a child to a computer.
- adriand 17y ago
  Well, for starters, it needs to be a computer you're okay with a kid being on. Mine doesn't get near the Macbook Pro, but I've got a desktop set up in such a way that only the monitor, keyboard and mouse are accessible, so I'm okay with that. Secondly, there's probably all sorts of great educational stuff for them to check out but all I've really done is put him on some simple Flash games. Examples: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Teagames/tg-motocross-2 http://www.kongregate.com/games/Teagames/tg-motocross-2 http://www.kongregate.com/games/light_bringer777/learn-to-fly http://www.kongregate.com/games/light_bringer777/learn-to-fl... http://www.kongregate.com/games/arawkins/dolphin-olympics http://www.kongregate.com/games/arawkins/dolphin-olympics
- ghotli 17y ago
  My two year olds cant get enough of this game: Open up notepad. Maximize the window. Change the font to 72. Turn on caps lock. Let them have free reign on the keyboard and tell them what letter they are holding down. After about two months of this they are pretty proficient at the keyboard and at their letters. For mouse skills fullscreen Microsoft Paint. Same results.
  - hopeless 17y ago
    You need BabySmash... but it's mostly for younger kids. They hit keys and the letters spin on the screen accompanied by fun sounds.
- greendestiny 17y ago
  My 2 year old loves my ipod touch. The best thing I have for it is a drawing program called doodle buddy. She loves to scribble with it or do stamps. On the PC there is a great opensource paint program called tux paint - but she can't work the mouse so its a more of a ask Daddy what stamps she wants type thing.
- frossie 17y ago
  What kind of things can a 3 year old do with a computer? An actual computer? Check out the games on pbskids.org - esp. the Curious George ones. For under <3s, you will probably need to "drive" the mouse while the kids tell you what to do. The iPhone has a myriad of kid-friendly apps suitable for the toddler set. Try AnimalSNAP, Scribble, PreSchool Playground, Matches, and Wild Animals jigsaw. While obviously the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad is not a substitute for real play, it has certain advantages, such as encouraging seriously fine motor control, a level of abstraction, and being a compact source of amusement for plane rides. Also check out the kids books "with synchronised images" from audible.com. It allows the iPod to pretend to read books to your child. Again, not a substitute for you doing this, but a good tool for your emergency arsenal. I have to say though, that the most educational thing on the internet for the preschooler is youtube. There is nothing like, say, talking to your kid about the instruments of the orchestra and then being able to pull up somebody playing the tuba right there and then. Indispensable. That said, get your timing right. I kept my kid away from the TV till she was two, and away from gadgets till she was three. I think the level of engagement you get by introducing things at the right time is much higher than if you expose too early.
sumeeta 17y ago
How about a similar experiment about 20 years ago? Has anyone watched a young child try to navigate a command prompt? I mean changing directories, and maybe eventually learning a basic understanding of the filesystem and what files are. I always tell people I learned how to navigate MS-DOS when I was five from watching my cousin do it. I wanted to get on the computer and play games, and I just remembered what he’d typed. I actually have no idea how true this memory is. But I wonder if CLI can feel just as natural to young children.
- kylemathews 17y ago
  I was running my families DOS computer when I was 6 or 7 and I don't remember having much problems learning how to stick the disk in (ah, the good ol days), type cd B: and then execute the right program. My brother and I would play tons of old school games that way.
- nitrogen 17y ago
  I learned DOS when I was about that age by watching the commands from autoexec.bat flash by when the computer was booting (the guy who built my parents' first computer didn't put @echo off at the beginning, which probably led to my becoming a computer programmer :). I thought I was king of the world when, at 6 years old or whatever, I exited the Direct Access menu system, typed "prompt SpSg", and actually made the computer do something I told it to do (it took me a few reboots ro realize that it was $p$g, not SpSg).

marze 17y ago

True. But if her previous experience had been with Windows 7, would she be similarly proficient on an HP Slate?

chollida1 17y ago
I'm guessing not. By far the more important experience is with a touch screen and not the OS.