This is one of the less successful item that I have bought.
The older version come with a pen. In 2005, I got this from my sister in law for my son. This kind of gadget certainly attracted attention and interest. It came with good contents, Thomas, Dora etc that were designed to attract attention. In this sense, I managed to let my son read and listen to native pronunciation albeit it's computer recorded voice.
I can see that the latest one comes with LCD screen. I don't like my kids looking at bright LCD screen. Also, I never think the touch pad is ergonomic. In that sense, I think Leapfrog is heading toward the wrong direction. I may be wrong but if I were to buy this, certainly I will consider Kindle or iPad 2.
However, unlike Peter & Jane, and Hooked on Phonics learning sets which are more systematic, the Leap Frogs content looks less systematic in the teaching approach. In my case, I do not see much effect in terms of learning except that the sets attracted my son to learn. I had to buy another reader 2 years ago for my daughter because the first one malfunctioned. I would say the Return of Investment of second set is almost close to zero because my daughter was not attracted to those characters my son liked.
In general to be fair to leap frog, I would say that this gadget helps in attracting attention and interest. I hope that Leap frog will look at the contents to deliver a full academic contents instead of using mere electronics.
