Teach Your Toddler How to Use a Mouse

It wasn't too frustrating for me to teach our toddler how to use a mouse when I introduced him to the computer and online games. He picked it up pretty quickly. I sat down with him and took some time to show him what the mouse was, what each button did, and how to move the mouse around.

I started off teaching our toddler how to use a mouse with our laptop. I figured it would be easier for him to learn about the mouse and basic movement by attempting it on the laptop first. Since the mousepad on laptops is a flat area, it created a platform similar to drawing or writing.

Once I showed him how to move the arrow around using the mouse, next I introduced him to the left click button. I showed him the difference between clicking once, which he does most of the time, and clicking twice, or double clicking. I have yet to show him what the right click button is or how to use it since I don't think he has any need to use it just yet. That is more for advanced use later on as he gets older.

I found a neat online game that teaches toddlers how to use the mouse. It's really simple to play and quickly teaches your toddler how to move with the mouse and click on objects.

Finaly, when our 3 year old knew how to successfully use the laptop mouse I then introduced him to a regular mouse. I think that because he already knew the basics of how the mouse needed to be moved and all, he picked up on how to use the regular mouse right away. All I had to do was show him one time how to move the mouse and the left click button and he was off on his own!

If you don't have both a laptop and desktop computer, you can always just introduce your little one to the regular mouse first. Just follow the simple steps I've outlined above, set him/her up real quick to play the game (link above) that teaches mouse use and before you know it, they too will be off on their own! Now it's time for them to really have some fun....(and you to get some me time).