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1.  

   

   Jeremiah, Dec 15th, 2005 @ 10:05am

   
   

   it's the marketing

   I spent a brief (measured in weeks) period of time in a marketing consultancy whos chief client was a manufacturer of "edutainment" products. One of the things that struck me was the approach to marketing these items: they're marketed to parents under the guise of marketing to kids. "The goal," says the advertising guru (and i'm paraphrasing) "is to make the parent feel they're a better parent - a SMARTER parent- for buying this product."
   
   One of their ideas (I don't know if it ever launched) was a series of print ads showing parents being showered with "my child is student of the month" type awards. Again, the reward focus was on the purchaser, and not the presumed recipient (a child.)

    

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2.  

   

   Mousky, Dec 15th, 2005 @ 10:23am

   
   

   Toys are toys

   What else is there to say? All toys, whether marketed as educational or not, have some educational or physiological value. Does my seven-year old learn from playing with his leap pad? Maybe, but sometimes it keeps him busy - and out of our hair - for an hour or two. That's fine by me.

    

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3.  

   

   Don, Dec 15th, 2005 @ 10:31am

   
   

   Educational Toys

   I agree with researches that educational toys don't work. My feeling is educational toys suppress kids imagination.

    

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4.  

   

   JOe Snuffy, Dec 15th, 2005 @ 11:09am

   
   

   What would you want?

   I know when I was a kid, I never played with educational toys. They were all too boring. Unless you count MadLibs. Now is I could only remember what a pronoun is.....

    

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5.  

   

   David J Cadenhead, MD, Dec 15th, 2005 @ 12:02pm

   
   

   Re: it's the marketing

   More often than not, you have hit on THE marketing ploy that some unscrupulous Health-care Providers, and Edutainment Toy-makers utilize, that renders todays children the unwitting sufferrers of the low self esteem and "willing to do anything" to make the parents look Good, or project a healthy , advocate of the perfect childhood environment, within the walls of their respective homes. Not only is it disreputable, and a for of "abuse" by proxy, but the parents are convinced that Junior is actually benefiting as a result of the parents' search for praise amd external image management. Makes me ill, to tell you the truth. I have lost children as patients, (hopefully to their ultimate benefit), when I have confronted their parents with the truth.

    

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6.  

   

   dorpus, Dec 15th, 2005 @ 12:05pm

   
   

   I learned how to spell

   I swear that "Talk&Type" taught me how to spell l-i-c-o-r-i-c-e.
   
   

    

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7.  

   

   Anonymous Coward, Dec 15th, 2005 @ 1:35pm

   
   

   Re: I learned how to spell

   Teddy Ruxpin was never as cool as the Speak&Spell :P

    

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8.  

   

   Daniel, Jun 21st, 2008 @ 12:47am

   
   

   Good post!!

   I think, Educational toys are good for kids...

    

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