Many mundane things will enlighten a child’s imagination. For a toddler, the simplest thing like a key chain or colorful slippers can draw their attention, believe it or not. This happens because their little brains try to classify things that they can play with. Since it is not advisable, safe or hygienic to let your child play with household items, you need to embrace their curiosity with various stimulating educational toys. And while any old toy will do, when they play with toys that can affect their learning process, then there you subconsciously stimulating their intellect, motor skills, and cognitive development.  

Embrace Their Imagination: Toys like multicolored cushion balls or soft educational floor puzzles can trigger a child’s curiosity. 6-months-old babies can differentiate colors and shapes very easily. Floor puzzles are extremely effective for small kids because they come in various shapes, colors, numbers, and patterns that enhance their creativity and physical development. If you were to place them on a playing mat and put some fluffy soft toys in different shapes, the child will slowly grab the things that they want. This is how they learn to develop various motor and recognition skills that will help them later in life. Some of the most effective educational toys at this stage are those that promote the sensory play. Rattles, infant play gums, and soothers. As they grow, their preference will change, then you introduce interactive problem-solving toys like blocks or stackers.  

Toys Boost Physical Development: One of the most crucial moments in every child’s growth is their ability to differentiate and comprehend things. From the simple play, kids can enhance their muscle strength, get good hand-eye coordination, and become more mentally and physically active. If a child wishes to reach for a rattle or a ball, it needs to push itself, enabling him to be more flexible and agile. As they get older, the toys become more constructive, cognitively and logically engaging. Toys that boost physical and comprehensive development are various fun building sets, cubes, board puzzles, scientific kits, and playful toy robots. If you were to get quality and first-rate educational toys, you will undoubtedly nurture your child’s creativity and boost his physical development.

Enhance Creative Thinking and Develop Social Intelligence: Their little minds have a totally different world on its own. When you place educational toys in front of them, they will have a well-guided play experience. By using puzzles, match shape stackers or organize sorters and blocks, they develop something that is considered as mind-enhancing development. This enables them to enhance appropriate social interaction, learning how to share, learning about social values and sentiments, language skills and emotional development. With educational toys, children learn how to handle and accept certain social situations like losing a game, develop perception, intuition, and reasoning as they are concentrating on winning in the game. Toys help them gain mental strength as they work on developing empathy at a young age and overcome any challenges that may lie in front of them. 

Help Discover the World: Little do parents know, but toys are responsible for building a child’s confidence. As they play, they get acquainted with the problem-solving situation, and once they figure out how a toy works after trial and error comes elation. Not only excitement, but great toys can help them discover the world around them as they get excited by completing a task successfully. Toys that promote movement or crawling and use lights, sounds, and movement techniques to enhance their participation in the game make children wanting to do better, move faster, and complete a task more promptly. As the child gets more aware of the world around him, toys that help them develop recognition skills can be used. Interactive books with sounds or themed playsets that refine their language and motor skills, ride-on toys to boost coordination, and other problem-solving toys that reinforce imagination.

Impact on Their Future: Scientists have discovered that educational toys can make children smarter as they stimulate brain function with play. Any toy that beeps, crinkles or needs prodding and poking will shape up a child’s brain for the future by teaching them the way things work and the way to overcome obstacles to reach a goal. In the early stages of a child’s development, their little minds can be molded in multiple ways so that they can use that skilled picked up while playing with toys in later stages. For instance, if a toddler has learned the sound of a cow by pressing the toy, once he sees the animal in real life, the toddler will be able to mimic the sound, and so on. Toys simply provide the motivation that can have a significant impact on future learning.  

By integrating fun play with toys in your child’s childhood you will encourage their social and cognitive growth as well as physical development. Educational toys guide your child through learning stages in life, so they are definitely a fruitful investment.

Morgan Elliott

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

Morgan Rose Elliott is an aromatherapist, yoga instructor, animal lover, a happily married mother of two. She enjoys reading biographies and writing poems, sunny days on the beach and any shape of vanilla. Crazy about the '80s, her favourite band is Duran Duran and she is obsessed with Stranger things.