Choosing Toys

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The world of a modern child is full of a huge number of toys, and it is often difficult for adults to decide which toy is "useful" for a child. "Useful" can be considered those toys and play materials that give an impulse to the knowledge of the world around, to independent and free creative play.

These are toys that can be roughly divided:

• Toys that form the skills of objective activity. Through toys - objects - children learn shape, color, volume, material, the world of animals, the world of people, etc.
• Toys for creativity
• Toys for the development of child's movements
• Toys that develop the social and personal sphere of the child

Formation of the skills of subject activity

All surrounding objects (already in infancy!) Invite the baby to research. Attention, speech and thinking are formed largely due to objective activity. The kid learns the world around him with his senses, so toys are needed:

1) In a calm color scheme, but bright toys are appropriate for the smallest (from 0 to 3 years old);

2) Different in sound: bells, rattles, whistles, drums, as well as rustling papers, cellophane bags and many other objects give the baby the experience of knowing the world around him.

3) Everything that is connected with sensations, i.e. various objects to the touch, different in structure - plastic and wood, rags and rubber, rough and smooth. And also different in size, shape and purpose, it can be cubes, pyramids, boxes of forms, various balls, scoops, buckets, nets for catching toys and much more (like tree bark, nuts, shells, laces, etc.), which will help the kid discover new qualities of objects, find new ways of action, and make discoveries. Here lies the beginning of cognitive interest, as well as dedication and perseverance are formed.

4) For the development of the speech of the smallest, it is useful to read folk tales (start over with the simplest ones), tell from pictures. This requires large artistically executed pictures in books with reliable, recognizable images of animals and people.

Toys for creativity

Mosaics, materials for modeling (dough - for children under 3-4 years old, and clay and plasticine for older children) and drawing (crayons, paint, pencils, etc.), applications and design should be used for free creativity, without limiting the child to frames other people's samples. Just here you can use various materials such as chestnuts and acorns, seeds and cereals, threads and cotton wool, as well as many other items.

Toys for the development of child's movements

Here you need balls of different sizes, rocking horses, wheelchairs, swings, slides, ladders, skittles, walking benches, hoops, jump ropes, scooters, bicycles.

Development of the social and personal sphere

For this, a doll is indispensable. It is desirable that there be at least one doll similar to the child himself and dolls-children of different sex (10-15 cm). The doll requires a cot, kitchen utensils, furniture and clothing. We need finger puppets, theater puppets, animals, soldiers. The main quality of a good toy from a developmental point of view is its openness. The less elaborated the image, the more there is an opportunity to imagine, to speculate. Dolls (like animals) must have only essential signs, then the same figure can change: for example, laugh and cry, sleep and run, be upset and angry. It is these toys that awaken and feed the imagination, allow the baby to realize his plan. The incompleteness of the image of a toy is also important so that the child can see those features in it and show the qualities that he needs at the moment. Various attributes for playing hairdresser, doctor, shop, transport toys. It is these toys that help to accept and maintain a playful role.

It must be remembered that a toy should be for a child "a source of joy, a motive for a lively game, an object for the manifestation of all the instincts of a developing life."

What should be considered when choosing toys?

Safety and hygiene

• When choosing a toy for your child, pay attention to the following:
• Safe cover. The paint should not be toxic.
• Safe construction: Toys with small parts, sharp edges or breakable parts are usually not safe for young children. Toys, which can easily break and crumble, often cause injury to a small child.
• Safe size: very small toys that can be swallowed (smaller than a baby's cam) or toys with detachable parts are not suitable for children under 3 years of age.
• Safe sound. Choose toys that make soft and musical sounds rather than harsh, loud or shrill sounds. Loud sounds can damage your hearing or simply scare your child.
• Hygiene. Toys that cannot be washed quickly become a breeding ground for bacteria. This is especially important for children under 3 years old.

Is the toy age appropriate

In the process of playing (this is the main activity), the child develops and for each age there is such a type of activity with the help of which the child moves to a new stage of development. For children from 1 to 3 years old, such an activity is objective, in which the child masters various actions with objects, learns to correlate the shape, size and location of individual parts. Therefore, babies from one to three years old need a maximum of toys for the formation of skills in objective activity and a minimum for the formation of a social and personal sphere. And at preschool age (from 3 to 6 years), role-playing becomes the leading activity, and there should be a maximum of toys for the formation of the social and personal sphere and creativity. Toys for developing the child's movements should always be present.

If the toy does not correspond to the age and needs of the baby, then the child will not be able to use the toy for its intended purpose, loses interest in it, and therefore development tasks are not solved. For example, sophisticated technical toys or clever boards with figurines and rattles moving along wire paths might suit a two-year-old toddler who wants to try all kinds of movement and sound. But he is not yet able to follow a complex trajectory, and by the time he is sufficiently prepared for this, the toy will no longer seem interesting. In addition, moving colored paths and figures, so I want to examine and learn what it consists of and how it works, so it is not surprising why a two-year-old child broke such a complex technique.

Aesthetic and cultural requirements

Will the toy help the child develop a sense of beauty or develop a bad taste? An important point in evaluating a toy is its connection with the surrounding social life. The toys of each generation of children differ significantly (especially dolls, household utensils, vehicles). Through play, preschoolers get used to tools, household items, furniture, clothes, machines, adopted in their modern society. Therefore, the "modernity" of the toy, its ability to embody and convey to children the "spirit of its time" should be taken into account when evaluating.

Psychological and moral requirements

What feelings will a new toy evoke in a child - tenderness or aggression, a desire to take care of it or shoot it with a pistol? The toy should, whenever possible, evoke kind, humane feelings. It is unacceptable that it contains qualities that stimulate antisocial actions and feelings: violence, cruelty, aggressiveness, indifference to living things. Toys that can be played by several children at the same time are very useful - board and sports games or, for example, a construction set. These games develop children's collaborative skills.

And remember:

1. Any toy without the participation of parents in the game loses a significant share of its attractiveness. It is very important that you show and teach. When a new or old, but forgotten toy is included in the game, parents should ask: does the child know what it is called, show how and where you can play with it: on the floor, on the table, in the bathroom, on the street. Then the toy that interested the kid is transferred to his free use.

2. For the child's correct development, games must be made more complex gradually, in accordance with the level of development of play activities.

3. There should not be many toys. Even if the nursery is littered with stacked elephants, railways, dolls, the child will convince you that there is nothing to play with. A large number of objects in front of his eyes prevents the child from concentrating - he grabs one thing or the other, it is so difficult to play. Some of the toys can and should be hidden from the child from time to time so that he can forget about them. And when you take them out again, he will perceive them as new, the toys will "work" again.

4. The most delightful, fabulous toy will not replace your child's communication with you.