VTech® Developmental Learning Toys Honored With Dr. Toy's Best Vacation Children's Products Awards

CHICAGO, July 24, 2014  /PRNewswire/ -- VTech® (www.vtechkids.com), a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children, today announced its Write & Learn Touch Tablet™ and Lil' Speller Phonics Station™ are recipients of Dr. Toy's Best Vacation Children's Products Awards, recognizing the top educational products that keep children engaged and learning when school is out.

The Write & Learn Touch Tablet, an electronic drawing tablet for ages three to six, has been a standout of the 2014 awards season, winning four accolades from leading parenting and industry organizations to date this year. The Lil' Speller Phonics Station, an interactive speech-building and spelling aid for ages three to six, comes with more than two dozen storable letter blocks and is equipped with a handle for easy travel. Dr. Toy's report includes safe, affordable and educational products designed to assist children to play and learn at home and while on vacation.

"These new innovations continue our tradition of creating high-quality, durable products that educate and engage children on every level," said William To, President, VTech Electronics North America. "It's an added bonus that these toys are ideal for travel and let children actively learn during the summer months and beyond. We are thrilled to be recognized by Dr. Toy for these qualities."

The Write & Learn Touch Tablet offers a progressive approach to early writing skills as children trace lines, shapes, objects, letters and numbers on the drawing screen. Playful sounds and animations bring letters to life while children practice early writing skills through six learning activities and 19 animated stories that build language skills and encourage them to draw. Kids can play a fun hide and seek game to explore letters and numbers with a variety of animals or be creative with Free Draw and draw anything they wish like a true artist! (MSRP: $19.99, ages 3-6)

The Lil' Speller Phonics Station lets children build and learn words with fun sounds, melodies and animations that encourage interactive learning and reinforce words. They can discover letter names and hear their sounds by plugging in the letter blocks one by one, or learn letter order by determining which letter is missing, then plug in the correct letter block to complete the letter order. With the help of the Spelling Bee, kids can learn to spell more than 200 common three-letter words. When they've mastered the basics, they can take the Spelling Bee's challenge. If they spell the words correctly, they advance to a bonus rhyming game. The Lil' Speller Phonics Station includes 26 letter blocks and four extra blocks to spell words like "mom" and "dad." It also features a handle and all of the blocks can be stored inside for easy travel. (MSRP: $24.99, ages 3-6)

"VTech's Write & Learn Touch Tablet and Lil' Speller Phonics Station are highly recommended to keep young minds stimulated and sharp during the summer," said Dr. Stevanne Auerbach, a leading child development expert and founder of Dr. Toy. "These toys met our top testing criteria for new, diverse products that children will enjoy as they increase learning skills, help keep their minds alert and expand creativity during the summer and beyond. These are the kinds of products that offer a lot of lasting value throughout the year."

VTech works closely with a panel of children's learning specialists on the development of its infant and preschool learning products.  Each one of the Expert Panel members specializes in developmental or educational fields for children from birth through nine years of age. VTech and the Expert Panel collaborate to ensure their products and content deliver the best learning experience possible for every child at every stage of development.

Each child grows at a different pace mentally, emotionally and physically, and has different needs as they grow through various life stages. Insight from these developmental and education experts allows VTech to provide parents with guidelines and recommendations to help them make informed choices. VTech delivers an expansive selection of toys that are appropriate for their child's particular age and stage and to accompany them as they continue to grow and reach new developmental milestones. These recommendations have been compiled into a Milestones guide, which can be found at www.vtechkids.com/milestones.

For more information about the complete VTech product range, please visit www.vtechkids.com.

About VTech® 
VTech^® is a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children. As a pioneer in the learning toy category, VTech develops high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children's development and make learning fun. With a rich, almost 35 year history, VTech has not only established itself as a learning authority but also consistently remains at the forefront of innovation with award-winning products such as the InnoTab^® 3S Wi-Fi Learning Tablet, one of the first children's learning-based tablets with Wi-Fi, MobiGo^®, V.Reader^® and V.Smile^®. The Learning Lodge^®, VTech's comprehensive app store, features a robust library of more than 650 educational and entertaining games, e-Books, music and videos with engaging age-appropriate content across the widest variety of curricula, with content expanding to offer even more titles. The company also has a broad range of award-winning infant and preschool products available in 24 different languages worldwide, with more than 100 new products introduced every year. In order to further strengthen VTech's position as a learning authority, the company's Expert Panel, with esteemed experts in reading, language arts, science, math, and child development, consult on new product introductions and Learning Lodge content.

VTech Electronics North America, LLC is based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. VTech Electronics Limited is headquartered in Hong Kong with distribution globally. VTech is the largest supplier of ELPs from infancy to preschool in the US and Western Europe.

For more information on VTech's additional product lines, visit www.VTechKids.com, www.facebook.com/VTechtoys on Facebook or follow @VTechToys on Twitter.

About Dr. Toy and Dr. Toy's Best Vacation Children's Products Program

Noted child development authority, Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D. (a.k.a. Dr. Toy) has recognized the quality and value of VTech for many years.  She is author of Dr. Toy's Smart Play/Smart Toys: How to Select and Use the Best Toys and Games. She evaluates and selected best products for Dr. Toy's Guide, www.drtoy.com.

Developed by Dr. Auerbach, the Dr. Toy's Best Vacation Children's Products Program serves as a valued service to consumers who desire to purchase safe, affordable, educationally-oriented, and stimulating toys and play products for children for vacation time for use at home or on the road.

Using extensive criteria developed by Dr. Auerbach over many years, Dr. Toy's Best Vacation Children's Products are very carefully chosen from among hundreds reviewed at toy fairs, in catalogs, and through many other sources. The criteria includes: safety, age-appropriateness, design, durability, lasting play value, cultural and ethnic diversity, good transition from home to school, educational value, learning skills, creativity, improvement in the understanding of the community and the world, good value for price, and, naturally, fun.

The report of winning toys for Dr. Toy's Best Vacation Children's Products for 2014 is available to parents, teachers and others interested in play and toys on Dr. Toy's Guide at www.drtoy.com.

SOURCE VTech