Toys are very important to a child’s development and it is good to provide toys to your child. Here are four ways that toys can help in child development:
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Open-ended Toys Can Enhance a Child’s Creativity and Imagination
When a child plays with toys that can be played with in many ways, their brain will expand and he or she will start thinking in narratives. This will help the child see the world more broadly. It is very important to nurture a child’s creativity and help them learn outside the box.
When a child is given simple items like dolls, blocks, balls, animals toys, or pretends food, they will see this as an opportunity to create stories and imagine scenarios in their minds. Play is very important for children during their early childhood years and is their first classroom.
Even if a child is given objects that are not initially meant to be toys, they will quickly re-assign them as toys especially if they are the only objects available. Things like rocks, sticks, containers or boxes are great candidates for enhancing a child’s imagination.
2. They Teach Children About STEAM
Children’s brains are like sponges as they keep absorbing what goes on around them. Toys give children another avenue to explore art, engineering, science, technology and mathematics. Any toy, whether simple or complex teaches a child a lesson and stresses how important toys are in child development.
If a child builds a tower with blocks and watches it fall down, they have learnt something about physics. When a kid watches a remote control car bounce around just from the radio waves of the controller, he or she will become curious and want to know how this happened. A puzzle is very good for a child’s brain as it stimulates his or her spatial computing and helps them explore patterns.
Children learn a lot of things when they play with toys. A child learns more through creative play as it engages his or her senses and this gives them a cognitive edge and gives them the urge to keep learning more about the world around them.
3. Playing with Toys Refines a Child’s Motor Development
When your kid grasps a toy and learns how to manipulate it, he or she is practising their motor skills and improving his or her eye-hand coordination. This will help your child advance through the stages of physical development. Toys that require a child to grab, push, pull, turn, pinch or use their hands and body to make it do something are important in a child’s growth.
Small toys like cars, dolls and blocks that fit into a child’s hands are liked by children because they can hold them and carry them easily. Using their hands to position their toys or put them into their pockets gives a child ultimate control. Smaller details that are found on toys like zippers, buttons or beads give kids practice with fine motor details.
Larger toys that children manipulate with their whole body will also help a child’s physical development. Whether that entails catching or throwing a beach ball, jumping on a pogo stick or learning to ride a bicycle, children that gain these skills can easily handle harder tasks later in life.
4. Toys Can Help a Child Become Emotionally Mature
Toys often provide children with positive memories, connection and a way to interact with their feelings. Have you realized that children can get so attached to their toys? This is a phenomenon that usually promotes healthy and positive bonding. Children associate their toys with happiness, love and attention. Therefore, when they show affection to their toys, they are fostering and cultivating sweet childhood memories.
Even though toys are important to children, it is not good to overwhelm your child with too many toys. When it comes to toys, the quality of toys is better than quantity. Fewer toys that your child can enjoy playing with are better than many toys that your child does not play with. It’s important that the child sees learning as something fun and this is best done through play in those early years; save work for later or you’ll be sending your five year-old to work addiction therapy!
If you realise that your child is struggling to clean up his or her toys, deal with big emotions while playing, or say that he or she is bored despite having many toys, it is highly likely that they are negatively affected by the over-abundance of toys.
