kids & computers: teaching basic skills

Your preschooler will go through many developmental stages between 6 and 36 months, but from a motor-skills perspective one thing remains the same--using the mouse will be a challenge at this age. However, we know that every time you sit down at the computer your toddler will crawl into your lap and want to do what you are doing.

You can enjoy this time together and get your toddler comfortable with the computer through a number of keyboard-based games:

• Initially you can have your toddler hit they keyboard at random to trigger something funny to happen on screen.
• Later you might want to encourage your toddler to find and pick out specific letters on the keyboard.
• Make a game out of it! Ask your child to find the first letter of his or her name, then your name, then the dog's name, etc.
• You can also hold up two fingers and say, "How many fingers am I holding up?" or "How many pens are on my desk? Find the number on the keyboard."

At this stage, your preschooler may become interested in playing games on the computer. We have often seen in our research at Nickelodeon that preschoolers with older siblings become interested in the computer at a younger age than preschoolers without an older sibling. (And if your first child is not yet interested in the computer, don't worry!)

However, the mouse can prove to be a difficult for a preschooler to use--their hands are just too small. In addition, moving the mouse with one hand and looking at the screen while doing it is known as collocating--your hand is doing one thing, your eyes are doing another, and your brain processes both. This is a complex task, and your preschooler's brain is not yet capable of this. He or she probably needs to look at the mouse while moving it and then look at the screen to see what happened.

Another problem your preschooler might have is holding down the mouse button (remember those small hands!) or pressing the left mouse button instead of the right-click button, which opens the right-click menu. Any of the above can lead to frustration and calls of "Moooommmm!"

Here are a few tips for helping your preschooler learn to use the mouse:

• Instead of placing just the index finger on the mouse button, place all of your child's fingers on the mouse button.
• Help your child learn to move the mouse and click a target. Place your finger on the screen and ask your child to move the mouse to your finger and "get you!" Make it as fun and silly as you want. Glue googly eyes to your finger, wrap a pipe cleaner around your finger to make some antenna, and you've got a little computer bug your preschooler needs to click on. (OK, your preschooler might not understand the computer bug joke, but you do, and your preschooler will love playing tag with you!)
• After your child has moving and clicking down pat, you can help them learn to click and drag. Open a new folder and expand it so that it is filling most of the screen and covering all of the important files on your desktop so that your child isn't moving those. Make new folders within this one. You can name them with the letters of the alphabet (A folder, B folder, etc), you can make them different colors or you can place different pictures and icons in the folder. Make one more folder with your child's name on it. Then ask your child to click on each of the folders you made and drag them into their folder. It's not as silly as the computer bug, but you child will be thrilled with their skills and sense of accomplishment.

You can also have them play on NickJr.com to develop these skills. There are many excellent games that feature letters, numbers, colors, shapes and music with all of your favorite Nick Jr. friends that your preschooler will love to play.

A few Nick Jr. games to get you started are:

The Wonder Pets Join the Circus

Backyardigans Robin Hood the Clean

Dora & the Lost Valentine