Concerns regarding the effects of excessive screen time on children’s development have been raised in an era where digital screens and virtual experiences predominate. Parents face the ongoing challenge of balancing safe online activities and the need for real-world, hands-on engagement.

While limiting screen time is an important step, it leaves the question of how to engage children in healthy offline play effectively. Children can benefit greatly from tactile play, which stimulates the sense of touch and promotes physical interaction with their surroundings.

The benefits of tactile play can offset the negatives effects brought on by too much screen time.  Let’s explore what this means and how tactile play can support a child’s overall growth, creativity, and well-being.

From Screen Time to Playtime

Re-embracing the joys of tactile play is becoming more significant in the digital age we live in, where screen time has become an integral part of our lives.

Tactile play emerges as a highly beneficial diversion from the often challenging world of monitor screens. Engaging in activities that involve the sense of touch, such as building with blocks, molding clay, or playing with various textures, not only provides an essential break from the constant bombardment of pixels but also encourages much needed sensory and cognitive development.

Additionally, it fosters the growth of fine motor skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities, supporting a well-rounded and balanced approach to leisure that enhances rather than replaces the digital world. It provides a tangible experience that stimulates the imagination and improves mental and physical health, making it an essential component of a fulfilling and healthful lifestyle.

Benefits of Tactile Play

• Sensory Development: The development of the sense of touch—which is necessary for perceiving and interacting with the outside world—is promoted by tactile play. It develops children’s tactile sensitivity by allowing them to experiment with different textures, temperatures, and consistencies.

• Fine Motor Skills: Fine motor skills are strengthened through tactile play, which includes manipulating objects and squeezing and pinching them. These abilities are essential for writing, using utensils, and tying shoelaces.

• Cognitive Development: Through the development of hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, and problem-solving abilities, tactile experiences foster cognitive development. Through touch, children learn to navigate and interpret their environment.

• Language Development: Interaction and communication with others are frequent components of tactile play. As they describe their experiences, pose questions, and have conversations about the textures, shapes, and sensations they come across, this can help a child’s language development.

• Creativity and Imagination: Through open-ended exploration, tactile play fosters imagination and creativity. With various materials, kids can construct buildings, write stories, and design original sensory experiences.

• Social Interaction: Playing with objects frequently entails collaboration and sharing, which fosters social skills. Group activities teach kids how to cooperate, take turns, and show empathy for others.

• Physical Well-being: Playing with textures can have physical benefits. Playing with plush toys, kneading dough, or digging in the sand are good ways to give your body exercise and sensory stimulation.

• Emotional Regulation: Tactile play can be soothing and comforting. It helps children manage stress and emotions by providing security and control over their environment. Plush toys, in particular, can offer comfort and companionship.

Introducing Plushie Toys: A Great Option For Tactile Activity

Plush toys are a fun and interesting option for tactile play that appeals to both children and adults because of their soft and cuddly exteriors.

These cuddly friends are available in an extensive range of forms, dimensions, and personas, rendering them an adaptable option for enjoyable and creative playtime. Plush toys, whether cuddly unicorns, teddy bears, or any other endearing stuffed animal, offer a tactile experience that piques the sense of touch and promotes comfort and tactile exploration.

With these delightful, tactile treasures, plush toys add a touch of warmth and whimsy to any play environment, encouraging creativity and fostering emotional connections.

Benefits Of Plushie Pulse Toys

Comfort and Security

Plushie pulse toys replicate the heartbeat sensation, which can be incredibly comforting for young children. This soothing rhythm can help ease separation anxiety and provide security, especially during bedtime or in unfamiliar environments.

Sleep Aid

Children can benefit from plush pulse toys as a sleep aid by using them to fall asleep and stay asleep longer. Healthy sleep patterns can be promoted by the comforting sensation that resembles a heartbeat.

Language Development

Conversations with plushie pulse toys can assist in language development in young children. Kids may talk to their toys, nurturing their communication and language skills.

