At What Age Introduce Kids To Computers?

At what age would you introduce your child to computers?

Sidheag McCormack...

Hmm, birth?

Sue...

I have a different view with kids and computers than most do since I use my
computer for work. Kids are very hard on computers often messing things up
by pushing random buttons. When my kids were very young, like the age of
your child, we didn't have a computer so that was a mute point for us.
However, I still wouldn't introduce the computer until they had a clear
understanding of how to treat the machine with respect. There are some
games, like Kid Pix that will allow you to turn off the rest of the keyboard
so they are only allowed in that particular game. I would say kindergarten
age for myself. It becomes very frustrating for the smaller children because
they cannot read. Unless you plan to sit right there and help them (which I
didn't have the patience to do) I would wait until he is a little older and
able to navigate the mouse and read some on his own. In this day of
computers, TV, and video games, I personally would hold off as long as
possible, but like I said, this is just my opinion and how I treat our

enigma...

the baby games don't require any reading. the computer
explains what to do. also, all kids are not hard on the
computer. mine has never pounded on the keyboard or treated
any part roughly (except accidentally knocking the trackball

Marie...

My daughters never did that, either. I also taught them not to bang on the
piano. (I really wish other people would teach their children not to do
that, too, because almost every kid who comes to my house has to bang on the
piano! Luckily it has a lock on it)
Marie

Clisby...

Banging on the keyboard is among the least of the potential problems.
Teaching them not to click on the little "OK" button any time a popup
says, "Do you want to install this?" is a lot more important.

Sidheag McCormack...

:-) Moral: run Linux on any computer your kids have access to, have them
play in their own accounts, and definitely do not give them the root
password!

Clisby...

We could switch the computer they use to Linux (or, more likely, FreeBSD
- that's what my husband runs on his machine.) However, then anytime
anybody wanted to use a Windows application they'd have to use my
computer, which is exactly what I want to avoid.

Clisby

And if you do let them play "as" you, remember to turn off Amazon one-click
ordering...

Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003

dragonlady...

And becomes even MORE important as they get older!

I suspect I'd take my computer off line if I had a toddler playing on it.

Marie...

Haha, yes that was one of the first lessons when the kids played something
unattended! They learned by 8 and 9 yo what could be okayed and what not. I
have never had any problems with the kids being on the computer, and they've
played it since about age 2.
Marie

user...

Not really a problem.

Just use Firefox as your browser, disable pop-ups, install the
AdBlock and FlashBlock plugin, and you won't have to worry about
it. Well, nearly as much. ;-)

- Rich

off the desk once, & the cats do that far more often...). he
was switching CDS before he was 3.

Sue...

Banging on the keyboard is not what I am talking about. I mean pushing wrong
buttons and installing stuff that that ruins the computer, etc. Deleting
files that are needed. Changing my desk top to unrecognizable stuff. FWIW,
my kids are not rough as in break the computer, but by rough I mean that
they are rough on the insides of the computer.

Welches...

The worst I've had was deleting an email. But it was then in the recycle box
so no harm done. #1's been playing independently on the computer since age
2.
Debbie

Clisby...

The worst we've had was having to re-install Windows after Joseph did
heaven knows what. We never did figure out what he did, but it
completely screwed up the computer he and his sister use.

he has his own user setup on this computer until i upgrade
his computer to play some of the newer games (Land Before Time
just won't run on his computer) & he knows how to switch users
to that to play. he can't switch back to mine because i have
admin privileges & he doesn't know the password.
lee

computers.

I've a son who will be 2yrs this July and he's started noticing the
keyboard and "daddy" typing on it and wants to have a go. I let him
bash away on a broken laptop or a spare keyboard I have lying around.
But I was wondering from what age should I properly introduce him to
computers and what games/software etc would you recommend?

Chookie...

A keyboard banger for littlies -- doesn't matter what key they press, they
can't break anything. When the know their letters, open a WP for them to
type away at. There are plenty of sites with games for kids too, and little
cartoons, though introducing DS1 to JibJab was not the smartest thing DH ever
did.

Now DS1 knows how to use bookmarks (age 4), DH has had to password his
computer, some years earlier than expected! Otherwise he's impossible to
prise off! My copmputer doesn't have the same bookmarks, so mine's Ok...

Anyone tackled this already, love to hear your experiences.

Sidheag McCormack...

My son's almost 2y4m. Things he enjoys now and has done for a few months
include typing into a word-processing application (including typing key
bits of thank you letters, from my letter-by-letter dictation, recently -
he loves - started on the ABC page and has gone on to the books and phonics
games more recently); the "official" websites of his favourite commercial
story characters (web-search for your son's, they basically each have a website
with games etc.); various counting games (again, searching the web finds lots).
Don't have his bookmark list to hand, so sorry no more precise links. And
of course general computer-stuff: logging in with his own username and
password (big achievement the first time he did that unaided!), starting up
the browser, choosing entries from his bookmark menu, shutting windows down
by clicking on the X, etc.

