Do V-Tech commercials bug you, too?

I have a DVR and fast forward through all commercials.

Well, I was at a birthday party for a 5-year-old recently. One of her gifts was an iPAD 2. That annoyed me. I was jealous of a 5-year-old.

I haven't seen these as I don't watch much TV thesedays.

Growing up (back when I DID watch TV), I didn't get as many toys as I saw other kids get, but I did have Legos.

#endedupwithanengineeringcareer

Here's a 'novel' idea. Buy them books to teach them to read. I hate those product tie in books, virtual or actual.

V Tech annoys me. I'm not buying any for my kid. I'll buy them an e-reader before I buy one of those toys.

I'm ashamed to say I bought one, many years ago. Of course, it was an absolute flop and had no effect whatsoever in helping my children learn to read.

Thank god we only get half-useless commercials here in europe, even on kids channels. I actually had to look v tech up.

I honestly can and never will understand why technology is required for something this simple. E-Reader, okay if paper's all gone. But what's so horrible about sitting down for half an hour and going through a 10 page picture book? That's how my mom taught me and it worked out great despite dyslexia on my side.

Yeah, that Vtech Of course, their walker for 6+ months is kind of nice and much better than the competition. But to bl**dy h*ll with all their commercials and licensing.

Yes, the walker is really nice. I use the off-button a lot. I mean all of the time. Stupid program sounds.

I haven't seen the commercials, but I'll chime in as a reading teacher.

VTech is not the competition, folks. Or the enemy. Or Satan-on-a-stick with batteries.

Nor is it going to teach a kid to read, of course. But if it helps a kid who might otherwise be resistant, where's the harm?

Our school groups kids by reading level. Our Reading Intervention Teacher works with the 5 lowest kids in first grade; I work with the next 22. Her 5 will probably all eventually be qualified for special ed, or are already in speech therapy. They are so far behind, and they know it. Reading is NOT their favorite time of the day...

I know she uses a large variety of strategies and techniques, including the VTech thingy her own daughters have outgrown. The thing is, it's doing exactly the same instruction she would be doing, only with lights and sounds and bells and whistles, so it holds their attention for longer. They feel like they're playing.

Is it going to teach them how to read? No. But does it make some of the hard work feel like fun? Yes.

Look at it this way. VTech isn't taking the place of BOOKS. VTech is taking the place of a VIDEO GAME. Buying a VTech for a kid and encouraging them to use it will lead them to being able to READ, and to think reading is FUN, which just might lead them to reading BOOKS eventually.

Kids are far more enthusiastic about reading than you're giving them credit for. They figure out early on that reading is the key to the kingdom. Like getting your driver's license. Once you can do it for yourself, you're an independent person and no longer a baby. Kids LOVE books.

Unless they struggle. If those early experiences in school suck--and for about one-fourth of kids, reading is really, really hard work--then they may get defeated and frustrated and give up before they have the skills they need.

Things like VTech won't slow down a successful reader. Kids who learn how to read easily will end up reading all kinds of things, and probably get bored with the VTech really quickly.

But they may motivate a struggling reader to have more fun. They may develop some of those essential skills because they play it enough to get the practice they need. So the VTech may be the gateway drug that gets them hooked on phonics.

If you have never taught reading to a student with a learning disability, or to a student learning to read English when they barely know how to speak it, then you are completely unqualified to have an opinion on whether or not the VTech is a good thing. Sorry, but it's true. English in one of the hardest, most complicated languages in the world, whether you measure by vocabulary, syntax or phonetic complexity. A lot of kids just need all the help they can get if they're going to be successful!

MsJudy said:

Kids are far more enthusiastic about reading than you're giving them credit for. They figure out early on that reading is the key to the kingdom. Like getting your driver's license. Once you can do it for yourself, you're an independent person and no longer a baby. Kids LOVE books.

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This is so true. I remember how, as a child, I loved to read and I wanted my boys to enjoy it as much as I did. Well, they didn't. They found it boring and a struggle. The VTech didn't work - although my children appear to have such short attention spans that maybe I sold it short. Fortunately, Captain Underpants came along and it was a light bulb moment for my (then) 8 year old. Now he realises how great books can be and he reads all the time without prompting. I wonder if I tried too hard, too early, so it just wasn't fun for them.

Monkeymum, I've heard the same story so many times. Usually with the boys. Thank goodness for Captain Underpants. And the Wimpy Kid.

My older son didn't finish a single novel until he was in fourth grade. He read fluently, above grade level, he just didn't "get" novels. Not until he was old enough for some good fantasy, really. Now he reads even when he doesn't have to--Eragon and Janice Hardy's book are some of his favorites. But boy, I spent many years wondering what I'd done wrong.

And his younger brother is one of the most prolific readers in his school for the third year running. I wish I could take credit for that, but...

I'm glad to hear your son is reading now, MsJudy. Funny thing is I haven't even seen the commercials for the V-tech, as we don't even have cable. But all the same, with good old fashioned flash cards and positive encouragement, my brother in law has taught my almost 3 year old all the capital and lowercase letters in the alphabet. I can't take any credit, as I didn't even know a kid younger than 3 could know them yet, but now my brother in law is teaching him how to read! I feel like such a slacker!

I think this VTEC thing is a secret marketing ploy by Honda.

