Choosing Toys: When Less is Really More

by Lindsay Dunckel, First 5 Program Coordinator

Printed in The Family Post: Holiday Issue 2004

This time of year, parents are inundated with advertisements and catalogs showing toys full of pizzazz—toys that light up, talk, even interact. Micro chips are everywhere, and children today can have a roomful of toys that entertain them, wondrous things that we parents never even dreamed of in our childhood.

Imagine being able to “compose” music as a toddler, learn your letters from a talking school bus, or play with action heroes that cue you on inventing pretend emergencies! Childhood has changed. But have children?

Just before Christmas when my daughter was four years old, I found a wooden box with six little drawers which I filled with art supplies; modeling clay and tools for shaping it, glitter pens, fuzzy pompoms and colored craft sticks, feathers and googly eyes, stickers, and a whole drawer full of buttons of all shapes and sizes.

On Christmas morning she breezed past it, drawn to the gifts with more pizzazz. But I waited for what I knew was coming. Three days later she rediscovered the art box. And four years later, that art box, refilled many times, is still a main fixture of her play time. She’ll tell you it’s one of her favorite presents ever.

Children are instantly drawn to electronic toys because they command attention. Parents are drawn to them because they are so different from what we had as kids. Advertisers capitalize on this, insisting that learning to interact with electronics is crucial in a world that is increasingly computerized. Toy packaging often points out what a child will “learn” from the nifty toy within. Some experts even say that children will benefit from using technology from an early age. Yet studies have shown that children entering high school with no computer experience catch up with their more computer-savvy classmates within a matter of months. Children seem to learn how to use technology much more quickly than adults, so why do we need to teach it through their toys?

For decades now, child development experts have understood that children learn through doing, through active involvement in their environment, including manipulating objects (like building with blocks or digging in sand), pretending one object is another (such as using a remote control for a cell phone, or leaves for food), and acting things out (playing Mommy or Teacher). The more a toy does, the less active the child has to be. With the most technologically advanced toys, a child is almost totally passive, called on only to respond to or to activate the toy. This has implications for the child’s development, including her physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. Real play helps a child develop in all of these areas.

So what should you buy this holiday season? Look for simple playthings that can be used in a number of ways. These toys will hold children’s attention longer and they will use them more over time. Try to balance the types of toys your child has, with some from each of the basic “toy groups:” gross motor, fine motor, spatial, art, and pretend play.

Gross motor toys engage a child in active play. Things like ride-on toys, balls, hula hoops, bowling sets, pull-and-push toys, balance beams, swings, and cloth tunnels fall in this group. These toys help your child develop whole-body coordination, awareness of the self in space, and planning (for instance, guessing where the ball is going and getting there to catch it). Some of them also help your child develop hand-eye or foot-eye coordination. Look around your house and see what is missing—indoor gross motor toys for those rainy winter days? How about a magnetic fishing set? You can make one yourself with a stick, a string, a magnet, and some cloth or paper fish with paper clips on them. A gift that is made by a parent carries an extra message of the importance of the child.

Fine motor toys engage a child in quiet play. They tend to sit with these toys and play with them using their fingers. These toys help your child develop fine motor skills that are crucial in such things as writing. They can also help develop focus, work habits, and follow-through (lacing a sewing card from beginning to end or finishing a puzzle, for example). Puzzles, stringing beads, lacing cards, stacking toys, scissors, and fit-together toys are all part of this group. For very young children, any fill-and-dump toy, where the child puts something in a larger container, is a fine motor toy.

Spatial toys engage children in using things in spatial relationship to one another. Most building toys are spatial toys. These toys are terrific pre-math concept builders and are important for both boys and girls, although they are often marketed only to boys. Wooden blocks, Legos, Duplos, marble runs, mosaic tile toys, and construction toys (especially those with simple, visual instructions that a preschooler can follow) all help build essential spatial reasoning concepts. They are also great for bringing parents and children together in play.

Art toys engage children in creating things. These toys can fall under all of the above categories, but they are grouped together because they allow children to express themselves in another mode besides language. Many art toys and activities also allow for sensorimotor exploration, exploring the world through the senses, and are yet another type of learning. Art toys play an important role in the development of the self-concept and of self-expression. They can give children a method for processing or coping with their emotions and experiences. Art toys can create two-dimensional, spatial, or musical products. Try to have a variety available for your child—colors, textures, sounds. Finger painting and blow pens offer two totally different ways of getting marks on paper. These kinds of things appeal to the little scientist in your child. A drum, a maraca, and a kazoo are all easy to get a sound out of, but it is done in very different ways. All of these things build on your child’s knowledge of cause and effect. Additionally, music tapes or CDs make wonderful holiday gifts for children.

Pretend play occupies most of young children’s play time. It is crucial to social development, allowing children to try out roles and experiences, thereby coming to understand them in a new way. Whether practiced alone or with others, pretend play helps children develop negotiating skills and learn to navigate their world. The symbolic use of objects (a shoe becomes a boat for a toy man) paves the way for children’s understanding of a symbol system. This understanding is the basis for learning to read. Dress-up clothes are great for developing pretend play—but remember that simple can be better. Big scarves can be skirts or turbans or capes or doll blankets or something with which to dance, whereas a knight’s armor is limited to just that. Other good, open-ended, pretend play toys that captivate children include wooden or plastic toy animals—especially those that come in a family grouping—doll houses or just doll house furniture, and all kinds of people figures with accessories.
When you choose to give your child these kinds of simple toys that engage rather than entertain him, you will be enhancing his physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth in a way that electronic toys cannot. You will be creating a holiday season in which your child’s joy in the gifts lasts well beyond the new year.

Lindsay Dunckel, Ph.D. and Grass Valley mother of two, is the Program Coordinator for Parent Support and Education for First 5 Nevada County.