| Today's parents feel pressured to use technology to | | | | Media Australia, a consumer advocacy group), |
| begin their child's education in utero. For example, the | | | | question how educational and interactive high-tech |
| BabyPlus Prenatal Education System promises to | | | | edutainment toys really are, noting that "[p]ressing |
| "give your baby a headstart" by playing rhythmic | | | | buttons and having items do things for you is fairly |
| patterns to help stimulate early learning. It is time, | | | | limiting in terms of how children learn." Furthermore, |
| therefore, to step back and evaluate the true value | | | | many traditional toys are themselves becoming more |
| of toys that incorporate technology to teach. | | | | innovative about stimulating a child's imagination and |
| Toys that are formed from high-tech electronics | | | | creativity without having electronics in them. For |
| embedded with semiconductor chips are generally | | | | example, the blocks in FoxMind's Cliko game can be |
| known as edutainment toys. The quality and | | | | used for a variety of games that are challenging to |
| substance of their play may be limited by the number | | | | children and adults alike. |
| of buttons a child can push. Some promise to | | | | Negative Impacts of Edutainment Toys |
| challenge a child by allowing him or her to interact | | | | Overall, parents might not want to encourage |
| with the educational content to learn it. For example, | | | | children, especially younger ones, to use too often |
| V.Smile offers a Baby Infant Development System | | | | edutainment toys that involve televisions and |
| aimed at introducing interactive learning to kids 9 | | | | computer screens. The authors of "Effects of |
| months to 3 years. They can watch educational | | | | Preschool Television Watching on First-Grade |
| videos with this system or push buttons on a tray to | | | | Children," found that preschoolers who watched |
| influence what is happening on a television screen. | | | | more television than their peers did worse in school |
| Some older toys are also adding electronic bells and | | | | and were not as well socialized when they entered |
| whistles to appeal to the current technologically | | | | first grade. Researchers Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. |
| sophisticated generation of children. Dolls now interact | | | | Dimitri Christakis found that babies watching Baby |
| with the Internet. Wooden Brio trains make electronic | | | | Einstein DVDs and videos scored lower on language |
| sounds and can be controlled by infrared remotes. | | | | skills than babies who had never watched them at all. |
| The classic Fisher-Price Rock-A-Stack now also | | | | In addition, Allison Sloan notes in Shopper's Guide to |
| comes in a Dance Baby Dance version whose center | | | | Healthier, Greener Toys that computers and |
| rod lights up and plays songs when the rings are | | | | television sets emit EMFs, "invisible forcefields whose |
| stacked on it. | | | | possible health effects, from headaches to sleep |
| Open vs. Closed-ended Toys | | | | disruption to cancer, are the subject of heated |
| An open-ended toy encourages free play with an | | | | debate." Children's developing brains are in the |
| unlimited number of outcomes. For example, a building | | | | greatest danger from such outside influences. |
| set can be used to construct a variety of different | | | | A final caution about edutainment toys is that they |
| structures. A closed-ended toy, on the other hand, | | | | can foster in children an acceptance of a disposable |
| has a limited and often soon exhausted number of | | | | consumer culture. A timeless toy such as a set of |
| outcomes. | | | | wooden unit blocks will hold up under heavy use for |
| Not all closed-ended toys are bad. After all, a stacker | | | | generations and can be played with at the same time |
| is a classic closed-ended educational toy: it can only | | | | by children (and adults!) of a variety of ages. |
| be put together correctly in one way. However, to | | | | Edutainment toys, on the other hand, are usually |
| solve a stacker, a child must develop and use logic | | | | played with by only one child at a time, and they |
| and fine motor skills. The child benefits from the | | | | generally have a shorter playtime and life span. |
| repetition of playing with the pieces of a stacker, | | | | Children quickly master and get bored of them, or |
| manipulating them with his or her fingers over and | | | | their high-tech components break, rendering the toy |
| over and thinking about how they fit together until | | | | useless, and then they are discarded, releasing toxic |
| the solution is mastered and then repeated for | | | | chemicals and metals into the environment. |
| pleasure. | | | | What Parents Can Do |
| A closed-ended edutainment toy, on the other hand, | | | | As technology and the Internet permeate society |
| may only require a child to press a few buttons. | | | | and people's lives more and more, it does make |
| Eventually, it leads to a dead end and the child grows | | | | sense to introduce children to computers and other |
| bored and tosses the toy aside. As Martha B. | | | | inventions that they will need to use as they grow |
| Bronson notes in The Right Stuff for Children Birth to | | | | older. A toy is not necessarily bad or useless because |
| Eight, although a child can have a rich play experience | | | | it incorporates technology. That said, smart parents |
| with any toy, basic, open-ended toys encourage this | | | | should examine the stated purpose of an |
| type of experience more than rigidly programmed | | | | edutainment toy, evaluate how and what it teaches, |
| toys with only one or two functions do. This sort of | | | | and determine if their children could receive equal or |
| edutainment toy is not timeless. It is meant to be | | | | greater value from a simpler, classic toy. Roberts |
| replaced sooner rather than later by the next big | | | | warns against the dangers of a parent using high-tech |
| product in edutainment that uses the latest in | | | | toys as babysitters, substituting interaction with a |
| technological innovations. | | | | machine such as a single-player computer game for |
| Often people assume that toys that use new | | | | what should be "the best learning for young |
| technology are more innovative and educational than | | | | children-real-life experience when they model, create, |
| non-technological educational toys. In fact, childhood | | | | explore, and develop their own initiatives through |
| specialists such as Jane Roberts (president of Young | | | | play. |