Games for Teaching Preschoolers How to Use a Mouse

With technology playing a significant role in daily life, it is important for children to learn to use a computer. Toddlers as young as 3-years old can be taught to manipulate a computer mouse to access child-friendly learning games. Since their minds are constantly ready to learn, creating learning games to teach a preschooler to use a mouse is also fairly simple.

  1. Control the Mouse

    • Before a preschooler can use a computer, he needs to learn how to hold and manipulate the mouse. Ensure you have a child-sized mouse that fits comfortably in his hand and requires only one button to click. Demonstrate how the mouse controls the cursor on the computer and have him move the mouse side to side and up and down to see the cursor moving in the same directions. A game of Simon says can be used to teach him the basic directional movements of the mouse.

    Click It

    • Children naturally enjoy the clicking sound the mouse makes and may attempt to click continuously loading many programs on the computer. For this reason, it is important to teach your preschooler what the button on the mouse is and how it is used. Teach her to click the button one time if she wants to access a program. Many online child-friendly games only require the child to click once so teaching her to double click will likely not be necessary. Practice clicking the mouse through a game similar to red-light, green-light. When you say the words ̶0;click it̶1; she has to click the mouse once, but when you do not say anything she has to try to keep her finger still so as not to accidentally click the button.

    Online Games

    • There are a variety of child-friendly online games that can be easily accessed. Ensure you install a pop-up blocker and parental controls before accessing the Internet with your preschooler. Visit the pages together with your preschooler and select games that require simple manipulation of the mouse. Teach him to use the mouse to press the ̶0;play̶1; button and then listen to the spoken directions. Guide him through the game until he is comfortable playing the game on his own.

    Finger Paints Can Help

    • Using a mouse pad is probably the easiest way to teach a preschooler to manipulate a mouse. The mouse pad requires her to use her finger to guide the cursor which is similar to the movements she makes when coloring or painting with finger paint. Since she does not have to hold anything in her hand, she can quickly learn that the movements she makes guide the cursor. When the computer is off, she can continue to practice these skills through finger painting.

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