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== Commercial performance and awards ==
== Commercial performance and awards ==
According to PC Data, JumpStart First Grade, JumpStart Preschool, JumpStart Kindergarten and JumpStart Toddlers were ranked among the top ten selling educational software titles during the month of July 1996.<ref>{{Cite web|date=September 3, 1996|title=Knowledge Adventure Announces JumpStart Pre-K|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T004&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=1&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA18636660&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZONE-Exclude-FT&prodId=AONE&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA18636660&searchId=R3&userGroupName=anon%7Ec9de9516&inPS=true|url-status=live|website=[[PR Newswire]]}}</ref>
According to PC Data, JumpStart First Grade, JumpStart Preschool, JumpStart Kindergarten and JumpStart Toddlers were ranked among the top ten selling educational software titles during the month of July 1996.<ref>{{Cite web|date=September 3, 1996|title=Knowledge Adventure Announces JumpStart Pre-K|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T004&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=1&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA18636660&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZONE-Exclude-FT&prodId=AONE&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA18636660&searchId=R3&userGroupName=anon%7Ec9de9516&inPS=true|url-status=live|website=[[PR Newswire]]}}</ref> Throughout 1997, ''JumpStart Toddlers'' took in over $4 million.<ref>{{Cite news|date=December 14, 1997|title=Touching home|work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162055/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4414771.html}}</ref>


The game won numerous awards, including a 1996 Parent’s Choice Gold Medal for best new children's software.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|date=March 1997|title=Barnard|url=https://archive.org/details/barnard862barn/|url-status=live|page=52}}</ref>
The game won numerous awards, including a 1996 Parent’s Choice Gold Medal for best new children's software.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|date=March 1997|title=Barnard|url=https://archive.org/details/barnard862barn/|url-status=live|page=52}}</ref>


== Legacy ==
== Legacy ==
In 1996, MacUser used the term "lapware" to describe the new software category ''JumpStart Toddlers'' had helped create.<ref name=":1" /> In November 1997, ''U.S. News & World Report'' noted that ''JumpStart Toddlers,'' ''[[Davidson & Associates]]''<nowiki/>' ''[[Fisher-Price Ready for Learning: Toddler]]'' (1997) and ''[[The Learning Company]]''<nowiki/>'s ''[[Reader Rabbit Toddler]]'' (1997) were and vying for the lucrative 18-month-and-under demographic over the holiday season.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=November 24, 1997|title=Toddlers need blocks, not mousing skills|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_u-s-news-weekly-special-issues_1997-11-24_123_20/|journal=U.S. News & World Report|volume=123|issue=20|pages=106}}</ref>
According to the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'', Knowledge Adventure "started the baby trend when it introduced JumpStart Toddlers in 1996".<ref>{{Cite news|date=December 14, 1997|title=Touching home|work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162055/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4414771.html}}</ref> That July saw ''MacUser'' use the term "lapware" to describe the new software category ''JumpStart Toddlers'' had helped create.<ref name=":1" /> In November 1997, ''U.S. News & World Report'' noted that ''JumpStart Toddlers,'' ''[[Davidson & Associates]]''<nowiki/>' ''[[Fisher-Price Ready for Learning: Toddler]]'' (1997) and ''[[The Learning Company]]''<nowiki/>'s ''[[Reader Rabbit Toddler]]'' (1997) were and vying for the lucrative 18-month-and-under demographic over the holiday season.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=November 24, 1997|title=Toddlers need blocks, not mousing skills|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_u-s-news-weekly-special-issues_1997-11-24_123_20/|journal=U.S. News & World Report|volume=123|issue=20|pages=106}}</ref>


In 1998, ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]''<nowiki/>'s Susan Kuchinskas similarly apply the neologism to categorise ''JumpStart Toddlers,'' ''JumpStart Baby'', and BowWow House's ''[[BabyWow!]]'' as contemporaries in a burgeoning "lapware" market, which catered to overworked parents who wish to give their new-borns a competitive edge through technology.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kuchinskas|first=Susan|date=July 22, 1998|title=Techno Toddlers|url=https://www.wired.com/1998/07/techno-toddlers/|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 1998, ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]''<nowiki/>'s Susan Kuchinskas similarly apply the neologism to categorise ''JumpStart Toddlers,'' ''JumpStart Baby'', and BowWow House's ''[[BabyWow!]]'' as contemporaries in a burgeoning "lapware" market, which catered to overworked parents who wish to give their new-borns a competitive edge through technology.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kuchinskas|first=Susan|date=July 22, 1998|title=Techno Toddlers|url=https://www.wired.com/1998/07/techno-toddlers/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Revision as of 16:10, 20 January 2022