Transition and Routine Support

Plushie pulse toys can help children cope with transitions, such as starting school or moving to a new home. The consistent presence of their comforting toy can make these changes more manageable.

Attachment and Bonding

Plushie pulse toys can become special companions for children, fostering a sense of attachment and emotional bonding. These attachments can be valuable for building a child’s self-esteem and social development.

Conclusion

It’s never been more vital parents, guardians, and educators to acknowledge and support the value of tactile play in a child’s everyday life.  It establishes the groundwork for both lifelong learning and well-rounded development. Moreover, engaging in tactile play fosters curiosity, inventiveness, and critical thinking skills, in addition to advancing a more profound comprehension of their surroundings.

The benefits of tactile play for children are undeniable, and Plushie Pulse toys exemplify the perfect blend of innovation and safety in this realm. By engaging in tactile play with Plushie Pulse toys, children not only develop essential sensory and motor skills, they feed their creativity, imagination, and emotional well-being. Trust Plushie Pulse for kid-safe toys that not only provide a world of tactile exploration but also ensure your child’s safety, making playtime an enriching and worry-free experience.

Related Reading:

Learning by Play: The Role of Using Wooden Toys in the Development of Children’s Communication Skills

Online shopping can be safe for kids with the proper knowledge and parental involvement. While there are some risks, you can take steps to protect your kids from them and minimize dangers before they appear. It’s essential to teach your kids how to shop safely, a skill that they will need in their adult years.

Here’s how to determine whether your child should be allowed to shop online and what safety measures you can implement to reduce the risks.

Should You Let Your Kids Shop Online?

As your kids get older, they’ll likely ask if they can order things online. While you don’t want to hand over your credit card with no limitations, there are benefits in allowing your kids to have some autonomy. It can teach them financial responsibility and practical skills from a young age.

As a parent, you can decide when your child is old enough to do some of their own shopping, but children under 15 should probably not be spending unsupervised. Teenagers may have various reasons to shop online, like purchasing items like books, school supplies, gifts for family and friends or clothes for special events, like school dances. If they have a job, they may also have items they’re saving up to buy.

While you should always verify that they are shopping from legitimate sources and not overspending, you can allow your older children to make the purchases themselves.

How to Keep Your Kids Safe When Online Shopping

While there are advantages, you shouldn’t let your kids have free rein to shop online as they please. Teach your kids to protect themselves from potential risks as they shop.

Teach Them to Protect Their Personal Information

All online shops require personal information like names, phone numbers and email addresses for payment and shipping. If you have kids younger than 13, have them come to you when they are ready to make a purchase. You can then double-check the site’s credibility and enter your details.

Warn Them About Scams

Teach your kids the dangers of buying toys or gear with steep discounts. If it looks too good to be true, it often is. A cheap price tag could mean that the toy does not meet U.S. safety standards and you want to protect your children from buying counterfeits or recalls.

Here are some other ways to identify scams and check for legitimate purchases:

• Compare the product and price with other stores.
• Read reviews. Use a fake review detector to ensure you have the correct information. In 2022, 50% of consumers reported seeing fake reviews, which shows the importance of double-checking before making a purchase.
• Check for the lock icon or the ‘S’ in HTTPS in the URL. If the site has these, it means it’s secure.
• If there’s bad grammar, an incomplete site or an odd URL, it could be a scam page.
• Delete or show Mom and Dad emails with phrases like “click here” or “download now.”
• If a site asks for you to subscribe or add something to your cart to make the purchase, it’s a scam.

Create an Authorized Shopping Site List

With hundreds of websites and online stores out there, it’s a good idea to have a list of stores that you use as a family. This system can prevent your kids from falling into scams or giving their information to the wrong people.

Encourage your kids to be open about any new online stores they find. Maybe there’s a site that sells their favorite squishmallows and they can’t find them anywhere else. Scan through the site together and tick the scam ID checklist together to help them practice.

Use Ad Blockers

Usually, online stores won’t ask for a person’s age when entering credit card info. That means your child can buy anything online if they have your card. It also means they’ll be exposed to ads for people of all ages. Have them make a purchase with you present can be a learning experience for them, as long as you teach them how to use a credit card safety online.

