Customer Reviews

VTech Preschool Learning ABC Phonics Pals

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This toy is very frustrating. It does not allow your child to finish typing the letter before it says they are wrong. You are supposed to check the box when you finish writing but you never get a chance to. If the letter isn't written perfectly it says it is wrong. This is very frustrating to a child who is just learning to write. I do not recommend this product and we are returning it ASAP.

Ok this toy is horrible, I mean horrible. My daughter had this thing for a day and I returned it. She kept getting frustrated with it and when I took a look I found out you have to write the letter the exact way they have it or your wrong. Every child writes their letters in different orders and you can't expect for them to write it exactly how a computer has it. This toy also discourages them when they do not get it right in the short amount of time it gives you. I just cannot believe Vtech would make such a toy.

very frustrating toy for a child learning to write. it requires the child write a letter EXACTLY the way the game does. example, when writing a "T", if you don't cross the "T" from the direction they want you to, you will get the answer wrong. or if you write an "O" a begin by drawing to left and they start by going right your answer will be wrong. it's ridiculous. the game also doesn't give a lot of time for child to try. i really felt bad for my son. he was getting discouraged very quickly and he was getting many of the answers right.

This is the upgraded version of the VTech Write & Learn Letter Pad. I guess a bunch of people complained that with the first model the toy would praise the toddler for writing a letter even if all the child wrote were scribbles. They fixed that with this new version it will give the kid a couple tries to write the letter the exzact way it showed him and if by the 3rd time the kid still doesn't get it just right the toy will suggest to the kid to try another letter.

I didn't have a lot of time to play with this while I was at the store. I never saw it advertized but happened across it while looking at other toys and it looked pretty neat. So I bought it and got it home, took it out and started testing it out before I give it to the kids. It wasn't long before I decided to take it back...

When it would show and ask me to draw the letter H that I chose, if I don't do it exzactly how it showed me, the letter is WRONG even if I drew a perfect H my own way. I liked that the drawing pad lights up a hot pink when you write on it, but it's the kind of writing pad that after you write so many letters it's going to get burned impressions in it like at the check out line when you have to sign your name on that faulty screen with a fake pen...

I also didn't like the maze game. They would show you a very simple maze to complete on the top screen and using the pen you'd have to try and make this little ball go through the easy maze without touching the sides of the maze. If you touch the sides the game stalls and tells you "whoop try again" This prooved harder then it first looked. The maze doesn't show up on the orange screen where you have to write so you kind of just aim blindly and hope not to hit the walls.

I found what looks to be a much more promising toy by Leapfrog called the Scribble & Write. This toy cost about 6 dollars more and not only does it show you how to write the letter but I believe you trace over the letter & instead of only teaching Upper Case it also teaches Lower Case. I'm going to buy that one instead.

Bought this for my 3 year old but he didn't really get into it until 6 months later around his 4th birthday. I agree with other reviewers that the pad is crazy hard to get the letter written exactly correct and even I am told I'm wrong sometimes. However, my son is learning a lot of fine motor skills with the maze craze game. And he loves the other game where he has to guess the missing letter or hidden letter and he can just press the letter instead of write it. It also has given him a huge interest in trying to write, which I think is huge. So, while it's not perfect, my son still loves to play with it.

This toy is extremely frustrating because the letters have to be written exactly the same way the computer writes them AND in a very short time. At first I thought that we got a defective product but looking at other reviews here, I see that we did not.

My son was beginning to become very frustrated with it. I do not want him to associate learning to write with being frustrated so I took the toy away. I wish I could return it but since I threw away the packaging, I will just throw it away. It is horrible. I strongly recommend not buying this.

We got this for our little boy, thinking he would grow into the writing stage and be able to use it more as he got older. Well, it turns out the accuracy of the writing pad is CRAZY!! My adult sister expressed her frustration at being unable to "accurately" write the letters. So for that aspect, it sucks. HOWEVER, my son is two and has learned his ABCs really well through playing with the other functions of the toy, including select the correct letter after it flashes on the screen. It is great for basic introduction to letters and stage 2 recognition of letters of the alphabet. He loves playing with it on his own. I would recommend this as a fun alphabet toy but don't expect to have your kid learn to write from the writing pad--just for fun!! For that reason, it's probably better for kids under three or those who don't yet know their letters.

I have twin 2 year olds and they fight over this toy. Both my children are learning the alphabet and phonics by playing with it. My son knows all the letters and sounds but still enjoys being quizzed by the "writing review" function. They can't control their fingers well enough to write yet, but they can push the buttons in place of writing to answer the quizzes. I show them how to write in the meantime and although the machine is particular about stroke order, I've had teachers who were worse. Stroke order is important to learn when first learning to write, so I don't mind the machine not recognizing some letters. I can always be there to explain the difference later.

The only problem I have is that is not very durable; I have had to replace it twice. My kids spilled milk on it and both times the milk has shorted out the boards.

Very frustrating toy - my 4 1/2 year old child threw it and started crying. I was shocked to see her get so upset, which rarely happens. So, I thought I would try it out - and it appears vtech doesn't like the way I write my letters either. The screen that shows the result of your writing is of poor quality - similar to the signature pads on card-swiping equipment at check out lines. This piece of junk is the biggest disappointment.

We got this toy as a Christmas gift for our son. It is a [...]. For a 2-3 yr old, who is just learning the writing, it requires prefect letters. It is frustrating and demoralizes smart little kids.
Also, the writing sensors are not good. It will sometimes not capture the writing. Keep on shouting with same volume level. Should have mild volume level also.
Very frustrating toy and will not recommend.