For quite a while he couldn't use the trackpad on the laptop (which is what
he usually uses, since it's the computer I'm usually trying to work on :-)
and used to point to the place on the screen where he wanted to move to and
I'd have to move the pointer for him. Quite suddenly he "got it", and can
now use trackpad and (ordinary adult) mouse fluently. Still has trouble
with click-dragging on the laptop, which requires a thumb holding the
button down and a finger on the trackpad. The laptop has a very light and
rather delicate-feeling keyboard, but I've been impressed at how fast he's
learned to treat it gently.

Had an interesting conversation with a friend recently about whether it's a
bad idea to let him type young; if he can easily get words down by typing
in a few years' time, will he find it too frustrating to have to learn to
write by hand? I ended up feeling that this isn't a good enough reason to
discourage keyboard use, though it may be a good enough reason to remember
to encourage writing play too, especially later on. (Colin is at the stage
of saying he's writing sometimes, which I encourage, but doesn't yet
produce recognisable letters except O.) Worth thinking about though.

Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003

Clisby...

My husband and I are both computer programmers, so our two saw us using
the computers from the time they were born. However, neither seemed
all that interested in using them until they were around 4.

We have 3 computers, and both kids can use one of them. I'm with Sue
on this; they don't touch *my* computer until I know for sure they can
treat it correctly. My 9.5-year-old uses my computer occasionally;
it's off limits to the 4-year-old.

I'll second the suggestion of starfall.com - my little one loves that
site. He also likes the games you can play on nickjr.com and pbskids.org.

toto...

At 2, there is some nice software. You can start with baby type
to get him used to the keyboard. It's cheap and it will keep him from
messing up the computer when you have it up since it doesn't allow
access to anything but the keyboard. There are 4 different modes
with shapes (solid or patterned), animals, letters and numbers and
the sounds are animal sounds and sounds that the object in the picture
makes or the names of letters, etc. My dgd and dgs loved this when
they were toddlers. My dgd has moved on to other things and is not
especially enthralled by any computer stuff right now (at 3.5), dgs is
almost 2 and autistic. He is fascinated by the computer and we are
using it with a touch screen to promote his language learning, but the
programs I am using are special education programs with a touch
screen for him.

user...

I ( mostly ) telecommute, so both of my kids see me on the
PC a large part of the day. Naturally, they want to do what
Daddy does. ;-) We set up an old PC for them, and they starting
using MS Paint, etc, at around 2. By 2-1/2, both DS and DD knew
how to properly start up and shut down Windows - we set it up
so that upon startup, it ran Paint and Notepad. At 5, DS can
now send Instant Messages to me and his grandparents, and DD
is starting to type, as well.

Of course we configured the machine so that the only
available programs were the ones they're allowed to use, and
their Instant Messaging is locked down so they can only send
and receive from an approved list.

Personally, I've never run across any kid's computer
games that particularly impressed me. I much prefer them to
engage in physical games. That being said, we do permit them
time is also limited to no more than 1/2 hour a day.

So, IMHO, just let them try, and see what happens.

- Rich

enigma...

mine was at the keyboard from day 3... because he was a lap
baby & that's where i am.
he started baby games at 7 or 8 months, but there's a lot
more available to the 2 & older kids. at 2 we had Toddler
Adventures, Reader Rabbit Toddler, Jump Start Toddler & a
really awful old Sesame Street game. Jump Start Baby is
probably better for a just starting on the computer 2 year old
than the Toddler one (Boo still likes it at age 5).
since Boo is 5, i can only guess that these might still be
available... i believe that Disney has some toddler games, but
we don't buy anything Disney.
2 year olds also like drawing programs & typing in WordPad,
so he can play with those before you have to buy anything.
lee

toypup...

Both of my kids have been banging (not in the violent way other poster
noted) on the keyboards since they were quite young. There are some
programs that make noise and pop images onto the screen whenever they press
a button. They lock up the computer so that the kids can't get into your
programs and internet. I didn't download those games because I wanted to
teach them computer, I did it because they were interested in pressing
buttons on my keyboard and I thought they'd like playing on it.

DS started playing on the internet at 3yo. He's 4yo now and very good at
it. I have the Kidsplorer browser for him so he can't view any sites other
than the ones I approve and he doesn't get pop-ups nor email, and he can't
exit the browser nor start any programs from that browser. Mostly, he stays
in the Disney, Noggin, Sesame Street websites. It's quite educational.

toto...

He might like this site:

Welches...

#1 started typing on the computer in "Word" at round her 2nd birthday. A
month later she knew all her letters upper and lower case.
Generally games at this stage are a bit random. Disney's Winnie the Pooh
toddler is okay-a bit of mouse control. But although it says from 18 months,

Sidheag McCormack...

Thanks! I've downloaded, but not yet played with it. Please thank your
husband for making it open source, especially. I've been meaning to get
round to writing some games, and this may get me started.

Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003

I think it's a bit hard. #2 enjoys it, although she finds it a bit
frustrating-she's 2.
I don't think when they see you on the computer you need to "poperly"
introduce them. Let them play. Pinball (which came with our computer) is
something they can "play" for a bit of fun from quite an early age.
Otherwise just typing has a lot of fun for them. Put the font into something
simple, make it large (at least 24 point) and put it into a fun colour-I use
red. You can get them to typ words by saying "m" point to the key "u" point
to the key "m" etc. and then say "it says "mum" and point to the screen.
Or just let them type randomly.
Debbie