Peripherals/Child Friendly Mouse: Difference between revisions

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(not the perfect mouse (but maybe this advertisement should just be deleted))
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Young children have not yet fully developed their motor skills (fine motor skills in the hand and fingers typically develop fully between the ages of 5 and 6) and have trouble using traditional mouse buttons. It is claimed that children click next to targets, that pressing down is not intuitive, and that kids tend to grip all their fingers at the same time so that the mouse is squeezed rather than clicked. This could lead to frustration and detract from the educational experience.
Many young children don’t have well-developed motor skills (fine motor skills in the hand and fingers typically develop fully between the ages of 5 and 6) and often have trouble using a traditional mouse or touchpad. This can lead to frustration and detract from the educational experience.


The Child Friendly Mouse is intended to solve the problems children have when they use a traditional mouse. Besides being small, it has a single wide soft button under the front.
*Some mice made by Apple use the entire body of the mouse as a single button.


*A track ball works for some children. It can be easier to coordinate than a mouse, with the positioning -- rolling the ball, and selection -- clicking a button on the base actions separated. Being self contained, the track ball also removes the need for a relatively clean and smooth surface to operate on.
You can read the [http://wiki.laptop.org/images/e/e7/Mouse_Squeeze_Flyer.pdf advertisement for licensing the patent] from them.


*The pressure-sensitive bump in the middle of the keyboard on some laptops may be a good option. It is certainly resistant to fouling with debris.
==Problems==

* This mouse is not usable by children with long fingernails.
*The "analog" thumb joysicks found on many Nintendo controllers are proven with kids.
* While software can easily map two buttons as one, it can not go the other way.
* Because button presses are horizontal, undesired mouse movement is likely while pressing the button.


[[category:peripherals]]
[[category:peripherals]]

Latest revision as of 09:14, 12 January 2008

Many young children don’t have well-developed motor skills (fine motor skills in the hand and fingers typically develop fully between the ages of 5 and 6) and often have trouble using a traditional mouse or touchpad. This can lead to frustration and detract from the educational experience.

  • Some mice made by Apple use the entire body of the mouse as a single button.
  • A track ball works for some children. It can be easier to coordinate than a mouse, with the positioning -- rolling the ball, and selection -- clicking a button on the base actions separated. Being self contained, the track ball also removes the need for a relatively clean and smooth surface to operate on.
  • The pressure-sensitive bump in the middle of the keyboard on some laptops may be a good option. It is certainly resistant to fouling with debris.
  • The "analog" thumb joysicks found on many Nintendo controllers are proven with kids.
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