Looking down at his handheld, Matthew Dobrec taps the screen with the stylus to make an entry. Nearby, Audrey Satterlee plays with a new iPhone app.

While these actions seem relatively benign, those using the technology on this day are kids. Those who are fresh out of school? No. These kids are barely out of diapers.

They are among six 3- and 4-year-olds at the Play Lab at Fisher-Price Inc. headquarters in East Aurora, New York. On a sunny spring morning, they’re tapping away at new tech toys, playing games on devices resembling those that keep their moms and dads entertained and connected.

The company—on the heels of releasing “Moments to Share,” a Facebook timeline application to track a child’s progress, and three iPhone applications based on classic Fisher-Price toys—is unveiling new toys this spring that look and operate like dad’s iPad and mom’s music player.

Taking ideas for new tech toys and making them reality, company officials say, is not so much about putting technology into the hands of little kids. Rather, it’s about providing experiences for them that mimic what adults do, and meeting expectations of the smallest of savvy customers.

When they click an icon or try opening a file, it had better work.

Anthony Favorito is director of design at Fisher-Price. He said that whatever the task, kids want to do what mom and dad do.

“It can be something like raking the lawn,” he said, adding that since technology is part of what adults do, children often want in on the action.

“It builds from using things like an iPhone in front of children,” Favorito said. As such, Fisher-Price aims to create products with technology in them that provides children elements of control.

“We won’t say, ‘We need a high-tech toy,’ but rather, the technology is built into the toy,” said Miriam Kelley, vice president of product design.

About the size of a sandwich, the new iXL opens to reveal a small screen and stylus. On it, kids can read stories, practice writing letters and numbers, play games, draw, store photos, and listen to music.

Rather than reinvent the wheel for a slick new product such as the iXL, the company sometimes uses existing technology.

“We’re always building on our past learnings,” Favorito said. “For instance, we learned about children’s interactions with LCD displays and electronic books through past products like Pixter and PowerTouch Learning System. We’re always forward-thinking to the next generation of tech toys and use prior products’ successes to help us develop innovative products like iXL.”

“We’re not always starting from scratch,” added Kelley, who said many of today’s parents may have grown up not ever touching a TV or a camera. “(As adults), we see technology separate from other things; kids don’t.”

Furthermore, she said, kids expect things to be fully functional and working properly.

“Things have to work, and they know how to swipe on an iPhone,” Kelley said.