We understand that when you’ve outgrown your childhood years, baby toys no longer have anything left to teach you. We see that you can best channel the excitement and adventure of your imagination with toys that are more age-appropriate. We get it because we have our own favorite toys too (ours are bigger, noisier, and make the biggest mess), along with books, artwork, and music. We understand you.
Now, how can we help Mom understand? Why don’t we start with the kinds of toys available? If Mom knows which toys are suitable for each age, she might not be so upset when you stop playing with certain ones. Make sure to let us know if we’re not getting it right, because Mom needs good information, okay?
Types of toys
Within that toy box, you can categorize the toys into those that teach cause and effect, toys for physical development, sensory development toys, cooking toys, or even toys for the mouth. Additionally, understanding the materials of the toys, such as wooden toys, plastic toys, fabric toys, and tech toys, is also very important for moms.
Cause and Effect Toy
While Mom understands “if A, then B,” she will understand much better when she sees you crash your Tonka truck into a tower of building blocks. She sees that every day on her way to work. She will also get it when she sees you press a button on a toy to produce a certain result, such as a phone ringing, lights flashing, or a cow mooing.
Cause-and-effect toys teach older children hand-eye coordination as they press a button or interact with a part of the toy to achieve a result. Children learn focus, such as when rolling a bowling ball toward the pins. They develop motor and logic skills as they figure out how to press a button, push a tab to the side, or turn a lever one way or another and see the corresponding image or result appear.
You see this in many baby toys shaped like a stuffed caterpillar or a round plush toy resembling a pillow. When a baby presses a certain part of the toy, a sound is produced. Sometimes it’s a squeak, sometimes it’s the rattling of beads, or perhaps a squishy honk. Babies are learning “if A, then B.”
Puzzle
Puzzle toys come in all shapes and sizes. They are made of wood, plastic, fabric, or cardboard, and some puzzles are even found in electronic games, like the classic game Tetris. Puzzle toys teach different lessons for infants, toddlers, and school-age children:
- Focus: Children learn to concentrate on the task at hand and work until it is completed.
- Recognition: Kids learn shapes, colors, and specific positions through puzzles.
- Fine motor skills: They develop hand-eye coordination, problem-solving abilities, memory, and visual skills while solving puzzles.
- Strategic thinking: A puzzle can only be solved in a specific way, teaching children patience, critical thinking, judgment, and logic until completion.
- Social skills: Sometimes, children solve puzzles with others in daycare or preschool settings. If one child struggles, others may help, teaching them that there are people beyond themselves and that others are important too.
Development toy
How can parents teach their little daughter to dress herself, use a fork, or brush her hair? Of course, with dolls. How can parents teach their little son to share toys, play building games, or role-play in a guided way? You can do this with action figures and puppets.
The simplest toys, like stuffed animals or a Batman figure, can teach children social skills, language skills, emotional skills, and practical things like how to use buttons or pour water. Here are some types of toys within this toy box category:
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Building toys: Who doesn’t love a box of Legos, Lincoln Logs, blocks, or other building toys? Kids can spend hours constructing towns, trucks, monsters, skyscrapers, and anything else their imagination creates. That’s the point, isn’t it?
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Musical games and toys: How boring would life be without music? Teach your child how to dance, socialize, appreciate music, and even sing through musical games and toys.
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Life role-play toys: Oh dear, Mom, how can you play store, restaurant, or shopping without a shopping cart, cash register, tables and chairs, and some cooking toys? Even toy brooms and mops teach children that cleaning up comes after most activities, even work. There are gardening toys, building toys complete with tool belts, and even hairstyling kits with hairdryers, mirrors, scissors, and curlers.
- Wheels. Mom, does it bore you to be at home with nowhere to go and nothing to do? It’s the same for your children. Without your driving license and car keys, though, they have to make it up as they go along. So they hop on their three-wheel trike, roar off down the hall, and come to a screeching halt at their destination, where they immediately slay the bad guy and save the day. Makes you wish you had one, too. Me, too.
- Dolls, action figures, and puppets. When a child carries a stuffed animal everywhere she goes, talks to it, and interacts with it; she’s learning how to interact with people. The same goes for her dolls and Power Rangers figures. The dolls, figures, and puppets “listen” to her favorite stories and help her create new ones.
Sensory Toys
Sensory toys pique the portion of the brain that recognizes and reacts to sensory stimulation. Visual toys flash, light up, exhibit patterns, and change colors. Vestibular toys take a child off the floor or a chair and into space, such as when swings are around, or the child uses a skateboard. Auditory toys stimulate hearing with sounds like bells, whistles, chimes, a metronome, or music. Which toys in your toy box stimulate your senses?
Food Toys
A guy has to eat. Doesn’t he? That is when he’s on a safari just before facing down the meanest lion in Africa. A guy has to take certain foods into outer space with him when he’s an astronaut. Doesn’t a fellow have to have food in his backpack as he’s hunting the beast that ate his whole village?
Girls, your dolls must do lunch before having their nails done, yes? You have to pack a lunch for your dolls to take to work tomorrow morning. Not only that, there’s a slammin’ party happening tonight, and all your dolls will be bringing something to eat. With all this going on, you’d better be sure your stock of food is going to get you through it all.
It’s one of the most basic of human instincts. We learn it from the cradle to the high chair to the nursery school chair and on up. Teaching children about food sets them up in later life to maintain a healthy weight, eat healthily, and avoid disease.
Toys For The Mouth
Bubbles can teach us so many things. They show us all the colors of the rainbow; they teach us about the size; they teach us about floating in the air or on the water and chasing them to pop them builds muscle, especially when children crawl on their stomachs to get the bubbles.
Mouth toys give squirmy babies and toddlers a fidget toy to keep them occupied until they see the doctor. They get the bonus of eating the candy on the fidget toy. Of course, babies know chew toys in the form of teething rings, but later in life, they make great sensory toys. You’ll find a magnificent selection of chew toys for children with special needs.
You might think that only dogs get to chew on toys, stuffed animals, special dog toys, tennis balls, or rope toys. Sometimes, children learn from watching the family dog play with its ball, chase the bubbles they blow, or even sleep with its stuffed animal. For children, life as a whole is a learning experience, so fill it with the most wonderful toys, Mom.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many toys are enough?
Some studies show that the fewer toys children have, the more focused, engaged, and creative they become, interacting with their toys in a more imaginative and sustained way. So, the answer to this question is to give your child five toys instead of fifteen and save the remaining ten for another time.
Are toys only necessary for toddlers?
Toys suitable for toddlers are no longer needed for preschoolers. Each age group requires different lessons that their toys teach them. A six- or seven-year-old has already learned the developmental lessons from their younger years. They should move on to toys that are more age-appropriate. Even teenagers addicted to video games and iPods are learning age-relevant skills. Toys are not just for toddlers; they are for all of us.
Should you pay attention to developmental milestones?
Without understanding child development, parents and teachers may find it difficult to know when a child is (a) delayed, (b) missing key lessons, and/or (c) struggling to interact. Developmental milestones provide a framework for recognizing a child’s progress, helping them build confidence and a sense of growth.
Conclusion
Toys play a crucial role in a child’s development. Specific toys target specific areas of a child’s growth.
As a parent, you need to choose the right toys to ensure your child’s holistic development. It’s essential to maintain a balance between indoor and outdoor toys. I am confident this approach will yield unmatched results.
