Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
GENERAL ARTICLE<br />
CHILD PLAY<br />
we look at a special computer for the<br />
youngest members of the family<br />
Myjti mputer.<br />
Your chijasfirst computer<br />
Frequently, a computer is introduced<br />
to the home by the<br />
children "persuading" their<br />
parents that it will help them<br />
with their education or future<br />
employment prospects. Just as<br />
frequently, the father does not<br />
need that much persuading and<br />
Mum eventually comes round to<br />
the invasion of yet another set of<br />
wires and leads into the home.<br />
Dad then begins to take an interest<br />
in computing himself, and<br />
experiments with programs,<br />
eventually buying himself a<br />
machine so that junioris) will<br />
leave him alone and play the<br />
latest state-of-the-art arcade<br />
wonder elsewhere. Many Mums<br />
now secretly begin to try their<br />
hand on the little box, although<br />
usually when the bread is being<br />
won.<br />
In many families there is still<br />
one person left out, and that person,<br />
from my own experience,<br />
can be volubly insistent that<br />
he/she gets a go on the puter I<br />
am of course referring to the<br />
most junior member of the family,<br />
the child of 3-5.<br />
The sophisticated high speed<br />
arcade games are unsuitable for<br />
such a child and, although there<br />
are some programs aimed at this<br />
age range, the younger child<br />
finds the multi-legend, upper<br />
case keyboard confusing. The<br />
more capable parent may produce<br />
a program to allow some<br />
usage — I wrote a very simple<br />
one which allowed my child to<br />
type in letters and she quite happily<br />
sat there writing her name<br />
— but in most cases the time<br />
between the initial request and<br />
having the program ready will be<br />
too long and the child's interest<br />
will pass onto pastures new,<br />
But now. ..<br />
A computer which hit the<br />
market recently is, MY TALK-<br />
ING COMPUTER from MICRO-<br />
SPEECH LTD. This is a sturdy<br />
unit which uses a touchpad for<br />
input and a voice synthesizer for<br />
output. The whole thing has<br />
been very carefully designed<br />
and has a definite educational<br />
value as well as being<br />
fascinating for the child. The<br />
basic unit is £59.95, batteries<br />
or mains adaptor cost extra, and<br />
it has 21 programs which deal<br />
with reading and maths skills<br />
over a wide age range.<br />
The spoken output is the best<br />
I've yet heard — a distinct<br />
female voice which is clear,<br />
understandable and friendly.<br />
There are sufficient inflexions to<br />
make it far more human than any<br />
others I've heard. This gives instructions,<br />
prompts, en<br />
couragement and corrections.<br />
The touch sensitive keypad<br />
works in conjunction with a<br />
booklet of brightly coloured<br />
overlays which are laminated so<br />
that sticky finger marks can be<br />
washed off. These are used to<br />
select the program and RUN it<br />
("Now press GO"). Also included<br />
is a plastic clock face with fully<br />
moveable hour and minute<br />
hands. All this is very solid and<br />
robust and will take a lot of hard<br />
wear.<br />
Part of the impressive detail<br />
and thought which have gone into<br />
this product are the simple but<br />
essential "extras" such as the<br />
automatic 'off' switch, which<br />
activates if the computer has<br />
not been touched for a minute,<br />
so saving on batteries and the<br />
parents' time in forever check-<br />
; ng that it has not been left on.<br />
There are similar units, but<br />
these tend to suffer from being<br />
limited in their functions. My<br />
Talking Computer is expan<br />
dable, and the first (of many, I<br />
hope!) module for it is now<br />
available. This provides another<br />
120K of programs, five main<br />
programs divided into 1 7 'sub'<br />
programs, each with its own<br />
overlay, again in laminated<br />
booklet form. The module<br />
covers the topics such as Music,<br />
using colour coding, Sentence<br />
making, which provides a twenty<br />
word speech processor,<br />
Digital time, Talking alphabet,<br />
and Talking Colours and<br />
Shapes.<br />
All in all, a wide variety of<br />
essential skills for young<br />
children, are presented in a<br />
fascinating and effective way. I<br />
can vouch for it from watching<br />
my own children and wife using<br />
it! (Oh all right, so I had a few<br />
goes as well).<br />
The expansion module costs<br />
£ 1 7.95 and these units are ob<br />
tainable at most larger stores.<br />
tf you have a child, then this<br />
"toy" will ensure many hours of<br />
peace for the older members of<br />
the family and the child cannot<br />
fail to benefit educationally.<br />
Unreservedly recommended! Interestingly,<br />
many schools are<br />
now equipping their BBC's with<br />
Concept keyboards and speech<br />
units £600 to do what this<br />
machine does for £ 60.<br />
18 ZX COMPUTING APRIL'MAY 1985
Change language