Child Friendly Setup


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I want to set up a system for my son, who is almost 4. He doesn't have the dexterity quite yet to master the right and left clicks. He sometimes clicks the right button simutaneously and that can screw things up.

Are there programs or tweaks that can make XP a little more child friendly? Things like disabling the right-click or making both buttons function the same.

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Personally, I would not change anything and be patient. My son started playing with the computer on my lap at 2. Now, at 5, he has his own login and password. I setup his desktop with icons for his websites, but he navigates them at will. I told my wife that now that he is reading some, it is time we start paying attention to what he is doing. For the past year and a half, he would just go upstairs boot the computer, login and start playing games to surfing the web by himself. Yes, he makes errors and mistakes. That is fine, he will learn.

Note: My son picked up my old cell phone the other day, popped off the back and asked to borrow "my card" to make the phone work. He knew that the phone was missing a sim card so it would not dial. I guess he has been paying attention to dad even when I don't think he is...

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Well, I'm torn on this one. On the one hand, I want to say to leave it as-is and let him develop fine motor skills - it'll have to happen anyway and the earlier he does it the better off he'll be. On the other hand, I'm no stranger to frustration and have many times declared it my vilest mortal enemy, and I certainly sympathize with the little guy.

What you might actually try is a mouse with greater resistance under the buttons themselves. It sounds like it's a muscle-control issue wherein he presses with one finger and the others get pulled down along with it. A mouse with stiffer buttons may be able to resist the pressure of his unintentional finger motion whilst still allowing the right finger to press the right button.

As for utilities, I'm not aware of any offhand but I'll look for one.

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they used to have a registry patch for the first years at my old primary school that disabled the right-click button, and a lot of the system icons on a per-user basis, I know a few people there want to see if I can get a copy?

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Personally, I would not change anything and be patient. ...

Absolutely.

My daughter has just tuned 4. Although she has no concept of how a GUI works, she knows how to double-click on the icons on her desktop to start playing her films.

Give it time. Kids pick this sort of thing up really quickly, and they don't mind being shown over and over again how to do it right. It's all a game. Play the "game" together and enjoy watching your son become good at it. Imo, if you change how you interact with a computer at this age it can only have a detrimental effect long-term.

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