My 15 month old son absolutely adores Reader Rabbit Toddler, but still has difficulty remembering to slide the mouse around as opposed to slamming it down on the desk. When I found this software, created specifically for babies, I was thrilled to see that keystrokes would create responses on screen and that my son wasn't expected to use the mouse at all. I just had to have it! After all, it was a Disney product so it had to be good, right? Hmmm...The opening scene was really great - my son was instantly captivated, but from there on out it was astonishingly bad. The premise is that very young children learn "cause and effect" by pushing the keys to create some kind of feedback on screen. What happens instead is that there is a pause -of up to 4 seconds, somtimes - before anything happens, and often it seems as though on screen movement occurs independently of the keystrokes. There is only the most intermitent feedback. My son lost interest within minutes and, after trying it a few more times, would begin to squirm and fuss whenever I pulled Winnie the Pooh Baby up on the screen. (Nothing against Pooh, either. He loves the whole cast of characters and especially adores Tigger.) What a shame that Disney scrimped on test-marketing and focus groups with this one. It makes me very leary of purchasing any other Disney software. I complained enough to the computer store where I purchased this, that they ended up letting me trade it in. I got another title by The Learning Company (Reader Rabbit), whose interactive software I highly recommend. Don't waste your money or your time on this one.
Sharon Wilder