In a world of ultraviolent video games, where dexterity of the thumb and index finger is infinitely more important than the flexing of the cerebrum, there must be a place for children and their parents to interact and actually learn something from that overpriced multimedia computer/gaming system. Take a deep breath and enter the ROMper Room, where learning is a four-letter word — cool.
Fisher-Price has come up with an excellent product to let children’s fingers do the talking in a challenge to Leap Frog Enterprise’s stranglehold on the interactive, children’s book market.
The PowerTouch Learning System consists of a rectangular, purple and yellow module, reminiscent of a slimmer version of a George Foreman grill, to house a spiral bound book that becomes a multimedia paradise of knowledge and fun.
Unlike its Leap Pad competition, which requires an attached stylus pen to interact with pages, the PowerTouch relies on a child lightly touching or passing a digit over an illustration or word to get the likes of an audio response, sound effect or piece of music.
To start an adventure, the 3- to 8-year-old crowd simply needs to open the unit, touch the bright yellow on/off switch and begin immediately working with the alphabet before even placing a book in the cradle.
Both upper- and lower-case letters are embedded into the unit and the icons Alphabet, Words, Letters, Surprise and Music, which, when touched, light up a red light above them and lead to narrated exercises such as the “touch the letter that comes next” game, pronunciations of the entire 26 letters and listening to a word associated with each letter.
These icons also play a key role, along with ones labeled Phonics, Find, Story and Count when using the two books included in the PowerTouch System — either the 7-page “School Skills” or 16-page “Sesame Street: Ernie’s Neighborhood.” The books have a variety of the symbols at the tops of the pages to engage in multiple challenges and skill-honing combined with the hot spots found on the illustrated pages.
In the case of the colorful “Sesame Street” title, that translates into dozens of activities for beginning readers that range from matching shapes of cookies to identifying occupations to having Ernie belt out a tune to hearing a story set within the famous street.
The book incorporates the voices of the such characters as Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and Grover and at least 30 words and items per page to touch while providing a magical and familiar mix of multimedia for the younger reader.
Of course, Fisher-Price also has additional, 26-page books (purchased separately for $14.99) featuring stories about licensed characters such as Clifford the Big Red Dog, the Rescue Heroes, Franklin the Turtle, Dora the Explorer and Arthur to keep its product infinitely reusable.
A cartridge comes along with each book that must be inserted into the slot at the top of the PowerTouch system to activate it. The cartridges can be conveniently attached to the title when the child has finished for the day.
About the only element that might annoy parents using the product to teach the toddler crowd is the sensitivity of the pages. If Junior starts harmlessly poking around during an exercise, the book reacts to where he touches and the educator will have to start over.
On the flip side, this harmless exploration is one of the key points to empowering a child and, with the PowerTouch’s ability to automatically detect what page is opened, will allow him to confidently interact with the system.
Overall, the PowerTouch really shines, but whether parents invest in it or the competition, their offspring will have plenty of reasons to learn.
PowerTouch Learning System, Fisher-Price, $49.99. Stand-alone unit requires 3 AA batteries.
ROMper Room is a column devoted to finding the best of multimedia “edutainment.” Calls, letters or faxes about a particular column or suggestions for future columns are always welcome. Write to Joseph Szadkowski, The Washington Times, 3600 New York Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20002; call 202/636-3016; or send e-mail (jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com).
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