Method and apparatus for promoting alphabetic and mathematic learning using a computerized educational toy appliance

Abstract

An electronic educational toy designed to stimulate the development of a child's mind, the educational toy providing audio and/or visual prompts to present a problem to the child whose solution is entered by the child manipulating the toy.

1 .- 3  (canceled)  
     
     
         4 . An educational toy for teaching letters and/or spelling to a child comprising: 
 an object having a plurality of letters thereon, the object capable of being hand manipulated by a child into a plurality of orientations relative to a support structure;    a display screen upon which letters may be temporarily made to appear for viewing by a child;    a speaker for providing audio output;    the display screen capable of displaying a visual prompt including one or more letters and the speaker capable of providing an audio prompt, the visual and audio prompts cooperating to present a problem to the child whose solution is entered by the child manipulating the object, the problem having at least one correct letter response;    a button designed to be actuated by a child after manipulating the object into a desired orientation to indicate the child has completed his/her attempt to respond to the prompt;    a detector capable of detecting the letter selected by the child as a result of the child's manipulation of the object; and    audio feedback output via the speaker to the child to indicate to the child whether the letter selected by the child corresponds to a correct response.    
     
     
         5 . An educational toy as in  claim 4 , wherein the processor prompts with different levels of difficulty.  
     
     
         6 . An educational toy as in  claim 5 , wherein the processor generates more difficult questions depending on the user having provided correct previous answers.  
     
     
         7 . An educational toy as in  claim 4 , wherein educational software is capable of being loaded into the toy by the users thereof via a portable memory.  
     
     
         8 . An educational toy as in  claim 4 , wherein the toy prompts the child to try again if the child incorrectly responds to the problem.  
     
     
         9 . An educational toy for teaching numbers and/or numerical operations to a child comprising: 
 an object having a plurality of numbers thereon, the object capable of being hand manipulated by a child into a plurality of rotational orientations relative to a support structure;    a display screen upon which numbers may be temporarily made to appear for viewing by a child;    a speaker for providing audio output;    the display screen capable of displaying a visual prompt including one or more numbers and the speaker capable of providing an audio prompt, the visual and audio prompts cooperating to present a problem to the child whose solution is entered by the child manipulating the object, the problem having at least one correct number response;    a button designed to be actuated by a child after manipulating the object into a desired orientation to indicate the child has completed his/her attempt to respond to the prompt;    a detector capable of detecting the number selected by the child as a result of the child's manipulation of the object; and    audio feedback output via the speaker to the child to indicate to the child whether the number selected by the child corresponds to a correct response.    
     
     
         10 . An educational toy as in  claim 9 , wherein the processor prompts with different levels of difficulty.  
     
     
         11 . An educational toy as in  claim 10 , wherein the processor generates more difficult questions depending on the user having provided correct previous answers.  
     
     
         12 . An educational toy as in  claim 9 , wherein educational software is capable of being loaded into the toy by the users thereof via a portable memory.  
     
     
         13 . An educational toy as in  claim 9 , wherein the toy prompts the child to try again if the child incorrectly responds to the problem.  
     
     
         14 . A portable memory to add educational software to an electronic educational toy by a user thereof, the portable memory comprising: 
 a portable memory housing designed to be compatible with and inserted into a portable memory receiving device associated with the electronic toy by the user thereof;    a memory medium contained in the portable memory housing; and    educational software embodied on the memory medium for use with a processor in the educational toy, the computer software having:    data for use by the processor to generate a visual prompt to be temporarily displayed by a display screen and an audio prompt to be output by a speaker, the visual and audio prompts cooperating to present a problem to the child whose solution is entered by the child manipulating an object into one of a plurality of rotational orientations relative to a support structure, the object having a plurality of numbers or letters thereon;    data for use by the processor to determine whether the child's cognitive selection as indicated by the child's manipulation of the object corresponds to a correct response to the problem; and    data for use by the toy processor to generate audio feedback output via the speaker to the child to indicate to the child whether the child's selections corresponds to a correct response, the feedback provided after the child actuates a button after manipulating the object into a desired orientation to indicate the child has completed his/her attempt to respond to the prompt.