The Benefits of Learning Toys Designed for Child Development
From the infant stage, babies start learning from their surroundings. The curiosity among children keeps them exploring things they see, hear, and touch. Toys help kids learn things in a better and more engaging way. Learning toys are great examples that aid in overall child development and stimulate essential life skills.
Educational or learning toys are designed to activate and enhance cognitive and physical milestones among kids. From pretend play, babies start imitating real-life activities and are given appropriate toys; they quickly learn motor, social, intellectual, emotional, and linguistic skills. Learning toys come in different forms, each for specific child development.
This guide focuses on the importance of learning toys, their kinds, and their benefits. So read along and pick the best learning toys for your children.
Contents
Learning Toys – An Overview
Educational or learning toys are objects designed to stimulate kids’ senses to make them learn new things. Learning objects boost kids’ imaginations and motivate them to learn and explore basic life concepts through play.
Although toys are made to entertain kids, each toy teaches kids at least something. For instance, a musical toy boosts toddlers’ hearing sense and urges them to respond to different sounds. Kids may repeat the sound they hear or dance to the music as a response. Learning toys are available for every age, which is why it is vital to pick age-appropriate learning toys for your children.
5 Benefits of Learning Toys Designed for Child Development
Playing is fun, and learning toys make kids willingly participate in educational games and play. Learning toys help kids to observe and experiment while teaching them the cause and effect of their actions.
Here, we will mention five benefits of learning toys that effectively boost child development.
Develop Fine and Gross Motor Skills
From stimulating hand-eye coordination to encouraging kids for physical activities, toys play an important role in fine and gross motor skill development. Fine motor skills involve controlling hands and fingers to pick and handle objects. In comparison, gross motor skills trigger larger muscle movement.
While playing with toys, such as stacking toys, kids pick the objects with their hands and stack them carefully with the help of their vision or sight. This activity results in hand-eye coordination development. Similarly, the Montessori frame set is an excellent play and activity pack to develop gross motor skills among children.
Best Toys to Develop Fine and Gross Motor Skills
- Infants: Play Gym, Water Activity Mat
- Toddlers: Ride On Toy, Push n Pull Toys
- Preschoolers: Climbing sets, Mini Trampoline, Hand Puppets
- Juniors: Scooty, Bicycle
- Teens: Badminton or any other Sports Kit, Frisbee
Boost Concentration
A newborn is like a blank canvas, as infants have too much to learn and explore. Little do we know, but toys start playing their instructive role as soon as a child is at the infant stage.
Yes, you read it right.
You must have put or seen hanging toys on your baby’s cots or play gym.
Do you know what they do?
Hanging toys promote kids’ concentration, helping them to reach the milestone of one of the primary senses – sight. Babies concentrate on hanging toys’ movements, and their imaginations take them to the fantasy land.
Best Toys to Boost Concentration
- Infants: Nursery Mobile
- Toddlers: Ring Stack Toy
- Preschoolers: Puzzles, Blocks
- Juniors: Mechanical Toys, Construction Toys
- Teens: Science Toys, Board Games
Promote Imagination
Imagination is the happy place for children where anything can happen. In other words, imagination alone is enough for a child to play. To visualize this scenario, try giving your toddler a spoon and see them pretend to play with the common household object.
Learning toys boost children’s imaginative power by allowing them to think out of the box and let their imagery and fantasy drive the play.
Best Toys to Promote Imagination
- Infants: Textured Objects, Flashcards, Cloth Activity Book
- Toddlers: Play Sticks, Magnetic Tiles, Charades
- Preschoolers: Play Dough, Figurines
- Juniors: Kitchen Set, Doll House, Doctor Set
- Teens: K’nex, Legos
Advance Problem Solving Abilities
Cognitive abilities are learned in childhood but help us throughout our lives. Learning toys engage kids in logic and challenge their minds to solve a specific problem. Playing with a learning toy positively develops problem-solving skills among kids. And, as kids attentively take part in play, they don’t feel like being forced to solve a problem. Critical thinking practices increase the IQ of kids. Several researches have proved that kids with learned problem-solving skills perform better academically than those who never had played with educational toys.
Best Toys to Advance Problem-Solving Abilities
- Infants: Activity Boards
- Toddlers: Shape Sorting Toys, Color Cards
- Preschoolers: Phonics Toys, Writing Gadgets
- Juniors: Science Kit
- Teens: Crossword Puzzles, Tabletop Role Playing Games
Encourage Creativity
Creativity is the only element that keeps your thoughts fresh and alive. Creative play is the imagination out into action. It is also related to cognitive skills, as exploring ideas and applying those ideas for a better outcome of where they may be implemented is what creativity is all about. Learning toys makes kids creative. While playing, kids set their own rules and create strategies to win a game – here is when your child becomes a creative thinker.
Best Toys to Encourage Creativity
- Infants: Rattles, Colorful Mobiles
- Toddlers: Play-Doh, Kinetic Sand
- Preschoolers: Pretend Play Toys
- Juniors: Art and Craft
- Teens: Fort Kit, Costumes and Accessories
Ending Lines
Though learning is a basic human instinct, some help in learning would encourage motor and intellectual development – that’s where learning toys come into action. Accessibility is also important when playing at tables. Children should be able to able to willingly participate and do not get tired. Even studies say that a child’s only profession is play. Kids engage in educational activities while playing with learning toys and enjoy problem-solving scenarios while reaching major mental and physical development milestones.
If you are a parent or a Montessori teacher, you must provide children with age-appropriate learning toys. Because if you give a toddler chess to play, what possible outcome would come?
Author Bio: Hadiya has expert-level knowledge about cyber security solutions as she has been writing online safety guides for more than 5 years. Her goal is to educate her readers about online safety in the best and the easiest way possible. Follow Hadiya on LinkedIn
