Educational Toys For Kids

A parent's greatest contribution to a child's educational growth should come before the child ever begins his formal education. Parents can leave it to the schools to teach their child to read or count or write his name. The market for educational toys has thus been opened. Mainly addressing the clamor for toys accepted by child psychologists, toy manufacturers have come up with a wide array of toys that promise hours of fun and excitement to the child, and at the same time, meet the requirements set by these experts. As the child enters each stage of growth, his play changes; and as his play changes, the toy is also transformed. Psychologists have studied the evolution and development of a child's intellect, as pioneered by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, by closely observing children. They have come out with a trove of realities on how toys, educational or otherwise, affect the child's multiple intelligences.

An interesting sidebar to these findings is the fact that toys and toy advertising have powerful effects on the ways children construct their gender identities. Female-stereotyped toys tend to promote the most complex play in 18 to 47 month-olds. But as children grow older, their gendered stereotypes about toys grow stronger. Boys, especially, become increasingly likely to avoid playing with "girl toys," possibly for fear of social repercussions from their peers. Thus, those fashion dolls that were created towards the teens and pre-teens segment to supposedly stimulate creativity and encourage imagination, may not really be the best educational toys because they encourage gender marginalization and desensitization. Toy companies, like all other businesses, aim towards making money. The result is an abstruse circumstance wherein toy companies contend that they are protecting the children's purchasing rights through straightforward advertising, whereas critics argue that these companies are exploiting a defenseless population.

Selecting Educational Toys by Age Group

You know your child better than we do, so it can be a little tricky for us to recommend super-specific toys by age group. When you see the age group listed on a toy package, it's always more of a general suggestion than a specific limitation. Some kids may excel when it comes to mathematics and motor skills, preferring complex building toys at a young age, while staying at about the same pace as everyone else when it comes to reading and writing. The toy age groups are a good enough guide to select toys for say, a niece or nephew, if you're not really sure where they're at developmentally, but for parents, they're more of a loose guideline. Your baby may be a genius, but if you think your little Einstein is ready for Play-Doh, you'd better be ready to change some rainbow coloured diapers this week.
Children at this age are still grasping the basic motor skills, so let them catch up on all that before you start handing them The Great Gatsby or anything. Readin', writin', and 'rithmetic come a little later.
In general though, this is the age range where reading and basic mathematics first really come into play. Any toy with numbered or lettered buttons is a great choice around this time.
Eight and up... it's getting harder and harder to categorize kids by age when it comes to developmental toys. Gauge your own child's level of education, their interests, their curiosities, and provide them with something challenging.
A kid who loves Duplo blocks might be ready for Lego and Mega Bloks. A kid who likes children's books might be ready or his first chapter book. One thing worth noting, those Leapfrog activity books. They're recommended for ages 3-4 and 5-7. Three is too young for most kids to start reading, but the books also provide full colour illustrations and they're electronically interactive toys, so they really offer a lot for all ages.