Nursery World - The Wow factor

BabyWOW! (Windows/Mac, CD-Rom, PCtots, 19.99), for the youngest mouseketeers, age nine months and up, is fundamentally a sound programme. Introduced by a stuffed blue sun-face toy, it presents attractive photos of objects, with a cheery voice saying the relevant word. Click on the mouse, or press any key, and something like a sheep appears - 'Sheep!' says the voice. Move on to the next activity and a colour fills the screen. 'Yellow!' it says. When you've had enough Basic Colours, move on to Basic Shapes. The advice is good too. Parents and carers are advised to sit with the child throughout, taking care to stop when their attention starts to wander.

The advice is good too. Parents and carers are advised to sit with the child throughout, taking care to stop when their attention starts to wander.

But, for all its strengths, there is something about babyWOW! that puts this reviewer's back up. Maybe it's the company's loud claims that this not very revolutionary programme 'has been developed through the latest in brain research available today'. We didn't need brain research to tell us that 'children love repetition and familiarity'. Maybe it's the apparent contradiction between the advice about supervised computing and the inclusion of an 'autopilot' option which, perhaps, is there so baby can go solo while Mummy has a quick fag. Maybe it's the Pythonesque photo-montage approach of the Opposites section, where giant pears and rattles are superimposed confusingly on landscapes in order to demonstrate such concepts as 'near/far'. Or maybe it's that babyWOW! seems designed as much to impress a certain kind of professional parent as to educate small children.

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