What good are children’s toys?
To help you make a good investment in choosing toys for your child, consider the importance and benefits of play that a carefully selected toy can enhance. Toys are tools for play, and when you provide your child with the best tools for play, their play experience will foster essential skills. Many toys are not very good tools to play with. Any toy that is not safe, does not interest your child, breaks easily, and has no developmental value with use is not a good tool to play with. The best toys are interesting and fun for your child to play with and are successfully designed to promote essential growth and development.
Finding the best toys requires some general knowledge, selective shopping, and an appreciation for the old saying, “you get what you pay for.” In the long run, paying more for a well-designed toy made from better materials is also a much better value. Look for award-winning toys that have been shown to promote skills such as sequencing, matching, sorting, counting, hand-eye coordination, memory, visual recognition, touch, problem solving, emotions, pattern recognition, and fine motor skills. As children grow, they move toward toys that enhance skills like math, science, construction, and basic introductory engineering.
The right toy for the right play experience will also help grow your child’s imagination, which can be stimulated through storytelling, dramatic play, themes, role play, and simulation. Some of these same toys and activities that help develop your child’s imagination can also help him better recognize, understand, and process emotions. Children really learn to express their feelings through healthy play before they can express them in words. The joy and laughter of children only when they play is worth the price of a quality toy that encourages such delight.
A well-chosen toy can also help children learn to interact better with others while playing with other children and developing social skills. Some toys are specifically designed for group play for this very purpose. It is good that children enjoy playing alone, and it is equally important that children learn to play well with others and enjoy doing it.
The right toys can do wonders to help bring all of these skills and developments to life through constructive and enjoyable play. Now, let’s ask the question one more time: “What good are children’s toys?” The answer is simple: a carefully selected toy, one that is well designed and carefully crafted, can be a whole new world of good for your child as an excellent tool for beneficial play that helps your child grow in many important ways.
Choosing the right toys for your child should be important to you because play is important for your child’s growth and development. Keep in mind that not all toys are the same. Beware of junk toys that don’t last and don’t have any developmental benefits built into their design. You will rarely find the best toys in the clearance aisle or at a yard sale. Toys that are a good investment for your child are high-quality toys made for years of use. These are the toys that create treasured childhood memories and are often passed on to the next generation.