LeapFrog LeapPad Learning System

I am an early childhood educator and I have unfortunately known many impressionable LeapPad buyers who rely far too heavily upon the use of electronic teaching devices/gimmicks as a substitute for real education. Teaching young children math concepts the “proper” way results in successful students and takes years of hard work by knowledgeable and dedicated parents and educators, not by “curmudgeons”. To believe that young children are really learning important concepts and skills which they can build upon by using a magic pen that generates facts and instant answers is a typical assumption of uneducated, unenlightened and uninvolved parents. Sadly, many of those young children ultimately become part of the 42 percent of K-8 students who rank below national academic learning standards. If unsuspecting parents are convinced that LeapPad is an appropriate learning tool for their children, as LeapFrog would have them believe, then I suggest they try finding a school who carries or encourages the use of LeapPad. Incidentally, I would question the judgement of a LeapPad evaluation that involves an incredibly tiresome 9 hour LeapPad auto misadventure. After about 2 hours in a car, kids will play with just about anything.

Everything we know about young children tells us that in order for them to develop a genuine interest and better understanding of basic mathematics concepts, parents and early childhood educators must provide a variety of fun and stimulating sensory experiences that will hopefully encourage children to seek meaningful answers to their questions. Unfortunately, LeapPad is LeapFrog’s answer to a question that nobody asked. Comprehension of fundamental math concepts such as one-to-one correspondence, classification, sequencing, patterns, measurement, sorting and comparison cannot be effectively achieved from limited interactions with a flat, one-dimensional image and a magic pen that provides instant answers. Real math learning occurs gradually and is best experienced through a child’s daily activities, events and interactions with people, active exploration of their environment and physical manipulation of developmentally appropriate three-dimensional open-ended play materials. For teaching math to preschoolers, LeapPad provides little educational value and should be neither a substitute nor a supplement to real math education. Our children deserve better from parents, educators and toy makers.