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The Learning Drum from LeapFrog is a new innovation for babies of six months and over, introducing phonics and counting in an appropriate and fun way. It's a bold, bright and solid toy which is just right for the age for when babies reach that sitting up stage, and would otherwise be deriving pleasure from banging on your pots and pans. In each of the four modes, a tap on the top of the drum makes a drum sound and provokes a response in lights and speech or music. In "abc" mode, the toy will provoke play with flashing lights and a cry of "Hi, lets play the drum--a, b, c" and each pat of the electronic "drum skin" brings a new letter up on display with accompanying speech, all the way from a to z if 26 pats are done in sequence. In this way, a baby's natural boisterous play is harnessed to develop unconscious learning of the alphabet and familiarisation with the shapes and sounds of the letters. The "123" mode likewise encourages repetitive pats to reveal more numbers in sequence, up to 10. In "drum"
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mode, babies are given a sequence of taps to copy and are complimented highly when they get it right, encouraging co-ordination through the use of rhythm. In "music" mode, the drum says "let's sing and play", appealing to babies to play the drum, this time with each pat producing a note and a different panel of lights to illuminate the drum skin. Babies at the younger age of this age group may find it a challenge to always hit the drum hard enough to provoke the lights and sounds, but an encouraging extra hand will suffice and once the concept has been grasped there'll be lots of enthusiasm for play on their own. The on/off switch which also controls the modes of the drum is a bit sophisticated and fiddly for very little fingers and will probably be operated by older playmates. Overall, this is a toy with lots of learning potential, and those whose little drummers find it too irresistible will be relieved that it also has that most welcome of features, a volume control. --Rachel Ediss
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