(Reuters) - Forget dolls and footballs.

About 70 percent of children in households with tablet computers used these devices, according to fourth-quarter results from research firm Nielsen.

This was a 7 percent increase from the third quarter, according to Nielsen.

About 77 percent of those children use tablets such as the Apple Inc (AAPL.O) iPad and the Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) Kindle Fire to play games, while 57 percent use them for educational purposes.

About 55 percent use the tablet for entertainment while they are traveling and 43 percent use them to watch television shows or movies, according to Nielsen.

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