Babies are to computers what flies are to honey. Babies love to push buttons and watch things move on the screen so they're naturally drawn to your computer. It's cute until they accidentally start deleting things on your desktop or adjusting your settings. Not surprisingly a few parents have come to the rescue with free programs, Baby Smash for PC's and AlphaBaby for Macs, that let your kids bang away on your keyboard without unwittingly firing off an email to your boss.
AlphaBaby (for Mac) was first on the scene: "Every time a key is pressed or the mouse is clicked, a letter or shape is drawn. Sounds can be played every time something is drawn. Your own sounds and pictures can also be used. AlphaBaby helps kids to learn letters, plus provides a safe environment for kids to have fun "typing" on the keyboard!"
Not wanting parents with PCs to be left out of the fun, father to a 2-year-old and a 5-month-old created Baby Smash: "As babies smash on the keyboard, colored shapes, letters and numbers appear on the screen." You can watch videos of babies and toddler playing with Baby Smash here.
The good news is both AlphaBaby and Baby Smash are free downloads. For parents on the go, AlphaBaby is available as an iPhone/iPod Touch app for .99 cents.
(Image by Flickr member @cdharrison licensed under Creative Commons)
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this is awesome. THANK YOU!!
Thanks - this is a wonderful idea- the problem then will be getting her off of my computer so I can do some actual work ;)
BabyGo! by Zeebe Mobile is a similar thing for Blackberries. Both of my kids love it. It locks the phone so all they can do is make letters/numbers and shapes.
http://www.zeebu.com/
My son loves to smash keys while we skype with the grandparents and regularly hangs up on them. So I'm actually looking for the opposite of these apps. Instead of making key-smashing attractive by playing sounds and letters, I am looking for an application that can "freeze" it all, like a key lock on a cell phone screen. Does anyone know of such an app? Or a keyboard cover for a mac laptop? All of the ones I found in the market allow for typing through the cover, which beats the purpose.
Just downloaded that app for my iphone. Pretty excited to use it once my 2 month old gets a liiiitle more coordinated.
Also, for when kids play / play games with your phone you can just put it in airplane mode. That way they can't make accidental calls.
Scott
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What happened to saying no, and keeping the computer out of reach of the child?
I agree with hnhkt. I wouldn't want to turn my laptop into a toy to be smashed by my toddler.
Hahaha, my kid doesn't push buttons! He rips the keys off my laptop! Where's the app for that? (Esp. now that he can open it up on his own.)
There's a super cute app called "Baby Buttons" that our baby loves -- keeps her interested and occupied for extended periods. It's available for the iPhone for .99 cents http://pigmik.com/babybuttons
I think there can be a happy medium between disciplining your toddler to know when it's a "no-no" and when it's ok to play with something. My daughter is almost 20 months old and she knows that when Mommy is on the computer it's off limits, but we have Baby Smash and love it! When I'm folding laundry or something I put it on and she picks out individual letters on the keyboard to push and loves to see the "happy" shapes. It's helping her recognize her alphabet too.
If your kid isn't used to being told "no" anywhere else, chances are hearing it with a computer isn't any different....
Haha I love persimmons too, yum!
@hnhkt We have several older laptops around that are too slow for our own needs so one is designated for our son. I think this is pretty common. We do not allow him to bang on our "good" laptops and he doesn't.
Carrie
@benayse A reader at Unplggd recommends Toddler Keys (for Windows): http://tk.ms11.net/
The instructions on AlphaBaby recommend using a peripheral keyboard so your kid doesn't smash your delicate laptop keyboard. Sure, we may wish that our kids weren't so interested in laptops, but this technology is here to stay, so you might as well figure out how to limit it and let your kids adapt.
People were skeptical that television could truly be educational, then Sesame Street (the early days) showed that young children indeed could learn from TV.
If computers are not toys, then I assume you do not have any games on your cell phone, if you even have a cell phone. Good or bad, life in the 21st century for most Americans includes this technology and I agree that we can channel it positively.
The world we live in pretty much evolves around computers at this point. Computer skills is just one of those things kids need to learn now. My son is starting school in the fall and "mouse skills" is one of the things its recommended to work on at home before school starts. He's 3 and a half. So, not that it's a priority to let the kids on the computer, but it's not a bad thing. Discipline doesn't mean "don't touch my stuff, ever." Just "respect other people and their property." There can be a happy medium between "this is your game and you can touch these buttons" and "I'm working on the computer right now, this is important, you can't play with it right now." Just like everything else, I allow my 3 year old to do the same things I do but with limitations that suit his maturity level. How can I expect him to not be curious when I'm just typing away all the time? My son knows he;s only allowed to go on his games, and he's completely uninterested in any of my stuff anyway, but for a one year old that loves smashing keyboards, this app would be a godsend.
lol I think kids should break stuff anyway. What good is being a kid if you can't get into any trouble?
Computers are -totally- toys. What am I doing on ohdeeoh, working? learning a language? um, no. I'm playing.
As a member of a linux household, I'd like to plug kneebouncers.com for babies, and pbskids.org for toddlers. They actually are educational too, at least in part.
Agreed hnhkt and Trish1980.
With some computers costing close to $3K having kids just "break stuff anyway" is not really an option for me. I usually put all of my electronics stuff away from the reach of my 4 year old daughter. But even when it is within her reach, she knows not to touch it. When I allow my daughter to use my computer to play her educational games, I am always nearby to supervise.
I like how one person w/out any children is the expert...people like that have no business telling people how to raise their kids.
My two year old finds the word no hilarious and will randomly play with our desktop computer (i can't really put that up). Especially if I'm changing another kiddos diaper. Gosh and if I leave my purse down by accident I might loose my cell phone. I guess I'm a horrible parent....
Is it okay that the only thing interesting about this article/comments was the ADORABLE picture being used at the header? I think that little baby face is hilarious!
And no experience at all....