Toys in this category help children learn through activities that challenge their hand-eye coordination and improve their gross and fine motor skills. Children who learn best through physical play are often athletic and enjoy sports, so the optimal toys for this developmental benefit of play focus on manipulating objects, building, dancing, and playing. role-playing or other forms of fantasy that involve movement, action, and the work of large and small muscles. These kids are on the go and they need toys to keep up with them!
All children are natural learners; constantly absorbing new experiences in your everyday life. Therefore, the toys they play with play an integral role in this learning process.
All children develop at different rates, while some can walk at 10 months, others are still walking and falling at 15 months. Some children have strong skills in one field, while others are experts in another field. Therefore, the development guidelines should be used as a general rule.
You can build all kinds of educational toys out of everyday household items. Remember that for younger children, toys must be safe. Use the same guidelines you would for buying ready-made toys. If your child is under 3 years old, please be careful with small parts. Do not use plastic bags in toys designed for this age. For all children, please be careful with sharp objects.
Quality education and teaching are very important for the mental health and growth of children. A child’s brain is much like a sponge that can absorb enormous amounts of information. The more it absorbs, the more the brain expands as they grow. This is why nursery toys are so important at an early age for educational purposes.
Children often learn to identify items, colors, and people on their own. However, a formal introduction, ie: “This is a chair. This is the color blue. Etc”, will always help them identify the objects and the uses for which they exist. Children will pick up fundamental skills faster.
Some people think of baby products as frivolous man-made items to occupy a child’s attention while mom or dad has something else to do. This is a misconception. Play helps a child develop crucial skills; Toys are the tools for them to learn and develop those skills.
Marilyn Segal, Ph.D., dean emeritus and director of the professional development program at the Mailman Segal Institute for Early Childhood Studies at Nova South Eastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, says play is the way children they learn about the world. It is through play that their social, emotional, intellectual, and problem-solving skills are enhanced.
Dr. Linda Lindsay, a sociology professor at the University of Maryville, believes that nature triumphs through nurture. When children are very young, she says, they are given stuffed animals. As they get older, girls continue to receive stuffed toys, but boys begin to be teased or scolded, especially if they play with the toy in front of others.
In order for children to get the most out of toys, they must be safe and appropriate for the child’s age and ability. Some toys, like bikes and skateboards, are not easy to ride and children need help before they can use them safely. Other toys may not be safe because they are for older children or because they are not well made. Here are some ideas on what to look for.
It is normal for young children to explore, touch and move everything they see. You cannot teach a small child to play safely. The safety of children depends on you. Put away things they shouldn’t touch. Look what they do. Stop them if what they are doing is not safe.
High-tech toys, which entertain with songs, sounds, flashing lights and vibrations powered by microchips, can stimulate young children, but researchers say there’s no credible evidence to support that they enhance cognitive development or creativity or have Long-term effects.
Children will get much more meaningful stimulation from the sounds of people, animals, and objects around them, notes Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., an educational psychologist in Vail, CO, and author of Your Child’s Growing Mind: Brain Development. and learning from birth to adolescence. So play with your baby often. You are your baby’s favorite toy and the best learning tool. Babies crave one-on-one social interaction and need the security it provides. There is also a role for quiet time, when the brain consolidates what it has learned. “If there’s nothing that’s entertaining, it gives the brain time and space to learn to manage itself,” says Healy.