CCC Employee Newsletter

Toys that Teach: Making Age-Appropriate Choices

Searching for toys and materials in the various early childhood supply catalogs, local toy stores, and specialty stores is both a fun and daunting task. Some toys and materials are a better choice for young children than others, and you can make appropriate choices by doing your homework. The best toys actively engage children in many areas of development and can be used in a variety of ways, depending on the child’s interests, ability, and imagination. Young children are naturally curious and providing them with high-quality (which may not mean expensive) materials is important to the learning process.

Learning Across the Curriculum

Through play experiences, children learn about themselves, their environment, and the people in their lives; experiment with different ways to solve problems; develop body control; practice social skills; and express their creativity. Children gain confidence as they choose toys and materials that are of particular interest to them. An environment that encourages children to make their own choices helps them feel safe, valued, adventurous, competent, and confident to take the initiative.

Language Development

Beginning with cooing games and evolving to sophisticated language levels, such as telling stories and jokes, children develop their language skills. Providing children with age-appropriate toys gives them unique and interesting topics to talk about. Books and recordings help children appreciate words, literature, and music, and pretend play objects encourage children to talk with each other.

Social-Emotional

Children learn to cooperate, negotiate, take turns, and obey rules through play. Creative art, movement, and drama materials foster creativity, are an appropriate emotional outlet, and provide another view of life. When children put on dress-up clothes, they learn to express themselves and to be comfortable in different roles, which in turn leads to self-expression and socialization opportunities.

Cognitive

Toys and materials that promote active learning motivate children to pursue their own ideas and interests enthusiastically. Many toys, for example, encourage children’s interest in concepts like same/different, patterned/planned, classifying, and sorting. Children practice problem solving as they figure out how things work.

Age-by-Age: Selecting Appropriate Toys

Children are amazingly resourceful and creative. They will transform cardboard boxes into space ships, stones into animals, and cardboard tubes into telephones. Children don’t need the most expensive toys and equipment for optimal learning. The following suggestions can help guide you in making appropriate toy choices.

Infants (Birth – 18 months)

Brightly colored, lightweight toys with texture encourage infants to touch and explore.
Soft, squeezable toys help infants practice grasping and reaching.
Push-pull toys strengthen muscles.
Simple press-together bricks, blocks, or pop beads develop eye-hand coordination.
Children’s books – cloth, vinyl, and cardboard – enhance language development.

Toddlers (18 months – 35 months)

Pegboards with large pegs encourage the development of gross motor skills
Objects that pop up with dials, switches, and knobs teach cause and effect.
Simple puzzles with knobs and chunky pieces develop eye-hand coordination.
Push-pull items, such as shopping carts and doll buggies, encourage walking while giving children the opportunity to imitate adults.
Dolls help toddlers make sense of their world and imitate adult behavior.
Children’s books with simple, colorful plots and pictures expose toddlers to different speech patterns and new vocabulary.

*Excerpts taken from “Toys that Teach: Making Age-Appropriate Choices” by Angie Dorrell, M.A. – Early Childhood News
(www.earlychildhoodnews.com)

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