I can't agree more. It's to the point that unless kids have parents who show them the joy of reading kids' classics, the only way they know them is through a (usually very badly done) Disney & co lens. Depressing. I don't know how many times I've been told that Sleeping Beauty's name was Aurora or that Dorthy's magic slippers were red. Little things, but that doesn't make them any less wrong.

benbradley said:

but I did have Legos.

#endedupwithanengineeringcareer

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LOL... so true!
I tripped over legos for years, but my son is an engineering major.

And re: the V-tech, agree with MsJudy. It has its place. I have a student with multiple disabilities. He can't do a lot of stuff the other kids are doing, but the v-tech is his favorite toy. It's age-appropriate, and the other kids are interested enough to interact with him over it. Win-win.

MorganMarshall said:

It's to the point that unless kids have parents who show them the joy of reading kids' classics, the only way they know them is through a (usually very badly done) Disney & co lens. Depressing.

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Oh, I guess the past 21 years I've spent teaching children how to read and love reading was a total waste of time.

Good to know. Guess I'll go back to just whacking the little brats with rulers.

Not exactly what I meant. Speaking as a parent, it's the children who's parents read who tend to read, too. I wasn't talking about school at all. That's a different subject from my meaning entirely.

MorganMarshall said:

I don't know how many times I've been told... that Dorthy's magic slippers were red.

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Yes, I've been rereading the original Oz books by Baum (including "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" itself) recently, and have been thinking about the differences between the book and the movie. (For that matter, I don't know if anyone here has read the "Sisters Grimm" series, but in the most recent book, "The Inside Story", the opening scenes have the MCs visit the original story and get thrown by the differences between the movie and the book.)

I feel dumb everyday I answer the phone at work... it's a VTECH phone, and I feel like an idiot when I can't figure out how to use the damn thing.

MorganMarshall said:

Not exactly what I meant. Speaking as a parent, it's the children who's parents read who tend to read, too. I wasn't talking about school at all. That's a different subject from my meaning entirely.

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I still object, because it isn't true. Children whose parents can't or don't read can still grow up to be enthusiastic lifelong readers.

I know so many teachers who devote themselves to exposing their students to classics, whether it's Flat Stanley and Ramona or Little House on the Prairie.

Which do you think has more influence over a kid, a good teacher or a commercial?

p.s. You mean children whose parents read.

t0dd said:

Yes, I've been rereading the original Oz books by Baum (including "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" itself) recently, and have been thinking about the differences between the book and the movie. (For that matter, I don't know if anyone here has read the "Sisters Grimm" series, but in the most recent book, "The Inside Story", the opening scenes have the MCs visit the original story and get thrown by the differences between the movie and the book.)

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Oooh yeah. The major differences with the Oz books and the movies are some of my biggest pet-peeves.

Which do you think has more influence over a kid, a good teacher or a commercial?

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A teacher of course. I actually thought about including teachers in my commentary, but decided not to because it's such a given that teachers teach a love of reading. Parents, on the other hand, aren't nearly as much of a given. Actually, I'm pretty tired of my kids' teachers assuming that we never read at home and telling me that we need to read to them. I KNOW that and we DO that. But every year it's the same lecture... I don't like being lectured about something I already do. It's like they assume because I'm not a teacher I don't care about reading for my kids.

MorganMarshall said:

Oooh yeah. The major differences with the Oz books and the movies are some of my biggest pet-peeves.

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Well, "book" and "movie", technically, since the 1939 movie is the one that's really shaped the public's perception of Oz, and it only adapted the first book.

The change that I feel most inclined to critique (apart, maybe, from the "all just a dream" approach) was fusing Glinda with the Good Witch of the North. While it's understandable as a piece of adaptation economy, it introduces a plothole not present in the book: why doesn't Glinda tell Dorothy about the shoes' properties from the start? The trouble isn't in the book, since the Good Witch of the North knows only that the silver shoes are magical, not what their precise properties are. (Of course, the book also points out that if Dorothy had used the shoes to go home at the start, the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion would never have gotten the brain, heart, and courage they longed for, so perhaps it's just as well that Dorothy didn't know how to use those shoes.)

I like V-Tech's toys. There's nothing wrong with using licensed material to foster a love of learning/reading.

Most of the cousin kidlets are getting V-tech from me for Christmas, this year. The others are getting LeapPad.

t0dd said:

Well, "book" and "movie", technically, since the 1939 movie is the one that's really shaped the public's perception of Oz, and it only adapted the first book.

The change that I feel most inclined to critique (apart, maybe, from the "all just a dream" approach) was fusing Glinda with the Good Witch of the North. While it's understandable as a piece of adaptation economy, it introduces a plothole not present in the book: why doesn't Glinda tell Dorothy about the shoes' properties from the start? The trouble isn't in the book, since the Good Witch of the North knows only that the silver shoes are magical, not what their precise properties are. (Of course, the book also points out that if Dorothy had used the shoes to go home at the start, the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion would never have gotten the brain, heart, and courage they longed for, so perhaps it's just as well that Dorothy didn't know how to use those shoes.)

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Ya know, every time I think of clarifying something, I think "naah, it's not that important; nobody will nitpick", and then you guys do. I'm going to have to get used to clarifying, aren't I?

And yeah, I entirely agree with you. But my biggest nitpick is with the things that aren't changed for any storyline reason, like the color of the slippers (I know, they wanted to show off color, but they did that well enough with the BW/color/BW style IMHO), and Dorthy's age. I mean, what was the point of making her pretty much an adult? In the book she's what, five, six? Ugh.