Baby ROM

$19.95, Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)

Teaches: letters, colors, counting, body parts

CTR Review

Designed for parents and babies to play together, this is a collection of five, three-level activities dealing with numbers, colors, shapes and body parts. We enjoyed testing this program with a 7 month old and a 4 year old. The baby tester was very interested as she watched faces while teething on the mouse cable, and while banging on the keys (causing just one crash). The five activities are easy to start and stop. The test-baby's favorite was Baby Chat, in which pressing any key shows one of about 20 funny baby faces on the screen. The hardest level asks children to click on an emotion to see a face. None of the activities really made sense to her. Like any baby, she can't understand the full relationship between her "bangs" on the keyboard and the changes on the screen (Although she may understand that her random hits will make something happen on the screen.) She just enjoyed hitting the keys, sitting in a cozy lap, listening to the music and watching the funny baby faces. For the 4-year old tester, experienced with the mouse and other software, the activities had little holding power. After she had done them once, she was finished, and wanted to play with other games. While the claim that this program "teaches basic learning skills to babies and toddlers" is far-fetched, we found the program to be harmless (considering the price), and the baby faces were fun for the test-baby to watch. While we wouldn't recommend buying a program just for your baby, if you really can't wait, you and your baby may enjoy this one.