Teaching Young Children To Use The Mouse

I do not know about anyone else, but my kids like to do everything I do, including using the computer on their own! I used to work for a company where I taught computer classes for children as young as 3. Since I did a post a couple of weeks ago on some fun computer programs, I thought I would add a few quick tips that I learned to help teach a child to use the mouse a little easier.

The first and easiest tip I can give is to find a small sticker and put it on the mouse for the main mouse button (usually the far left). I use a happy face sticker. Something easy so when my son is using the mouse he knows that his "clicker finger" goes on the happy face and when he is trying to select something on the screen all I have to say is, "push the happy face." It's a simple tip, but it seems to make using the computer less stressful.

The only other problem I have now is that my 2 year old daughter sees her brother using the computer and she wants to do it, too. Her problem was that she had a general idea that her finger (or more like fingers in her case) needed to be on the happy face, but her other fingers kept pushing the right button causing other screens to pop up. The solution? I put a sticker on the other key to help her know that her middle finger needs to go on the right mouse button. That did not help her as much as I hoped until I put a sticker on the side of the mouse where her thumb is supposed to go. That was the key! She now knows where her thumb and first 2 fingers go and it makes things a lot easier for her. Also another bonus is my son likes it, too. I'll see him match up his fingers before he uses the mouse.

As much as I do not like to encourage computer use in children so young, I can not avoid it and there are a lot of educational programs out that he can explorer when I need him to be occupied for a few minutes here and there.

Additional Tips: If you are going to use more than one sticker and try to make each one different. I use a spiral sticker, happy face sticker and a heart sticker.