Can you remember your most favorite toy ? It doesn´t matter whether it had been a barbie doll , a dinosaur stuffy or one of your water toys. That was your most favorite toy and you liked it more than everything else in the whole universe. What you most likely don't remember and know is how this toy helped to your growth over the years and what was its contribution to the development of your skilles and abilities over the years. In this article we will show why toys are so important in your kids development.
Every expert will tell you that all kids learn by playing and toys are the instruments that help them to discover the universe that they live in. Children interact with their surroundings thru toys. They enjoy playing with them and feel happy because of that both of those help them to build their self-esteem.
Motor Skills
Fine motor skills, like gross motor skills, develop through a lot of repeated exercise. The most effective way to train your motor skills is through playing with educational toys, colouring images or building towers with building blocks as an example. Once the motions are repeated enough, motor muscle memory is formed and also the movements become automatic.
Ever since they're born, toys inspire babies to use their feet and hands to discover new forms, colours and sounds. Once babies learn how to sit and crawl, toys incite them to get on the move. If their favorite toy is out of reach, the baby can use its muscles to reach and grab it.
Emotional Development
Toys boost children’s´ creativitiveness and they teach them how to show their feelings (internal and external). If it is thru role playing or acting out totally different characters, use of costumes, or dolls, children are given the space to imagine familiar situations (playing house , a day at the airoport , a tour around the world …) or imagine fantastical worlds that lead children to abstraction (action figures, fantasy universes…) The capacity to generate symbolical games reveals a mature temperament, that is capable of making rules of its own.
Often, adults tend to identify the TOY with “something that is sold at the store” but children, on the other hand, see toys as objects that included in their playing. These objects can be something real like a set of keys, a pot, a roll of toilet paper, or things they can transform such as clay, play dough, paint. These tools all help teach kids how to make decisions as they help spark their imagination while creating a universe they can play in.
Social Development
Aside from improving children´s language skills, toys teach social skills and give them an understanding of the society they live in. Toys invite children to interact, first with adults and then with other children of their age. The simple act of playing with another child challenges them to experience situations where important lessons are to be learned: respect, cooperation and sharing. Toys also motivate kids to take initiative, learn to negotiate and teaches them how to get better organized.
Cognitive Development
Toys promote children´s cognitive development by stimulating their concentration and memory skills (board games) and giving them the ability to solve problems creatively, which is key to their future autonomy (playing with building blocks or puzzles). Cognitive development is important because it enables children to approach math and language skills in a way that´s fun for them.
Did you know that toys were so important in childhood development?
The Sources for this article:
http://blog-en.famosa.es/why-are-toys-important-in-childhood-development/