If your two-year-old is learning to grab the mobile phone or TV remote and trying to use it, you are not alone. Technology has become an integral part of life, without which the world is difficult to imagine. A tablet for toddlers can actually aid in learning because it gives your child an additional way to experience new things and more fun ways to engage with stuff being taught in pre-school. Skeptical? In a report by CNN, published in April 2014, therapists in the United States are using tablets to help children with Autism, a genetic disorder that makes is extremely difficult for the child to engage with external stimuli. Autism educators say that tablets have been found to be successful with one out of every 68 children with the disorder.
When paired with high quality and well-thought-out content, tablets can help encourage toddlers to think and learn and develop their problem solving skills.
Choosing the Right Learning Tools for Your Child
Tablets for toddlers with rich content open up a whole new world of possibilities for your little one. Here are some questions you need to answer for yourself while choosing the right learning tool for your child:
- How will it help meet my child’s life and educational goals?
- Is the content age-appropriate and offers enough variety for the toddler to try out different skills?
- Can I monitor his/her engagement with the device and its content and check progress? This will allow you to know which apps work best and whether you need more apps for a certain skill.
- Does it address the child’s interests? For instance, if your little one loves to draw and colour, are their apps that address this interest?
The Right Apps Can Make all the Difference
Today you can buy a tablet that is pre-designed for your bundle of joy. These devices come with pre-loaded apps that are age appropriate and child-friendly. However, while choosing a mobile device for someone as young as 2-3 years of age, it is important to check whether there are things that stimulate the imagination, provide means of entertainment, as well as foster learning. While a learning app can be entertaining too, it is important to distinguish between those that are meant for learning and those that are merely for entertainment. Having said that, it is also crucial to mention that there should be times when the toddler has pure fun, unadulterated with the underlying need to learn!
Here are some activities that will nurture different psycho-motor skills in your child through a tablet for toddlers:
- Memory games
- Basic Maths
- Spatial reasoning games
- Learning to tell time
- Learning the alphabet
- Drawing and colouring activities
- Creating music and learning sounds
- Preschool puzzles
- Sing-along nursery rhymes
Did you know that games like Temple Run and Fruit Ninja can actually help develop your child’s motor coordination and control? Such games can also help build concentration and observation powers. Then there are irresistible apps for children, like Talking Tom. No toddler can resist the allure of hearing their words repeated in that squeaky voice!
So, give your children the best exposure you possibly can and get them an affordable and child-friendly tablet for toddlers.
