Gadgets and gizmos top gifts for one-year-olds

Amitabh Bachchan recently wrote on his blog that his one-year-old granddaughter Aaradhya (Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's daughter) operates the iPad by herself and tunes into nursery rhymes and TV shows of her choice.

Some years ago this would come as a surprise or perhaps even a shock to the older generation, but not today. In fact, young parents in the city share that toys, stuffed toys are passe now. Gadgets and gizmos top the list of gifts for their toddlers.
Young mom Deepti Chadha shares a picture of her son Neil who at the age of three months is propped up on the table, watching a cartoon show on the iPad. Today, Neil is a year old and a tech-savvy kid. Similarly, Megha Roy says it's quite a task to separate her two sons - Ayaan (18 months) and Vivaan (4 years old) - when they're fighting over the gadget. A confident Ayaan can fully operate the gadget and maneuver through the many icons. At times, when he can't, big brother steps in to help him. Megha shares, "Ayaan watches cartoons, plays games and generally browses through the applications. At that age, we were probably content with a teddy bear. But kids these days just catch on so fast. So it's almost like the iPad is theirs rather than ours!"
Entrepreneur Navya Malhotra bought a tablet PC just for her 10-month-old daughter Nia. Nia will turn a year old in another two months and she's already mastered the tablet PC. "She would keep pointing to our gadget and initially we downloaded kiddie apps but then my husband and I decided to get her her own tablet which can be constantly updated," Navya says. "There was a time when we wondered about how parents were handing out mobile phones to 13-year-old kids but with the way things are going, I think Nia would probably have her own phone by the time she turns three. It's amazing to sit and watch her slide her finger across apps, smile excitedly when something she loves pops up on the screen. At times her focus is so much that you would think she actually fully understands the words, etc. We are even using it to teach Nia the alphabet, colours, rhymes etc," she adds.
The kids' room at the Rai residence is furnished with a mini laptop and a small television set. Suhana Rai, who describes herself as part-time entrepreneur and full-time mom, says, "Both my babies (five-year-old Divya and one-and-a-half-year-old Soham) have fixed timings with the two tech-gadgets. Soham uses the remote and can flick through the television till he reaches a cartoon channel. In fact, we bought the television set only three months ago for him. On the laptop, he can even play games once we turn it on for him."
Family counsellor Parul Desai says that parents should encourage their young kids. "It channelises their skills and knowledge. And let's face it, in a few years, children here will be educated via these gadgets rather than books. It's already happening. So the more tech-savvy your child, the better," she says. But Parul also advises that their liking for these gadgets should be used for "edutainment". "Instead of playing random games, they should play word games, match the following and other things from which they will learn. Every generation is just getting smarter. Today we are talking about one-year-olds; tomorrow the age will be lowered to six months," she says.