{"id":26258,"date":"2025-04-19T16:44:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26258"},"modified":"2025-04-19T17:27:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T17:27:29","slug":"mike-wood-whose-leapfrog-toys-taught-a-generation-dies-at-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26258","title":{"rendered":"Mike Wood, Whose LeapFrog Toys Taught a Generation, Dies at 72"},"content":{"rendered":"
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His LeapPad tablets, which helped children read, found their way into tens of millions of homes beginning in 1999.<\/p>\n

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Mike Wood was a young father when his toddler\u2019s struggles to read led him to develop one of a generation\u2019s most fondly remembered toys.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wood\u2019s 3-year-old son, Mat, knew the alphabet but couldn\u2019t pronounce the letter sounds. A lawyer in San Francisco, Mr. Wood had a new parent\u2019s anxiety that if his child lagged as a reader, he would forever struggle in life.<\/p>\n

So on his own time, Mr. Wood developed the prototype of an electronic toy that played sounds when children squeezed plastic letters. He based the idea on greeting cards that played a tune when opened.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wood went on to found LeapFrog Enterprises, which in 1999 introduced the LeapPad, a child\u2019s computer tablet that was a kind of talking book.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The LeapPad was a runaway hit, the best-selling toy of the 2000 holiday season, and LeapFrog became one of the fastest-growing toy companies in history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Introduced in 1999, the LeapPad was a runaway hit, the best-selling toy of the 2000 holiday season.<\/span>Tony Cenicola\/The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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His LeapPad tablets, which helped children read, found their way into tens of millions of homes beginning in 1999.Mike Wood was a young father when his toddler\u2019s struggles to read led him to develop one of a generation\u2019s most fondly remembered toys.Mr. Wood\u2019s 3-year-old son, Mat, knew the alphabet but couldn\u2019t pronounce the letter sounds. A lawyer in San Francisco, Mr. Wood had a new parent\u2019s anxiety that if his child lagged as a reader, he would forever struggle in life.So on his own time, Mr. Wood developed the prototype of an electronic toy that played sounds when children squeezed plastic letters. He based the idea on greeting cards that played a tune when opened.Mr. Wood went on to found LeapFrog Enterprises, which in 1999 introduced the LeapPad, a child\u2019s computer tablet that was a kind of talking book.The LeapPad was a runaway hit, the best-selling toy of the 2000 holiday season, and LeapFrog became one of the fastest-growing toy companies in history.Introduced in 1999, the LeapPad was a runaway hit, the best-selling toy of the 2000 holiday season.Tony Cenicola\/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26260,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26258"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26261,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26258\/revisions\/26261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}