Download ad blockers and web blockers that filter content that has alcohol or drug messaging, sexual content, inappropriate movies and violent messages. With a web blocker, you can be at peace knowing you reduced the chance of your kid encountering dangerous content.

Prevent Compulsive Buying and Accidental Purchases

Anyone who shops online knows that it’s easy to overfill your cart. With tempting sales and numerous options, “just one more” can quickly turn into a $1,000 cart. While you might have built immunity with experience, your kids are just starting out and they need guidance.

The best way to prevent this is to shop with your child. Show them how to look for items and review their cart. Double-check if the number of items is correct. Make the process slow. This will teach them to check twice before they buy and prevent double or accidental purchases.

You can also set some ground rules, like limiting browsing to 15-30 minutes a day and asking your permission before purchasing. This is an excellent time to improve their financial and budgeting skills. If you give them a monthly allowance, have them review and calculate purchases against their balance.

Have Rules for Shopping Locations

Agree with your kids that all online shopping happens at home. This strategy prevents them from entering personal information while connected to public Wi-Fi in public places like the airport or at school.

Get Kid-Safe Debit Cards

Protect your account from unexpected purchases by making a capped PayPal account for your kids or getting them kid-safe debit cards like Greenlight, GoHenry and Axos. These banking companies also provide resources and apps to build good money habits. Considering kids can form money habits from age 5, it will benefit your kids to learn how to manage their own cards.

Build Safe Online Shopping Habits With Your Kids

As with anything online, there are some risks that come with online shopping. It’s a good idea to provide supervision and safe space to teach your kids how to shop safely.

Author bio:  Cora Gold is the Editor-in-Chief of women’s lifestyle magazine, Revivalist. She strives to live a happy and healthy life with her family by her side.
Follow Cora on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Whether you are a new parent, or this is your third time, there is always something new to learn. There is no one definition of parenthood, but a little help is always appreciated.  In this points below, we will delve into some of the best advantages of a positive parenting class, especially if your child is about to enter their prepubescent stage.

When the teenage years are not far off, parents need all the help they can get. We will also be discussing one such help that every parent can avail of from a positive parenting course.  Without any further ado, let’s get into some of the benefits of positive parenting courses.

What Are Positive Parenting Courses?

This is a type of parenting course that focuses less on authoritarian and strict disciplinary parenting measures. It helps parents learn to blend affection and discipline. At the same time, it teaches them how to build a stronger parent-child relationship, so that they can have healthier communication.

In tern, the child will be more comfortable talking to their parents, making the parent more aware if potential dangers their child may be getting into.  These classes are especially helpful for parents to understand the changing hormonal balance among adolescents and to deal with the changing perspectives with them.

If you have stumbled across this article trying to find the right way to help your child as a parent, it just may be a cue for you to enroll yourself in a positive parenting class.

Here are the top most convincing benefits that will make you enroll in a class today.

1. Creating Healthy Boundaries

It is not possible for any parent to have a healthy relationship with a child without establishing a healthy boundary. Yes, every parent is worried about their little one and doesn’t wish for them to be in any trouble. Therefore, parents take it upon themselves to overtly shelter them at all costs, even if that means interrupting their personal space and making them feel utterly uncomfortable.

It is not the intention but the action which creates a bad impact. In such a positive parenting class, you will learn how to channel this overprotective energy into creating healthy boundaries and creating a comfortable space. With this comfort, children are more likely to come to you and express their troubles. Every child needs safe boundries to try new things and fail, without major risk to their health and well being.

2. Improve Communication

With the changing times and generations, language barriers grow. Trends, culture, and political scenarios change and different in every decade. So, what was quite the norm in your time might not suit them. A positive parenting class will give you a few comfortable parent-child lingo and cues, which will help you approach a certain difficult topic with ease.

