Customer Reviews

Fisher Price Learning Sensation Play with Letters Desk

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My 3 year old loves learning letters and phonics and trying to learn to read. She chose this toy at the toy store in reward for potty training. She couldn't wait to 'drag' those big block letters accross the board! I was so happy she chose something educational. We opened it and what a dissapointment! It is a GREAT CONCEPT! She loved dragging the letters accross the board to make sound (the name of the letter, phonics sound, and letter beginning with it) is said clearly when you drag a letter. The PROBLEM IS that it is just not refined enough. Literally a third of the time, the letters don't read. Even when your child drags the right letter it asks for, it sometimes will not read it giving them the feeling they got it wrong. It was very glad I was sitting there to tell her it was right and to keep trying. Sometimes she had to drag it again and again and it still wouldn't read and we would have to turn the thing off and on again and start with a new letter. I couldn't even get it to read 1/2 the time after she failed even after doing it perfectly as instructed in the manuel-which 3-year olds don't read so what good is touchiness like that in a toy! Total frustration within 10 minutes. The toy has an ON button that is not clearly marked, you just have to know that is the right one. The other 3 buttons for modes of play are confusing. You press the note button for a 'song' about the letter. But it takes forever to play this little intro song and meanwhile, your kid has dragged several letters accross the thing trying to make it work. By the time the intro song is over, they are over with it too and pressing other buttons to get it to work which only confuses the machine more. The other two buttons are a button that makes it ask for certain letters and a quiz button. The questions are fine. My kid was very excited to answer as she knows alot of her letter already and yet 1/3 the time it didn't respond to her rolling the letters. Again, this is a great fun and educational concept but not refined enough. I truly would have rated it the tops for education if I was only rating it when it worked! But, I don't see how it can teach when it doesn't respond to your child's answers half the time. I am going to keep trying to convince my little girl that she should bring this poor working toy back to the store and pick another reward but you know how hard that is for kid's to understand. She wants to play with it so badly but is already walking away from it each time she trys. I am so glad I opened the package carefully! Skip this one and get the little letter desk that comes with a magnetic chalkboard, word cards with cut outs where the letters magnetically fit into, and magnetic letters. It is not electronic but great fun and still taken out every other day here after 6 months. It is by Fisher-Price as well and I think it is called the ABC something and it is much cheaper and self-correcting in that the correct magnetic letters only fit in the word cards! My girl loved being able to 'spell words' with this. Good luck.

my son rec'd it as a gift, and it is an excellent product. First of all, it does work. It works perfectly as long as the batterys are fresh. The only time it did things like the previous reviewers described was when the batterys were low. My son played with it all the time for three months before it started saying the wrong letters. A quick change of the batterys and it worked wonderfully again. When my son rec'd this he was just starting to learn his letters. If I remember correctly, he knew AB and C. Now he knows the entire alphabet, and will say things like D,D is for drum. The only thing I would change about this is make it so that it says more than one word for the differant letters. The toy is excellent, and I would strongly reccomend it. I will even be purchasing this product for all of my nieces and nephews. Any toy that teaches a child something is excellent.

I love to purchase fun educational toys for my children and was excited to get this home for them. When each block is dragged across the desk it is supposed to "read" each block. The blocks should say the letter, the sound it makes and a word beginning with the letter. Unfortunately, the desk doesn't always read the letters and it often took several tries before it did. There are games that can be played too, but my children never got that far since they couldn't get it to respond properly. This would be a great toy if it worked as it is described by the manufacturer. Fisher-Price needs to improve this toy before I would recommend anyone to buy this. I think the LeapFrog Read and Write Phonics desk is a better purchase if you are looking for a toy that will help with letter recognition, phonics, writing, and spelling games.

We got this desk for my three year old for Christmas. When I bought it, there were not any reviews on this item yet. I had it wrapped in my closet when I found the first reviews. They were not good. I was dissappointed, but hoped for the best. Good News! My three year old loves this desk. I showed her how to roll the letters. She has to press hard and roll straight, but she gets it everytime with out becoming frustrated. It's a great first learning toy that will grow with her as she learns. I would buy it again!

You have to press the letters pretty hard on the desk to get the correct response. You also have to make sure the letter starts at one end and rolls all the way to the other. You can't start the letters in the middle of the desk or roll them on just one wheel the way a 3 1/2 year old is prone to do. Even if you do roll it correctly it still might not respond to you. First I thought I needed to freshen the batteries the way everyone in these reviews said to do but it did not help at all! My child isn't the least interested in this toy and it just sits there no matter how much I get it out and try to help her with it. It is too frustrating for a child that is in their independent stage. Save your money.

This toy works great and is helping my just turned 4 yr. old his letters and sounds. His almost 6 sister also loves it and it is helping her learn and practice her phonics. They like to play school together with this toy. Cool item and well worth it. Great price for such a good toy. Also the volume level is nice and not annoying-so many toys are so loud and annoying-not this one.

i think that this toy is great for children just starting out on abcs. If your children need an abc toy this is it!! kf

We are going to try this product with our vision impaired children as, not only does it provide feedback to the student based on its gross motor design, tactile surface and its auditory component, it also has Braille letters! The perfect way to get a Junior Kindergarten child's literacy on the right track! It is also excellent for auditory learners, kids who need tactile reinforcement as well as visual cues! Thanks Fisher Price - a very well conceived product!

THIS TOY WAS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED. IT HELPS WITH PHONICS AND THE KIDS CAN LEARN TO WRITE THE LETTERS AND START ASSOCIATING THE LETTER AND HOW THEY CREATE WORDS. WHEN YOU ROLL THE LETTER ACROSS THE TOP OF THE TOY IT IS SUPPOSED TO SAY THE WORD BUT IT DOES NOT ALWAYS WORK. OVERALL, IT IS PRETTY GOOD IN THE EDUCATIONAL CATERGORY.

My three year old got this for her berthday and loves it. She is learning her ABC's mutch quicker now. I am a blind mom with a sighted child and the braille, raised, and speech letters are all nice things to have. No more hasil of finding easy to braille flashcards!! Thank you Fisher Price!!