My Thoughts on the LeapFrog Tag

One of the kids I was coloring with today had a well stocked backpack full of picture books and games. Good for him, I thought, well-prepared for waiting rooms and errands. It turned out his books were specially made by LeapFrog, a company specializing in high-tech learning devices for preschool-elementary school-age kids. They came with a stylus reading instrument called Tag, which reads special LeapFrog books aloud (you can store 5 books on the Tag at a time). It can pause, stop, and re-read individual words.

It sounded pretty cool, and the kid showed me his Tag-compatible book "T. Rex's Mighty Roar." After two pages, he went back to watching TV. I told his mother that I hadn't seen anything like the Tag before. She gushed about how wonderful it was and asked me if I had any kids. No, I said, but it felt touching to be taken for a possible fellow mother.

Certainly there were clear advantages to this Tag thing. Its ability to sound out individual words could help a child struggling with new words, without compromising a busy parent's schedule. On the other hand, the limit on the number of books that can be stored on Tag at a time does not allow much flexibility. Not that the Tag-friendly library is very large; LeapFrog has "over 20" books and games for the Tag according to the website, and each book costs 14 dollars (as opposed to 7 to 12 dollars for a coventional children's book). The Tag system costs 50 dollars. Seems a little overpriced.

Part of my ambivalence about the concept may be based on the truth that education technology in my generation was limited to PBS, simple computer games (like Oregon Trail), and books on tap. As a result the LeapFrog products seem like light years ahead in terms of complexity and their target audience (preschool-grade 2 children). It will be interesting to see where these types of learning tools by the time I have kids (around 5 years from now).