Posted by Dana Rousmaniere on January 4th, 2011 at 7:00 pm

For the next couple days, techies unite at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas each January. One of this year’s most interesting trends in technology? The fact that our kids are getting in on the action. You’ve no doubt witnessed this yourself, as your 5-year-old reprograms your DVR and your toddler taps out the alphabet on your iPad. But, to get the big picture on the newest trends in technology for kids, I called Robin Raskin, technology journalist and founder of Kids@Play/Living in Digital Times, a CES partner program. Here’s what she had to say about the future of technology for our tech-savvy little whippersnappers:

Trend 1: Touch. “You see adults everywhere on their smart phones and their tablets, and you’re going to start seeing the same thing with very small kids. They love the ability to touch, and they seem to know exactly what to do. They’re not afraid to explore. There are touchpads and exploratory tablets developed just for infants to 3-year-olds, with their own learning curriculum (with rubber around the sides for when they’re inevitably dropped!). There are blocks with computer sensors in them that are motion- and proximity-aware, so depending on which block you put where, they’ll sing, tell stories, do math puzzles, etc. The iPad has a ton of stuff for toddlers, whether for learning ABCs or looking at picture books—there’s a lot of kids’ content. These sensory technologies are probably the single biggest trend in technologies for kids.

Trend 2: Movement. “More and more, we’re losing the mouse and the joystick. Kids are getting immersed in games. Kids are part of the game and are moving their entire bodies.”

Trend 3: Building Skills. “People are starting to figure out that there’s real value to gaming. Studies are showing that the puzzles and games and challenges gaming provides are increasing skills like spatial relations and visualization.”

Trend 4: Family “Shared Devices.” “eBooks are coming down to the kids’ level. The funny thing is that companies like LeapFrog and VTech never believed they would have to compete with Apple, but the family “shared device” is becoming a big hit. Now, every toddler has to have an iPad.”

Trend 5: Kids as Content Creators. “As kids get a little older, the big trend is that they are becoming the content creators. They’re creating movies, pictures and stories. 10 hours worth of YouTube content goes up every minute, and a lot of it is created by kids.”

Trend 6: Harnessing Social Networks. “People are starting to reign in social networking for the sake of social networking, and are starting to use it to help kids do good things. For example, a lot of schools have created homework and study groups, or volunteer groups. It’s no longer just for idle chatter—there’s a lot of really positive information being shared.”

Trend 7: Multiple Learning Modalities. “We’re getting away from the traditional “drill and kill” applications, where kids are asked to solve a problem and if they get it right, a ridiculous voice congratulations them. Things are getting more sophisticated and more nuanced, with learning based on different modalities. For instance, if you can’t learn 1+1 one way, there’s an alternative way to learn it, such as through a story.”

Trend 8: Screen Time Debates. “There’s a lot of debate these days about how much screen time kids should be getting. But, a lot of pediatricians are still stuck in the days of TV, where they consider all screens to be equal. Just watch your kids interact with some of this technology—they’re engaged, they’re happy, they’re learning. Doctors who have been against screens for so long will need to wake up a little bit and realize that kids aren’t sitting passively anymore. There’s creativity there.”

Source:http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2011/01/04/time-to-get-the-kids-an-ipad-8-tech-trends-for-kids-from-ces/