JumpStart Toddlers is a 1996 educational video game, the fourth within the JumpStart franchise. An enhanced version was released in 2000.

Development and release

The game was designed by Nicole Hardt Wrubel, who spent four years as a lead designer at Knowledge Adventure.[1] JumpStart Toddlers was inspired by her then two-and-a-half year old son, for whom she could not find age-appropriate software.[1] It was created in conjunction with parents, teachers, child development psychologists and pediatricians, and "designed with a toddler's developmental capabilities in mind".[2] JumpStart Toddlers included age-appropriate songs written and sung by children's musician Bethie.[2]

In order to introduce young players to the concept of interacting with hotspots, players immediately meet Giggles the Gopher, who welcomes them and points out seven hotspots around the screen which lead to activity areas.[3] The game was designed to be part of a full curriculum of games for children to graduate into as they aged; Discover educational toys for children noted that Knowledge Adventure was "one of the few companies that offer a title for toddlers ages 18 months to 3 years".[4]

The title was released in mid-March 1996 through computer software stores, mass merchants, computer superstores, book stores and computer specialty stores.[2]

Critical reception

Referring to this title, U.S. News & World Report's article False Promise commented, "parents have been told that it's their responsibility to prepare children for a multi-tasking, technology-driven future, so they "JumpStart" their babies".[5] eMERGing Literacy and Technology wrote the title was "appealing to the very young child or a child with limited motor control".[6] Young kids and computers saw it as an example of a software program specifically designed to teach mouse skills, along with Broderbund's My Very First Software.[7] MacUser gave the title 4 out of 5 stars, though noted it had the fewest activities in the series.[8]

Speaking of the game's suitability for those who may not have the precision required to click narrow targets, Fine motor skills in children with Down syndrome's Maryanne Bruni cites JumpStart Toddlers and Reader Rabbit Toddler as preschool programs that reward any mouse movement of keyboard press with an audiovisual cue.[9] Newsweek praised the game (and JumpStart 2nd Grade) as superior to previous entries in the series, noting they "successfully balance letting youngsters explore" and "using animated hosts to spur them on", adding that they "both understand the concept of reward".[10]

Citing JumpStart Toddlers as a key example, Macs for teachers praised the title for its "neat activities...accessible from a classroom setting" and "activities that teach essential early learning skills".[11] A 2000 Wired reviewer noted that after their daughter experienced the game's music, she "walks away from Barney tapes in the VCR and demands Toddlers".[12]

Parenting magazine deemed the 2000 version among the "best software of the year", noting that the title had been "overhauled, with splendid results".[13] The magazine gave the title a B+.[14] The Discovery School site (quoted in Cyber Rules) recommended JumpStart Toddlers 2000, "best for older toddlers (or those who have graduated from their baby and other toddler software titles)", and gave it a rating of 4-and-a-half out of 5 stars.[15]

Early childhood education today notes, "although the graphics in JumpStart Toddlers can be moved for an activity, they cannot be controlled or manipulated into any other form."[16]

Commercial performance and awards

According to PC Data, JumpStart First Grade, JumpStart Preschool, JumpStart Kindergarten and JumpStart Toddlers were ranked among the top ten selling educational software titles during the month of July 1996.[17] Throughout 1997, JumpStart Toddlers took in over $4 million.[18]

The game won numerous awards, including a 1996 Parent’s Choice Gold Medal for best new children's software.[1]

