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Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t speaking to adults or other 3-6 year olds be a better way to develop language skills than sitting in front of a computer?
PBS Gears Site to Preschool Children
PBS has launched a site that’s currently in beta, called PBS Kids Play. It’s geared for children ages 3 to 6. There are educational games and activities to teach math, science, literacy and language development.
The site won’t have ads (although there will be messages from sponsors) but will have subscription-based portion.
It looks like PBS has left the door open for someone to develop a website for the sub-3 crowd.
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We went with the multi-channel approach at my house. A computer should be in a public enough place that if the child wants to play computer games, they can ask questions and interact while gaming. I wrote my daughter a game that allowed her to push letters and see the letter, hear the letter, see a picture that starts with the letter, and hear the word – using our recorded voices. She loved it – was playing it quite a bit while she was two. If she watches t.v. we always turned subtitles on. She still asks for them whenever she’s watching a movie. Yesterday, while home for MLK, she watched a show on Netflix. She’s a fan of the iPod.
None of those things interferes with interacting with other children and adults – we push that all the time as well. School, gymnastics, friends. And none of it has interferred with her language skills – she reads and talks like an eight year old, not a four year old (I did the volunteer reading program at Garlough for years, so I know).
Websites aren’t a problem, and I believe they’re helpful, particularly if it’s -16F. But they’re only helpful if the parents are engaged, monitor use, and content, and hang out and interact with the child while they’re playing on the machine – pretty much like every activity a kid engages in.