LeapFrog Learn & Groove Alphabet Drum

This toy seemed like a great idea and I bought it for my 1 year son with great expectations. It is a small drum, that lights up and plays music and sounds when tapped. My son loves to tap on the table, so it seemed like the perfect gift for him. Unfortunately, I was disapointed due to some serious design flaws.

The drum has 3 different playing modes: Alphabet mode, music mode and dancing mode. On alphabet mode, every time it is tapped upon, it displays a letter of the alphabet while speaking it loud, in order. On music mode, it plays music and rhythmic lights, inviting the kid to tap on the drum and in dancing mode, it tries to suggest movement to the kid with voice commands and pictures (clap your hands, hit the drum, etc).

The drum has 2 language settings (English or Spanish) and also a volume control (low and high settings). The high setting is not very loud.

Unlike some other reviewers say, this drum does not teach counting. They probably refer to an older drum model from leapfrog (look for leapfrog learning drum here on amazon). This one only teaches the alphabet.

In all, this seemed a great idea to me. The drums' reaction to the child movements would encourage tapping on it, teaching cause/effect relationship. I did not care much about the alphabet as my son is too young for that, but didn't mind if he got some introduction to it anyway.

So, what are the design flaws?

Well, to start, the sound made by the drum when hit is very low. On music and dancing mode, you can barely hear it as it is completely shaded by the background music, which is played independently of hitting the drum. Still on the music and dancing modes, the drum lights follow some random patterns, that is, they keep drawing figures on the drum whether it is being hit or not. When a child taps the drum, the figures change, but as they would have changed anyway, it is not easy to realize that the change was caused by hitting.

So much for cause/effect relationship on these 2 modes.

Only on the alphabet mode, it is easier to realize that tapping the drum has an effect on it, as it speaks loudly and displays a letter in reaction. For my one year baby though, this effect is not very interesting, as he will tap very quickly on the drum causing the alphabet to be interrupted and he will not even look at the letter because his little hand is tapping on it. I believe that with time, he may do it more patiently.

Another terrible flaw is the sound made by hitting the drum, if you manage to hear it. There are several different possible sounds (as if they were the sounds of a multiple drum table), some of them quite nice, others quite boring. And it doesn't seem to be a way of choosing the sound, so sometimes your hit is rewarded with a clear sound, other times with a barely noticeable thugh.

In all, these flaws completely remove one of the things I expected my kid to learn from this toy, which is cause/effect relationship. So far, he has not been enthusiastic of the toy, though he will play with it for a few minutes if I show it to him and tap on it first.

My recently one year old twin grandsons love this toy.It far exceeded my expectaions.The graphics are great both for the alphabet and the numbers and they enjoy the dancing figure with the music.They love music and really do learn and groove with this interactive toy.The age guidelines on this toy are appropriate and I look forward to them combining the drum with their maracas as they grow and become increasingly creative with these toys.

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I bought this drum for my 7 month old and he enjoys it quite a bit.It seems to have a very repetetive program in the drum and music modes (a 7 month old can't tell the difference, but I would expect that an older child would).Overall it's pretty nice and the volume control is especially appreciated.

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I got this for my daughter and she loves it.She likes to roll it around on the floor and hit/kick it.She was a little under 6 months old when I got it and was having a little hard time sitting up (no problem crawling though), and after having this toy, she got sitting up down pat within a couple of days.It allowed her to lean on it for support while she played it.Plus, it encouraged her to sit up.

She loves pounding on it with her hands for quite some time.Like one other reviewer said, I do wish that you could hear the drumming that the child actually makes a little better.I wish that there was a mode where it only made a sound when you "drummed" on it, but oh well... can't have everything.

Her daddy loves it too.They spend a lot of time after he gets off work playing with the drum and dancing to the music.They have gotten quite a bit of quality "Daddy-Baby" time in.

It is also nice that it shuts off when it hasn't been moved for quite some time.I am sure this really has saved on some batteries.It has some type of sensor in it that can tell if the drum is on its side or if it is upright.If it is on its side and it rolls a little bit, it kicks on, but that isn't a problem.It helps keep the baby interested in it when she bumps it.Also, if it is on its side, it functions differently in the modes.For example, if it is in the "A-B-C" mode, then when it is on its side, it works more like a normal drum.I guess the thinking is if it is on its side, then the child can't see the lights to learn the ABC and is using it more like a drum tucked underneath their arm.I don't know, but just a guess.

I also love the volume.The soft is pretty soft where you can easily talk over it and it is more like background noise.The loud isn't too loud so I was able to take it to the doctor's office and have her play with it in the exam room without other patients being able to hear it outside of the room.

Overall, I would highly recommend this toy.My daughter (and husband) like playing with it.She loves the sounds, rolling it around, chewing on it, and the lights.Very good buy!

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My son received this toy for his first birthday. We thought it would be a fantastic learning device for cause and effect (banging = sounds). Instead, we discovered what another reviewer did, and that's how inaudible the actual drum sounds are. There is constant background music on each setting that completely drowns out the drum sounds. If I show him how to hit the drum with his hand, he'll do it for a few seconds. But soon, he walks away because he can't distinguish between the soft drum noise and the rest of the music that is playing and doesn't realize he's doing anything at all. It's a little frustrating, but maybe it'll be of more value to us when he's more familiar with the alphabet. Light show, maybe, but definitely not a "drum."