Reddit reviews LeapFrog My Pal Violet
We found 3 Reddit comments about LeapFrog My Pal Violet. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Teach Violet your child's name and favorite things for personalized learning in 15+ activitiesListen along to 40+ learning songs, melodies and lullabies, for active daytime fun and nighttime soothingTeaches first words, feelings and emotions, colors and countingConnect Violet to your smart phone, tablet or computer for easy personalization while she's still in the boxThis cuddly pal is recommended for children ages 6-36 months
Agreed on the freaking V-Tech. Ugh.
LeapFrog is hit-or-miss too in my experience. We got Violet and not only is she a big hit, she's not really all that annoying. But this goddamn thing? Uuuuuuuuugh.
To answer the first question, here's what the switches are for. Sorry if it wasn't clear from the album.
TL;DR #1: The switches are for people with disabilities to interact with toys, iOS devices etc. They normally cost a lot of money but I made 4 switches for less than half the price of one commercial ability switch.
Single-switch devices are important for individuals with a wide range of disabilities. They are used for a wide range of accessibility things.
At one extreme end of the spectrum, Stephen Hawking used to use a simple single switch control for this computer when he was able to move his hand. It was actually depicted in a pivotal scene in the Theory of Everything. He describes it in this video. Now I believe he uses eye-gaze tracking.
A switch like this can be plugged into an interface box which can be used to control an iOS or Android device. Or for severely disabled people they can be used to simply answer yes or no audibly.
At the other end of the spectrum is my cousin's daughter. She's less than 2 years old and she has visual impairment as well as other medical issues which involve motor control.
For her, switches like these help her play with toys that she doesn't have the fine motor control to play with.
For example, you can put one toy on her left side connected to one switch, and another on her right side connected to another switch. One toy might be like the light shown in the gif from the album, which speaks when activated, and shines light (she can detect differences in light). On the right you might put a toy like this which makes sound and vibrates. Then you position one switch near her left hand and one switch near her right hand. As she hits the switches she's rewarded with the toys reacting to her (edit: and each toy's reaction is very different), and she learns cause and effect.
Also, importantly, she learns to use the switches which will probably be a part of her life permanently, unfortunately.
TL;DR #2: To answer the other question asked about the toys, yes you need special toys.
As part of this project I converted two toys to be accessible. I didn't take pictures along the way, so I can't post a DIY about them, but I can do better than that.
The stuffed dog in this gif a LeapFrog MyPal Violet, which talks, lights up, and sings songs, depending on which paw you squeeze. I used this amazing hour-long tutorial video to adapt the toy for these type of switches.
Essentially, I spliced into the wiring for the paws and created a breakout box that lets you plug in a switch to each paw if you want. Think of this as a "level 2" to the use described above since the differences between what the switch does is more subtle.
The lantern was even easier. There's a big switch at the top, which has two wires running back to the main control board at the bottom. I cut and soldered a splice into both wires, and ran them to a mono jack from radio shack. Then I drilled a hole in the back of the lantern and mounted the jack back there, et voila, you can plug in an external switch. The whole process took me about 20 minutes because I was already set up from having done the Violet toy.
Another way you can make toys accessible is by using a battery interrupter, which works with simpler toys, or other devices like a fan, radio etc. You switch the connected device on, and then the ability switch controls the on/off. The problem with these is they can't interact with complex toys like the MyPal, and they are very fragile and tend to break.
A book (or a few books) are nice. You could go with some traditional story books, or learning books. My daughter loves looking at books. These are some of her favorites:
http://www.amazon.com/First-100-Words-Bright-Baby/dp/B000F7BPCU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312305286&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Book-casebound-Board-Books/dp/0312511078/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312305354&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Biscuit-Alyssa-Satin-Capucilli/dp/0064442128/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312305382&sr=1-7
(there are lots of "Biscuit" books, this is just one)
Another suggesting is LeapFrog's Violet. It's a toy (I know your bro said no toys), but I have to tell you that my daughter LOVES Violet. You can program her to know your niece's name and say it and sing songs with her name in it. You can change the songs that are played, Violet's "favorite" colors, foods, etc to match with whatever your niece is into at the time and so much more. My daughter (22 months) goes through phases where she's literally attached at the hip with the thing. Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-19157-My-Pal-Violet/dp/B001W35I8I/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312305595&sr=1-1
Another idea is to get one of those Hallmark recordable books and record yourself reading a story to your niece. I did that for my daughter's 1st birthday (there's a little dedication section too) and my husband did one for Christmas. Here's another link: http://www.hallmark.com/online/in-stores/storybooks/recordable-storybooks/
All of these things are $30 and under, so hopefully you can find something to fit your budget. :)