Legacy

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Knowledge Adventure "started the baby trend when it introduced JumpStart Toddlers in 1996".[19] That July saw MacUser use the term "lapware" to describe the new software category JumpStart Toddlers had helped create.[8] In November 1997, U.S. News & World Report noted that JumpStart Toddlers, Davidson & Associates' Fisher-Price Ready for Learning: Toddler (1997) and The Learning Company's Reader Rabbit Toddler (1997) were and vying for the lucrative 18-month-and-under demographic over the holiday season.[20]

In 1998, Wired's Susan Kuchinskas similarly apply the neologism to categorise JumpStart Toddlers, JumpStart Baby, and BowWow House's BabyWow! as contemporaries in a burgeoning "lapware" market, which catered to overworked parents who wish to give their new-borns a competitive edge through technology.[21]

That year, PC Magazine's Terri Robinson (quoted in 2002 paper Engineering The Entrepreneurial Infant) commented that, "software developers are keen to the burgeoning ‘baby skills’ market" to "capture the imaginations of your 1- and 2-year olds and provide them with solid educational building blocks".[22]

By this time, just two years after the game's release, JumpStart Toddlers was also competing in the lapware market with Davidson & Associates' Fisher-Price Ready for Learning: Toddler and The Learning Company's Reader Rabbit Toddler (1997).[23] In 2000, a U.S. News & World Report article featured a 13-month old who was already familiar with several games designed for players under two-years old, including JumpStart Toddlers.[24]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Barnard". March 1997. p. 52.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ a b c "Knowledge Adventure Announces Jumpstart Toddlers, A Magical Introduction To Computer Learning For Toddlers". PR Newswire. March 11, 1996.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ Matthew, James (2003). Using your PC. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble. p. 178.
  4. ^ Werdel, Hilary (1998). Discover educational toys for children. Scholar Books. p. 131.
  5. ^ Kelly, Katy; Lord, Mary; Marcus, David L. (September 25, 2000). "False Promise". U.S. News & World Report. 129 (12): 48 – via EBSCOhost.
  6. ^ "ERIC ED433670: eMERGing Literacy and Technology: Working Together". 1998. p. 28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ Buckleitner, Warren; Orr, Ann C; Wolock, Ellen (1998). Young kids and computers: a parent's survival guide. Flemington, N.J.: Children's Software Revue. p. 70.
  8. ^ a b Myslewski, Rik; Shatz-akin, Jim (July 1996). The Two Dads. MacUser. p. 116.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  9. ^ Bruni, Maryanne (1998). Fine motor skills in children with Down syndrome. Woodbine House. p. 126.
  10. ^ "Getting a head start". Newsweek. 127 (15): 4. April 8, 1996.
  11. ^ Robinette, Michelle (1996). Macs for teachers. IDG Books Worldwide. p. 92.
  12. ^ Broadband Gamespot. Wired. March 2003.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  13. ^ Reeks, Anne (October 2000). "PARENTING'S software magic awards". Parenting. 14 (8): 83 – via EBSCOhost.
  14. ^ Reeks, Anne (April 2000). "Software". Parenting. 14 (2): 69 – via EBSCOhost.
  15. ^ Gillispie, Joanie Farley; Gackenbach, Jayne (2007). Cyber rules: what you really need to know about the Internet. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. p. 80.
  16. ^ Early childhood education today. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill/Pearson. 2009. p. 380.
  17. ^ "Knowledge Adventure Announces JumpStart Pre-K". PR Newswire. September 3, 1996.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ "Touching home". Chicago Sun-Times. December 14, 1997.
  19. ^ "Touching home". Chicago Sun-Times. December 14, 1997.
  20. ^ "Toddlers need blocks, not mousing skills". U.S. News & World Report. 123 (20): 106. November 24, 1997.
  21. ^ Kuchinskas, Susan (July 22, 1998). "Techno Toddlers".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ^ Nadesan, Majia Holmer (May 2002). "Engineering The Entrepreneurial Infant: Brain Science, Infant Development Toys, And Governmentality". Cultural Studies. 16 (3): 401–432. doi:10.1080/09502380210128315 – via EBSCOhost.
  23. ^ "Toddlers Need Blocks, Not Mousing Skills". U.S. News & World Report. 123 (20). November 24, 1997 – via EBSCOhost.
  24. ^ "False Promise". U.S. News & World Report. 129 (12): 59. September 25, 2000.
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