What is it about “Toys”, especially wooden toys that’s so endearing and educational to children? Do you remember a favorite wooden toy that you enjoyed as a child (you may even still have it)? If you’re able to still remember it after all that time, odds are, you enjoyed many times, learned a lot, had many adventures from it, and it has even created a “treasured” memory from your childhood.
A child may become very attached to a certain toy, whether it be a stuffed animal, developmental wooden toy or educational toy, and in the event that toy gets misplaced, or “god forbid” left at a restaurant during vacation, the heroic measures taken to rescue that toy are tremendous!
Open-ended wooden baby toys that offer creative and imaginative play are great teachers and can help children discover how to:
1. Work out how things work
2. Pick up new ideas and concepts
3. Use their imagination
4. Solve problems
5. Build muscle control and dexterity, along with strength
6. Learn how to cooperate and have fun with others
The way to select the appropriate toy for your “special” child:
There are many different kinds of toys to choose from, according to your child’s age, and what type of skill you wish to help foster.
Below are some examples of several types of toys, and what they help teach. Hands-on toys help encouage ideas about how exactly things work, foster problem-solving, and build hand-eye coordination. A few examples of “hands-on” toys are: Shape sorters, stacking toys and wooden blocks, wooden puzzles and lacing cards. Books help teach children about literature, their alphabet, colors, and help foster concentration skills. Educational toys teach children all sorts of things including math, science, colors, shapes, numbers, nature, etc.
Hardwood Unit Blocks (classic wooden building blocks) are probably one of the most durable toys for all ages. They teach children about geometry and gravity, shapes, color and balance.
Musical instruments and experimental materials such as sand and water offer children control while appealing to their senses. Pretend play objects for example dolls, stuffed animals, and puppets give children the opportunity to try out new behaviors in imaginative ways.
Active play equipment helps build strength and confidence to help master physical challenges.
A few examples of “Active play” equipment are: Ride-on toys, Rocking Horses, and small climbing structures.
As your child grows and develops, so does their play style and taste in toys.
Here are a few guidelines for what to expect at each developmental stage, and recommendations for appropriate toys and activites, brought to you by the “National PTA”.
Infants
- Use their as the primary avenue to investigate the world.
- Learn to participate in and control basic social interactions with caregivers.
- Learn to recognize, investigate, and control things sights, sounds, textures, and tastes.
- Examine, master, and learn to use their body parts.
- Find out how to get desired responses from folks and things.
Examples of appropriate infant toys: mobiles, rattles, toys with wheels, stacking and nesting toys, unbreakable mirrors, washable stuffed animals and dolls, cloth and heavy cardboard books. (Try to avoid electronic toys that do things infants can’t understand or control.)
Toddlers
- Take pleasure in the bodily effects that stems from their new agility in the environment.
- Examine relationships separating things and how to control them.
- Increase their understanding of object permanence–e.g., hide-and-seek activities.
- Start to see themselves as part of the community and create abilities to participate, particularly vocabulary.
- Work on utilizing symbols and make-believe in play.
Preschoolers
- Create friendships and abilities for playingting with other children.
- Learn to use symbols in a lot more complicated methods and in two-dimensional form.
- Increase their capacity to attach vocabulary to actions and ideas.
- Examine relationships separating things and how components and wholes fit together (as in building constructions).
- Experiment with how to generate desired effects happen with things and people.
- Create increasingly complicated large and small motor abilities.
- Find out how to plan ahead.
Types of appropriate preschoolers’ toys: Construction toys with interlocking pieces; new dramatic play items–props to recreate actual life (gas station, post office, store) and puppets; art materials such as markers, paint, scissors, glue, and an assortment of blank paper of various colors and textures; simple musical instruments and noisemakers, including shakers and rhythm sticks; wheel toys (ride-on equipment such as bikes and wagons); outdoor play materials (balls, bats, bubble blowers and liquid soap, and giant chalk pieces); and natural outdoor materials, (rocks, sticks, and leaves).
Developmental wooden toys have fantastic value, not simply as learning tools, but there is also emotional and sentimental value, as well.