In last week’s post we started a new series about children’s toys and how each different type of toy benefits your toddler’s development. We looked at various different aspects, anything from language acquisition and motor skills to social skills and emotional intelligence. This week we are continuing into part 2 – with three more essential kids’ toys and their effects on your children. Enjoy!
Toy Mobile Phone
The toy mobile phone is a classic, ever growing in popularity in our modern age. It used to be a chance for make believe but nowadays using a mobile, pressing buttons and so on are crucial life skills! This toy can help your child in various different ways. The first is, as mentioned, practicing real-life skills by pretending to talk on the phone. Specifically it can also help learning and practicing language, as it is after all a toy whose main purpose is speech.
In addition, you can use it to practice and develop your child’s social skills. You can take turns using the toy and thus talk to each other through it. You can also make up a third person on the other side of the phone call and learn how to behave with him/her, make up a name and personality for them etc.
Music Table
All involvement of music in bringing up your child is positive – but an interactive musical toy goes even beyond that. It provides the toddler with an opportunity to enjoy melodies in various different ways and relate to them physically and intellectually. Music tables with plenty of buttons of levers can help a lot with fine motor skills as well as teach your child about cause and effect, as he or she gradually learn how they need to use the toy in order to hear the sound they want.
It can also help with language development: a musical toy opens the door to a world of nouns and verbs relating both to music and to interactive toys. It can also be used to practice following orders and taking turns. The parent can ask the child for a certain outcome (playing a specific tune, for instance) which the toddler then has to figure out how to achieve, and, if the child is old enough – vice versa. This activity involves motor skills, understanding and following instructions, and even use of memory.
Race Cars
Like the kitchen set from last week’s article, race cars are toys which often relate to one gender over another, though in actuality they should be available to all, as they can be extremely beneficial! Many toddlers are fascinated with cars and love to play with them and spot the in the street, and it’s no wonder, as cars are all around us and they are at the same time popular and mysterious (for those too young to understand how they work.)
Race cars can be used to teach vocabulary and in pretend play – that is, beyond racing them around the room, you can also make up with your child a whole story behind the race. Where are the cars driving to? Who is the character driving them? Additionally, you can use them to teach concepts such as big VS small, fast VS slow, many (different cars) VS few and propositions like above, below, first and last and so on.
Also in the series: Part 1 & Part 3
Hope you learned something! Don’t forget to come back in two weeks for the third and final part!
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