I am really excited to see what comes out of all of the iPhone Tablet rumors.
My son is three years old now, and knows how to use my iPhone. When using the computer, he instinctively started to think of it like the iPhone and would start to touch (and smudge!) the screen.
In the real world we touch things. We grab them. We manipulate them. We don’t often have an abstract notion of moving X to get Y.
Well, there is one that Sam knows well:
These machines are pure evil when you have a young’un as they say “Daddy! Daddy! I want the pink one there!” and you have no chance in hell of ever getting it :)
Anyway, so Sam knows how to use multitouch, and is at an age where we are thinking about setting him up with his own computer. I don’t want to go through the pain to teach him a mouse and keyboard quite yet though, so what if there was a computer he could hold and could use his normal skills to access? The iPhone tablet could be that device!
As a side effect, it would also be the PERFECT home automation device, as well as an eBook reader, and a casual browser, and email checker, and the list goes on and on and on. The computer is changing in front of our eyes isn’t it.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Totally agreed! My 2 year old is always using our iphones. She picked up our camera the other day and started moving her fingers over the viewing screen expecting to zoom/scroll. When it didn’t she said, “Daddy, camera is broken!”
April 28th, 2009 at 10:02 am
I’m with you. My 4 year-old is proficient at texting on my iPhone, and when I wasn’t looking he bought two games off the AppStore. I’ve gotten so addicted to the touchscreen myself that I’m constantly poking the screen on my husband’s Blackberry. There’s the icon I need — why isn’t it responding?
April 28th, 2009 at 10:07 am
While I don’t have an iPhone, my 2-year-old daughter loves to play her Dora game on the DS. It’s amazing how they can figure things like that out at such a young age.
She has also figured out how to use the trackpad on my laptop and understands the concept of clicking.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Sophie — 3 years old. I’ve stopped trying to arrange my icons in any sort of order, because when ever she picks up my phone, the first thing she does before starting a movie or on of her games is to apply her own personal prioritization to things:
1. games and ipod go in the quick launch bar
2. remaining games or pretty icons go on the first page
3. everything else gets deleted (!) or moved to a subsequent page
she also tries to touch the screen of my laptop….
April 28th, 2009 at 11:38 am
And here I sit, lining up with those kids, loving the touch capabilities of my N810 enough to consider buying a touch screen for my desktop.
I’m grown up enough to not like the iPhone due to not being open technology (though its design etc. are quite compelling) but even the single-touch high-resolution no-so-designer-style N810 screen convinces me enough to want more touch-enabled devices around… And no, I’m not such a small kid any more – unfortunately…
April 29th, 2009 at 1:04 am
A 3 year old can use a mouse and a computer. Mine started when he was 2. Our iMac made it easy because he had his own login which changed screen resolution (try that on Win), made the mouse huge, limited the Dock. Then I set Safari to open by default with a BBC online game as the default page. I placed a folder onto the dock containing ripped Bob the Builder ripped programmes.
He surprised me by how rapid he learnt mouse control and can sit for 20 minutes using the BBC online drawing game.
So I don’t think a mouse or a conventional computer is a barrier to entry for infants (and yes he often says he wants to play TapTap on my phone)
April 29th, 2009 at 9:02 am
It’s almost sad how easy it is for 2 and 3 year olds to use ordinary computer mice, in the sense that it’s sad how easily they get addicted. My kids use the computer, and I’m somewhat sad how much they like it (especially games). But I’m glad they go outside, too.
But I also still think having richer sensors on computers (touch screens, accelerometers, …) is cool, too.
April 29th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
As a side effect, it would also be the PERFECT home automation device, as well as an eBook reader, and a casual browser, and email checker, and the list goes on and on and on. The computer is changing in front of our eyes isn’t it.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
My 3 yo can use a mouse (or laptop touchpad) fine, and can type his name on a keyboard. Touchscreens are nice, but I feel pain every time dirty fingers get near on ef my screen.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I’m going to go counter to all the comments here — I think you are making a mistake. You are robbing your children of their creativity. Would you rather that your child learned to read sitting on your lap as you read bedtime stories, or while they played Grover’s ABC applet? Is this the memory you want to give to them and leave for yourself?
People who put on fireworks shows know to build to a crescendo. You don’t fire off the most dramatic stuff first. For kids, especially two and three years old, everything is new and novel. Giving them the eye candy and flashy short attention span programs leads them to expect that always.
There are some goofy mystical aspects to Waldorf school education, but despite that harmless woo, the core of it has some things I firmly believe in. When you kid goes there, you must sign a statement promising no TV, no movie theaters, not even CDs, and no computers until your child is in sixth grade. Seems impossible, and many families bend the rules to varying degrees, but it works. Our daughter has gone there since she was five and is almost ten now and we couldn’t be happier.
Shoot your TV. Give your kids paper, scissor, crayons, play-dough, yarn, glue, sparkles. Let your kids play freely and use their imagination while they can — the world will corrupt them soon enough. There is no need to accelerate the process. And you may find that your life is better too without the idiot box.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:12 am
I know it might seem unbelievable but our baby boy isn’t even born yet and he already has a high score of 32,413 plying Doodle Jump on my iPhone. We balance the iPhone on my wife’s chest and he somehow manages to rock the iPhone back and forth and kicks when he needs to fire, amazing!
January 15th, 2010 at 7:36 am
I had no idea that 2-3 year olds can be such geniuses! Wow, who would’ve thought. Must be me, but when I worked with kids (changed jobs around 2 yrs ago), 3 year olds would check behind the screen when I was on skype with my partner. Because THEY DON’T REALLY GET THOSE GADGETS!
I know deflated ego of every parent may interpret a coincidence as routine, but let’s be honest, even most of us – over 3 year olds – cannot fully use the potential these machines have…
I use my computer for blogs, e-mail, streaming tv (love my tv shows)… which computer cannot do it? Even most of the newer mobiles can.
But I agree about the excitement over the new gizmo, my 30-going-on-5 year old, would definitely love to get his dirty paws on the tablet and play for a bit – men!