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Kids Items Age Level. Not Specified Items Disney 1 Items 1. LeapFrog Items The games are developed in the US, so I wondered if their approach to teaching — especially language development — would be suitable for British children.
Their spokesperson told me, "We have an educational advisory board who review all of our products. In addition, we employ UK teachers to review the curriculum and the content to ensure it is appropriate. You install the software on PC or Mac, then plug in your console via USB: your child can then access the dedicated online area where they're able to download new demos, play online games and mess around with the simple Art Studio feature.
There's also a Parents area where you can study data on what your children have been playing, for how long, and what they may have learned in the process.
Okay, so you should probably know the bit about how long they've been on the console, but the info on how they've done with letter and number recognition is genuinely interesting. The service also sends out emails so you can effortlessly spy on your little gamers.
There's a lot of barely disguised marketing though. With the Toy Story 3 version of Leapster 2, the package comes complete with access to a downloadable mini-game based on the film. But to get to it, you have to sign in to the complete LeapFrog Connect service — so that'll be all your personal details in their hands, then. Also, in the section where you analyse your child's progress in the games, there's a side panel entitled 'Grow my child's learning path', which is effectively an ad for other Leapster 2 games, couched in rather emotionally manipulative language.
But then, this is effectively the same concept as Amazon's 'stuff you might like' system, and if you don't want corporations trying to use your data to sell you more things, you're probably best staying away from the web altogether. The question these days is, do children really need a dedicated console? With the Nintendo DS offering lots of kids games, and the App Store jammed with educational titles, do you need another chunk of plastic to eat up battery power?
Also, it's been invaluable on long car journeys — and I'm not sure how many parents would be willing to hand their beloved iPhones, iPads or HTC Desire smart phones into the back seat for smeary chubby hands to mess about with.
I'd say though, that while LeapFrog puts the age range at , its useful life will be shorter for a lot of children. My sister's sons had grown out of it by six, and I think my four-year-old — although too young to benefit from a lot of the educational content — is already finding some of the gameplay quite limited.
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