The Vtech First Steps concept:
Vtech's First Steps Baby Walker comes from the company's large stable of electronic educational toys designed to encourage "smart-play". The walker takes the traditional concept of an early walking aid to allow your not-quite-stable tot to scoot around on his own two feet, and adds a detachable electronic activity panel to encourage interaction, develop fine motor skills and introduce simple melodies, shapes and numbers.
The First Steps Baby Walker in action:
We have to confess to letting out a groan when we saw the wrapping come off granny's Christmas present: The bright, primary coloured plastic, light-up keys and chirpy audio clips were all a bit much for us. Our son, however, whose opinion is more relevant to this review, couldn't have been more delighted: He didn't know what it was, but it was quite clearly the best thing since he discovered wrapping paper. Closer inspection only deepened this initial show of enthusiasm.
At seven months, junior was too young to use the First Steps as a baby walker, but that didn't stop him from being able to have a jolly old time pushing buttons and keys and setting off lights and music. And that's one of the best things about this walker - its flexibility. Because the musical activity centre is detachable from the walker, your baby can use the toy from a very early age - long before he thinks about getting to his feet under his own steam.
There's plenty going on here to keep baby busy for a while, as well as to develop different skills as your baby grows. In fact, even if you're just looking for an activity centre for your baby, we think the Vtech walker compares quite favourably with many stand-alone activity centres in terms of content and value. At first baby will probaby be happy to randomly hit keys and buttons to watch lights go on and off and hear the different descriptions and jingles. Later he'll be able to use the butterfly to move between alphabet and music modes, take off and replace the phone, react to the 'puppy says' feature, and so on.
Once your baby is about ready for his first steps the baby walker frame will become more interesting. Before your baby is stable enough to walk alone you'll have to stay with him to guide him with the walker, but once he's walking you'll just have to try to keep up as he shoves the walker from one side of the room to another, darts from room to room or simply uses it as a convenient prop to get him where he wants to be, fast.
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As a walker, the First Steps is very stable: The handle gives a good gripping surface, the walker isn't prone to tipping and the wheels are good for traction to slow things down a little. Meanwhile the activity centre now has the added attraction to baby of being portable - ours now likes to stop, press a few buttons and have a little dance before scooting on.
The acid test for the Vtech has been our regular baby get-togethers. The First Steps is one of those few toys that all the babies make a bee-line for: A fair bit of pushing and shoving often comes in here - another reason why being able to split the walker into two parts gets a big thumbs up. Of course, not all parents are enamoured of the plastic materials and the noise, which brings us to one of the most important features; the on-off and volume switch to give parents a bit of a break! We do recommend you road-test the sound features of the First Steps Baby Walker befoore buying to see whether you can cope with it.
