First the description: You open it up, slip in the book --simple enough for my son (3 yrs old) to do himself, even changing the cartridge - and switch it on, you are set! This is an incredible improvement over LeapPad and My First LeapPad for a totally self directed learning experience. He has never ended up frustrated while using this toy.
About the add-ons, I currently have two and he enjoys the I Spy even though he is not in the recommended age group. He is able to follow along anything it requires. The volume slide is so nice and easy vs having to hit + and symbols with a pen on the LeapPads. The Blues Clues one is for his age group and he loves that too.
Now for more comparisons:
I own both the Leap Pad, and the My first Leap Pad for my now 3 year old son. I would pass on that and go for this toy. After more than 1 1/2 years of owning them, I still need to pull them out for him, and watch over and remind him to hit the GO circle etc. In fact, he probably prefers a paper book to them, given that with normal 23 yr old boy handling, the pen's contacts are iffy, and the pads shut off at random etc after just a few months of use. I have to say, he does truly enjoy the Dora, Thomas, Jay-Jay, Bob the Builder, Bear in the Big Blue house etc. theme books for the Leap Pad / My First Leap Pad also.
And as for Leap Pad Plus, lets just say that the same GO circle, and delicate pen problems still exist for a rambunctious boy :-) I DO like the Imagination Desk, which does get him coloring and sounding out letters and words quite a bit, especially with Pooh Bear, or Clifford. Wish they had a familiar character themed alphabet book too for that as well as the leap pad. If you look at the parent complaining about a stray wrist making other stuff on the page sound out with the Power Touch, imagine a stray pen touch resetting the entire page to some other GO circle. Much easier to teach them to point. At least, here the sounds relate to the page under view always. I pull out the Leap Pad occasionaly if I have a sore throat and can't get through the dozens of books he likes for night time reading. My son pulls out and plays with the Power Touch by himself. Enough said with that...
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We just bought this for my 2-year-old daughter for her birthday after having played with the display at Target over and over again. Her first response was "WOW!". This book is a big improvement over the LeapPad systems as it allows your child to use his/her finger to guide them rather than a pen. It is definitely more user-friendly for the younger kids because they do not need to touch the "go" circle to make the book work; a concept good for the older kids only. It comes with 2 books to get started: A Sesame Street book and a k-2 grade learning guide. If fisher price can get their power touch library expanded to include more titles sooner rather than later, it will give Leappad a run for its money.
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...First of all this goes from ages 3-8 instead of leap pads two age groups. (my first leap pad only 3-5 and regular is 4-8). Secondly I like that he points with his finger like you would in a regular book. Who reads a book with a pen? I would rather teach him to read without the stylus. It is a great product I am just hoping to see more books especially phonics.
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I first bought the "little touch leap pad" by Leap Frog for my son two months ago (which is actually the system in the leap frog series for the very youngest children, ages 6-36 months, NOT the leap frog system with the pen), and the Power Touch two weeks ago.
The Power Touch is a much better system for the younger child, even thought the recommended age is 3-8 yrs.
With the little touch you have to push very hard on a specific spot on the picture, pushing again and again until it makes a sound. Usually he would give up on a picture before it did anything, and it was even hard for ME to get the thing to activate! I have no idea how any 1 year old would do it, let alone a 6 month old!!! I was amazed to see how sensitive the Power Touch was (it would even activate if I only placed my finger in the air right over the picture!). And yes, sometimes my son would accidently brush a picture with his wrist (like other reviewers complained about), but as soon as he touched the picture he meant too, the sound would automatically switch to that new picture, so he has never become frustrated with it. In fact, sometimes he loves to switch rapidly from one picture to another (like all 2 yr olds, he's not exactly a model of patience!) and the power touch keeps up. He was VERY frustrated with the "little touch".
Another thing is the pages of the books. Leap Pad falsely claims that the "little touch" books are made to be sturdy/untearable for 1-2 yr olds. Instead the pages were made of regular paper. I'm really surprised that that such a well known company would put misleading statements on it's box. The power touch has laminated pages which are definitely sturdier (although it would be nice if they put out the younger books in thicker pages). Also, the books for the little touch are just terrible. They focus mainly on the ABC's, shapes, numbers, (which is boring to such a young child) with nothing else. The story line of the books were way too complicated for my son to understand (and he loves most books). Power touch has characters like elmo and clifford, which he likes a lot. I wish Power Touch had more books available, but one book really does have a zillion different pictures and activities that grow with the child.
Lastly, that dumb green "go" button on the Leap pad made it impossible for him to play with it by himself, and I had to always be pushing it every time he flipped a page back or forward, which constantly distracted him from the book. He wanted to read on his own, but I had to lean over and reset each page, or the words and sounds would be for a different page (now that is MUCH more confusing to a 2 yr old than accidently setting off a sound w/ a brush of the wrist)!
He plays with the power touch for an hour at a time, and loves it. He can read it all by himself, turn to any page he wants, and he even learned to change the books himself after a week! (The Power Touch books are so simple to change).
When he is older, maybe 4 or 5, I will probably get him a leap frog system with a pen (the leap pad for 4-8 yr olds), so he'll be able to get practice with writing, and the leap frog has a lot more for the older child. By then, he will be able to figure out the puzzling "green go" button. But until then, for a 2 or 3 year old, no system beats the Power Touch. The Little Touch Leap Pad was misleading, a complete waste of money and a big disappointment. Never have I bought a toy more disappointing, and this was expensive ([$$$] w/ a book)!
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I bought this for my daughter and she will hardly put it down. It has taught her so much in the short amount of time we have had it. It is so entertaining, with all the different characters
she loves. I would defintely recommend this over leap pad. With leap pad a small child has to remember to push the "GO" button everytime she turns the page, with fisher Price, all she does is turn the page.
