Having a nephew that was in the 4-6 year old age range not all that long ago, I didn’t find today’s new about younger kids being avid gamers to be that big a shock. When my nephew was 5, he could game with the best of them.

While it takes younger children awhile to get a handle on going from one game to the next, I have found that they learn quite quickly. It is interesting that game makers are just now figuring this out on a large scale. All I can say is that it’s about time.

It looked innocent enough: an orange box with undulating edges rested on purple pedestal feet. A lavender cartridge bearing the likeness of Simba, the cuddly cub from “The Lion King,” rested in a slot in the box’s plastic face.

At the end of a cable, a bulbous purple joystick beckoned. It was beside four big buttons, which hovered above another button the size of a personal pizza.

Four-year-old Alexander Nyiri, visiting New York with his parents recently, could not resist. He wandered over to the V.Smile TV Learning System set up in the cavernous Toys R Us store in Midtown Manhattan and began to play.