Just a comment… We are gung-ho for the LeapFrog products that are at the toy stores now.
My favorites…
LeapPad Pro and the Vocabulator
We got the LeapPad Pro for my 10 year old who has many learning differences. It is a more grown-up looking version of the LeapPad that I got my 5 year old last Christmas. He actually read six 70 page challenging chapter books in the week after Christmas using this toy. I was floored! The LeapPad reads aloud for the child as they use a pen to “scan” the words. It requires the child to move their pen slow enough so that they are actually reading along.
The Vocabulator teaches vocabulary, prefixes, suffixes, and other stuff. The kids twist and hit and bounce the toy around as they play with it. My son loves it. He doesn’t realize it is a learning toy because it is fun. You can also connect on the intenet using the LeapFrog Mindstation and download vocabulary words from their dictionary on-line. I haven’t tried that yet, but I am excited about it.
The IQuest is for older kids (6th grade and up) and you can download content from the most popular textbooks in Social Studies and Science. I wrote them a letter asking that they consider putting textbooks for 4th & 5th too. They wrote me back and said they are going to expand in to the high school and college content first.
I just think these “toys” have a lot of potential to help kids with learning differences. I bought mine on-line at www.funtastic.com I think there prices were a bit lower.
Hi. I bought IQuest for my 10 year old and he loves it. Especially since he is downloading material in grades higher than he is in(he is in 5th). He enjoys the challenge and being able to recieve perfect scores. He also likes to pick what topics he will download. Very motivating for him. It also has an address book and scheduler. He is using the address book to collect phone numbers. Haven’t tried the scheduler yet. For the first time in 10 years he is calling kids to see if they want to play. Yeah! Would highly recommend these products.
jean