This placemat has plenty to look at and is a great distraction for my 2 year old while I shovel food into his mouth. He loves pointing out the objects and then finding the little matching object along the border. We work on "Big" and "Small" that way. One thing he doesn't pay much attention to is the letters, and his fascination with letters on anything else is kind of why I chose this placemat! I think it's partly because there are both upper and lower case letters, and that idea is beyond him at the moment. (We have the ABC Animals Placemat from Tot Talk also, and that one REALLY gets him going on letters!)  There is so much to look at on this placemat that he doesn't get bored, and we certainly don't need the TV on during meals!