Ask Slashdot: Android Apps For Kids Under 12 Months? 311
An anonymous reader writes "My kid seems incredibly interested in my Android tablet, but I'm not too comfortable with letting her play with my browser. I've been hunting the app store for apps that I could let my kid play around with, but haven't found much. It seems like most apps are targeted for slightly older kids and are trying to teach them words, math or whatnot. Has anyone found any cool apps for approximately 6-month-old children? I'm mostly looking for something that makes funny noises or where you just have to e.g. track moving objects on the screen."
you're crazy to do that to an infant! (Score:4, Interesting)
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They need physical toys like rattles and pacifiers and blocks that they can touch and move around and make noise with and learn the "intuitive" laws of physics from them. Give them a few years before you throw Emacs at them. The only Gnu they need to interact with at that tender age is a stuffed Gnu plush toy. And I say this as a fervent believer in children playing with computers: do NOT make infants and toddlers play with computers and tablets.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics itself recommends limiting access to screen time for children under the age of 2 years [nytimes.com].
Re:6 months? (Score:2, Interesting)
I love naive reponses from people with no kids. There are 2 reasons for using electronic devices like a tablet with a baby:
1. When I watch my wife entertaining/stimulating/educating/feeding/exercising and walking with our baby for 12 hours a day, I cannot but feel sorry for her. Being able to put the baby in front of a screen for half an hour a day gives her a way to avoid going insane.
2. A tablet/TV/computer screen/phone is not a way to avoid responsible parenting. It's simply yet another stimulant in the endless search for things to do with a baby that gets fed up with an activity after 15 minutes. (That's 30-40 different activities a day, every day (some activities like eating, singing, etc. can be repeated)
So my baby's recommendation is "my baby piano" on android.
Re:6 months? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why would you choose to give them a mind-numbing electronic gadget instead of a mind-engaging electronic gadget? Do you give your children mind-numbing wooden toys? How about reading them mind-numbing books? Golly I don't give my children mind-numbing anything. Any electronic gadget used in my household engages the mind, like everything else in my house.
Re:Give the best app (Score:2, Interesting)
Also note that the comment was from user "Computer_kid". Perhaps he's a self-hating nerd.
Re:6 months? (Score:5, Interesting)
How about taking care of your kid by *yourself* some in order to give Your Wife a break? The tv/smartphone is your first consideration?!
It was once socially acceptable to dope up children with opiates. Anyone with any common sense should have been able to see this was not healthy.
History repeats.
"Youngsters were introduced to the pleasures of opiates at their mothers' breast. Harassed baby-minders - and overworked parents - found opium-based preparations were a dependable way to keep their kids happy and docile; this was an era before Ritalin. Sales of Godfrey's Cordial, a soothing syrup of opium tincture effective against colic, were prodigious. But Godfrey's Cordial had its competitors: Street's Infants' Quietness, Atkinson's Infants' Preservative, and Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup.
Opium was viewed as a medicine, not a drug of abuse. Contemporary medical theory didn't allow that one could become addicted to a cure. However, the chemists and physicians most actively investigating the properties of opium were also its dedicated consumers; and this may conceivably have coloured their judgement."