I bought an iPad in April of 2011, when our son Liam was 15 months old. I underestimated him and thought he wouldn’t understand all the various buttons on the apps. He sure proved me wrong! He quickly learned to tap and swipe to get the iPad to do what he wants. A few months ago he discovered the “home†button and boy did that change the way he played with it! Now he switches from app to app whenever he wants. He knows which screen has “his†games, and he has learned how to use a gently, steady touch to open each app.
I have watched his fine motor skills improve as he works with the iPad. I know it has helped his vocabulary development. He says and signs “iPad†(we sign the letter ‘I’ followed by the letter ‘p’) whenever he wants to play on it. Just this past week he was playing on a spelling game, one where you match the letters to their place in the word. As he was moving the letters, he was saying what they were! I love that while he’s sitting with me, waiting for his sister’s swim practice to end, he is learning! And, I love it when kids swarm around Liam to see what game he is playing. And then, usually, he lets them have a turn.
Awesome!