Average Price: $29.99
Availability: Widely available online and off
Product Link: Learning Walker
Rating:

This toy is a durable plastic, walker toy with a separate snap-on panel that has assorted noise-making toys, rolling wheels and gears, and a telephone handset.

WALKER

This walker is very stable. It is hard to tip over even when it runs into things. When on a wood or tiled floor the wheels turn pretty quickly which makes it a little hard for a new walker to keep up, but this teaches balance and control and makes sure that they aren’t just using the walker to lean on. Since the wheels are plastic, they can slip around a bit on most surfaces. It would have been nice to have some sort of rubber or texture for friction to prevent it from slipping quite so much.

My son was briefly enthralled by the walker and the independence of movement that it offered him. He quickly learned how to balance on his own, though, and moved on to the tried and true “walk until you fall” method. He still loves pushing this walker around the same way you’d push a stroller or a toy car. This is a good thing, though, if he had become dependent on the walker then it wouldn’t have served its purpose.

THE TOY PANEL

The toy panel that attaches to the front side of the walker is easily detachable with a lever, and can be placed on the floor for children that can sit up well but aren’t yet pulling up to a standing position. The toys held my son’s interest longer than the “walker” aspect did. There are three “gears”, three spinning rollers, 5 piano keys, a barn door that opens and closes, a cow-shaped button, three shape sorters with buttons, a sun button, and a telephone handset. After a few months of having the toy he’s still able to lose himself in the activity panel for quite a long time.

There are two volume settings and a switch that allows you to choose “speech” or “music” modes. Depending on which setting you have on, the different toys do different things. For example, in the “music” mode, the shape sorters will play electronic riffs. In the “speech” mode, they may say the name of the shape, the color of the shape, or the name of the vegetable that is inside the shape.

The telephone makes various sounds including an old fashioned telephone ringing sound, and a woman’s voice that says “thank you for calling” when the telephone hangs up. My son likes to pick up the headset and walk around with it, trying to get us to hold it to our heads and say “hello hello”. If one of us says “hello hello” to him, he’ll make a mad dash for the headset toy and pick it up. It’s too cute for words. The headset itself is just a rattle, all of the sounds are connected to the toy panel itself. This doesn’t prevent it from being a fun toy all on its own. My son likes to walk around shaking it and handing it to us to “talk” into.

When the toy panel hasn’t been played with for a short time, the “welcome” song repeats itself, something that frequently reactivates the child’s interest in the toy. If Junior still isn’t interested, then the toy goes to sleep to preserve battery power.

Something is slightly odd with the quality of either the recording or the playback. The high end is cut off of all the sounds which makes the woman’s voice sound nasal. The quality of audio from most children’s plastic toys leaves something to be desired, however, so I wouldn’t hold this too much against the toy.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE

There are, perhaps, too many different educational things happening with this toy. Different things happen with the different controls that can be a bit confusing. For example, the shape sorters may say the name of the shape, the color of the shape, make various electronic riff sounds, or say the name of the fruit or vegetable that is on the shape. The piano keys say the names of colors, the names of the animal that is on the key, or they make the sound of the animal that is on the key. Children this young may just blank out the information instead of absorbing it.

That said, it does a great job of teaching that different objects can have more than one attribute. The fact that an object is a “triangle” does not preclude it from being red. This may be a bit too nuanced for a 6-14 month old to grasp, however.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

This walker is 18″ tall, and 13″ wide. It assembles quickly with three basic steps: Attach the legs, attach the handle, attach the activity panel. It can be collapsed by releasing the two locks on the underside of the handle, pulling the handle out, and pushing the legs into the collapsed position. Unfortunately the handle cannot be attached while the walker is collapsed, which means you have an additional piece to lose track of. However, this prevents the walker from being used while it’s in an unstable and unlocked position.

This walker uses 3 AA batteries which are included. (Note: if you purchase this from a retail store your unit might be somewhat used, as the open packaging allows customers to test-drive the different parts of the toy panel. This is a good thing, as it allows you to ensure your unit is functional before purchasing, and a bad thing as your batteries will be slightly drained by the time you get this toy home. Battery life is excellent, however, and we have yet to have to replace the batteries after months of use.

CONCLUSION:

The only real issue I have with the walker is that the back wheels are too close together so the baby must sort of lean forward when pushing, a stance that is somewhat less than optimal for new walkers. (Parents can relate, as this is something that most umbrella strollers force US to do!) My son opts to stand off to the side and push it around single-handed. A slightly wider wheel spread in the back could have taken care of this problem and allowed the child to walk more normally while pushing the walker.

This is a fun toy that definitely assists the “learning to walk” process. The noise making aspects of this toy may get on your nerves- but the toy panel is almost just as much fun when switched to “off”. Long after your child has learned to walk they’ll still be interested in the activity panel, and in pushing the toy around.