This will also show your child that you understand their predicament and they can come to you regarding any trouble. Communication alongside the healthy body makes the parent ‘friend like’ but not a ‘friend,’ which helps maintain discipline amidst all.

3. Emotional Regulation

Parent or child, something that makes us all human is emotions. Getting overwhelmed with emotions is common for both, and it is not fair to always expect the parent to suppress their feelings. In the long run, this can cause mental health issues for the parent. A healthy positive parenting approach will will never ask you to bury your own emotions for the sake of the child. Rather, they would expect you to handle your emotions first in a positive manner and then find ways to express them to your child.

Learning to dealing with emotions properly ensures that no parent leaves their feelings unattended.  As a result, kids see a more emotional side of their parents. This not only provides a positive example for how children should deal with their own emotions, it’s strengthens the bond between parent and child.  They learn that their mom or dad is also a human being and finds the strength to share their complicated feelings as well.  This leads to healthy introspection and emotional regulation during or after conflicts.

How To Find The Right Positive Parenting Course

Every parenting course will have its own goal, and here is how you can find one that fits your goal.

Research: Look for reputable parenting courses online or through local community centers.

Reviews: Read reviews or testimonials from other parents who have taken the course.

Curriculum: Review the course content to see if it covers your specific needs and challenges.

Evidence-Based: Choose courses grounded in research and evidence-based techniques.

Credentials: Ensure instructors are experienced and certified in child development or parenting education.

Flexibility: Opt for courses that fit your schedule, whether in-person or online.

Cost: Consider the course cost and whether it offers value for your investment.

Support: Check if the course includes ongoing support or resources after completion.

Related Reading

Learn more by reading the book Parenting from the Inside Out and discover how you can use your own past child experiences to be a better parent.

With rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, robotic technology, and augmented reality, it’s difficult to say how technology will look tomorrow — never mind in a year from now.  One thing is for sure: enrolling your kids in coding classes is a fantastic way to elevate their computer literacy skills and prepare them for a tech-driven world.

Here are four fundamentals you should keep in mind when looking for a top-tier coding school.

Coding School Focuses on Game Coding

As you’re likely aware, most kids love video games! Find a school that celebrates the love of gaming and gives students an insider’s understanding of how they’re made. Doing so will hopefully spark a more general interest in coding.

Instead of teaching kids how to code a website or a chatbot, students are drawn toward coding games — especially those they can play at the conclusion of the course.

Ultimately, creating a game is an educational, rewarding, and fun experience that can open the door to other ways to code!

Coding School Offers Elevated Programming Languages

If you’re not especially tech-savvy or well-versed in coding languages, you might not know that not all coding languages look the same. In fact, some schools may pitch coding courses in drag and drop style coding, which, unfortunately, doesn’t involve the development of too many core skills.

Instead, seek out schools that pride themselves on their cutting-edge game coding curricula. Unsure what to look for? You’re on the right track if they offer major coding languages like Python, Java, JavaScript, C++. and C#.

For example, take Real Programming 4 Kids; there, kids as young as seven can learn the same coding languages that are used by the pros, like Python.

Coding School Caps Class Sizes

Busy, chaotic, over-stretched classrooms (virtual, or in person) are a quick way to foster a feeling of disorder and to lose students’ attention.

By looking for a school that limits class sizes, you know your child will get the attention they deserve, allowing them to ask questions and feel confident in their studies.

Coding School Employs Teachers That Kids Can Relate To

It can be challenging for a young child or high school student to relate to a senior teacher. This is especially true in a digital classroom if that teacher doesn’t understand what it’s like growing up immersed in technology.

Look for a school with younger instructors with recent qualifications in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Programming. Vetted teachers who still enjoy the excitement and thrill that comes from gaming will likely resonate best with young learners.

The Takeaway

It’s clear that technology is here to stay. While how it will look in the future is an unknown, one thing that’s for certain is that by teaching kids fundamental computer skills and how to code at a high level, we’re setting them up as best we can for a bright future.

So why not look online for a coding school today? Some even offer free assessment classes so your child can get their feet wet before they jump in!

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