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Gadgets: Computer Gadgets Get `Downsized' For Children This back-to-school season, clothes aren't the only products you can buy specially fitted for your children. Now, you can buy custom computer gadgets, too. That's what Wendy Brewer recently did after noticing that her 10-year-old-daughter Kayla's hands and the family computer mouse didn't quite fit. Ms. Brewer says Kayla's small hands could barely spread across the mouse and move it. To click, Ms. Brewer says her daughter was lifting her hand completely off the device and using one finger. So when the 39-year-old mother in Rowlett, Texas, noticed a small mouse specially geared for kids at a local Wal-Mart six months ago, she snatched it up. "She has an easier time using a mouse now than she did before," Ms. Brewer says of her daughter. "She loves it." With September quickly approaching, parents in search of computer products that young children can use for homework -- or fun -- have an increasing array of options. A growing number of the gadgets are sized and designed to meet kids' needs. "People have really begun to realize that there is an issue here and they can change it by addressing the design," says Alan Hedge, director of the human factors and ergonomics laboratory at Cornell University, who studies the ergonomics of kids and computers and says there has been an upshot in computing products aimed at kids in the past year. One company, KidzMouse , which since 2001 has offered small-size mouses for children that click when the top or sides are lightly squeezed, is in the process of expanding its product line. Early next month, the company's first keyboard, KidzMouse Keys, will make its debut in stores. The $29.95 keyboard aimed at children ages two to 10 has 67 keys rather than the standard 104 (among the missing: "F" function keys and a right-side number section). Keys also are rounded to fit children's hands, and the board drains at the bottom to capture spills. In September, a slightly larger "small" mouse ($29.95) from the company for kids ages nine to 12 will also hit stores. More mainstream computer-accessory companies are also coming out with their own products for children's computing. In September, Logitech of Fremont, Calif., plans to launch two mouses for children ages three to eight, two-thirds the size of a regular computer mouse and with ladybug and football designs. In July, Kensington Technology Group launched its "Keyboard for Life" ($14.99), a full-size keyboard with a "spill-safe" design that drains at the bottom; earlier this year, the company expanded its mini-mouse line aimed at travelers and parents. Well-known children's brands are getting involved too. Walt Disney Co. this month announced its "Disney Dream Desk PC" ($599 for the computer and $299 for the monitor) aimed at children ages six to 11. The product features an "ergonomically designed, kid-sized mouse" and a 14-inch flat-panel LCD monitor, complete with Mickey Mouse ears. The new devices come as the number of children computing continues to grow. According to a 2003 Yankelovich Youth Monitor study sponsored by Disney, 79% of six- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. live in homes with a computer, and 17% have one in their room. "We found that both parents and kids are really excited about something that makes a computer fun to use as well as being smaller," says Kim Hoffman, product manager at Logitech, which says its earlier kids' mouse, on the market for a short period in the 1990s, didn't do well because technology then required that users restart their computers when they wanted to change mouses. In the past few years, concerns have also mounted that children's use of computers, especially those designed for adults, could result in an increase in musculoskeletal disorders of the hands, wrist, neck and back in children. The International Ergonomics Association established a special committee in 2000 to research problems arising from children's use of computers. For young children, say under age nine, experts recommend looking for a smaller mouse so kids don't have to spread their hands out to use it, which could cause soft tissue or nerve injuries that start as pain in the hands and wrist. For older children, however, regular-size products often work fine. How to tell if a product fits your child? If a child has to spread his or her fingers apart to grip a mouse, then it's too large, experts say. As for a keyboard, with a relaxed hand, a little finger should be able to reach the enter key and if a hand has to stretch to do so, then the keyboard is too big, Prof. Hedge says.
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