"Babies love to touch the computer keyboard," claims Flopsy the Dog, the animated pooch on the Giggles Baby website, and I don't disagree. After all, I have a nephew who, at nearly 16 months, is fascinated with shiny things with buttons nearly as much as I am. Where Flopsy and I differ, however, is that I will try to intercept my nephew before he can start playing with the grown-up gadgets, whereas Flopsy wants to encourage him to; specifically, Flopsy thinks it's a good idea for babies to play with the computer.
The Giggles Baby line of software responds positively to random and repeated keyboard activity with animation and sounds appropriate to the 6-24 month-old set. I'm sure they're great fun, and certainly in this day and age it's never too early to introduce kids to the computer - but it's not the kids I'm worried about. How many 6 month olds do you know who "tap, tickle, and touch" keyboard keys? Bang, smash and pound is more like it - and I don't know if my grown-up PC is quite up to babysitting.
Giggles Baby titles sell for $24.95.-[Star C. Foster]
Giggles Baby (via The New York Times)
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egads! I'm not letting my baby near my 'puter even if she does find my 'arrrrggghhhh' sounds encouraging.
Greetings!
I am the creator of the Giggles Computer Funtime For Baby software, and you are correct that "bang" or "whack" are perhaps more accurate for **some** babies, but certainly not all. You'd be surprised how many become intentional and precise about their key-tapping, especially after using our program their very first time.
Our program teaches them about cause-and-effect and as they learn and recognize that their hits are the cause of the the responses on-screen, they really do become much more intentional in their key presses. As they progress and move through 12-16 months, the program also encourages them to move the mouse around with a really unique method which teaches them the cause-and-effect of moving the mouse on the screen.
Babies do whack the keys, especially without a program like ours, and that was the genesis of this progam in the first place. My son was always doing that and I couldn't find any software appropriate for him to play and satisy his curiosity for the computer that he saw me working on everyday.
The program is intended for suprvised play and to create a bonding and interactive playtime between parent and baby. In no way do we either endorse or encourage people to use it as a babysitter, which you mentioned. In fact, we feel very strongly that is what differentiates our product from your typical baby video that does become a babysitting mechanism. We encourage and have created the program so that parents and babies intereact with each other and the program equally. Parents are encouraged to talk about the shapes, colors, animals, etc on-screen as they appear and make it a much more fun experience for the baby.
USA Today recently reviewed our software and likened the ineteraction between parent and baby to reading an interactive storybook with a child, talking about the characters and pictures in the book as you go along - and they gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars! :-)
But yes, you are certainly correct that at 6 months they bang on the keys! They see you on the computer and they just want to be like you. If you've had to wrangle babies off your lap while trying to check an email then you know how it goes. If they hit the keys while you're on the computer, they're likely to erase files, change files names, launch programs, etc. Giggles Baby locks out the rest of the system completely so they can't get to your files/computer and provides a useful, engaging, educational, and really adorable way for babies to satisfay their natural curiosity and have a lot of fun and learning in the process.
I appreciate your writing about the product and very much respect your perspective. I'd be happy to send you a working sample of the program so that you could actually see how it works. Or you can visit our site at www.Giggles.net where we have demo's showing how it works.
Best Regards,
Tim Leverett
Creator, Giggles Computer Funtime or Baby
I think this is the most absolute fabulous idea that anyone has come up with! My 19 month old wants to be like big brother and big sister and this gives her the opportunity to do so! She can play, type, learn and be in control all by herself. I wish I could find the Animals CD in the stores! However, parents should really give this a try!