The Myth of the “Educational Toy” Your Holiday Survival Guide

By Stephanie Gomez, LCSW First 5 Nevada County

Printed in the Family Post: Holiday Issue 2007

Does this commercial look familiar? A mother sits happily in front of the television with her bright-eyed nine-month old sitting on her lap. The baby is pushing buttons on a colorful lap-pad placed in front of them as he giggles in delight watching his movements effect a picture on the television. The announcer explains what a wonderful opportunity this toy offers for early learning in addition to “quality time” with his mother. So what is the intended message to parents of young children? First, that quality time with your child is important and, presumably, there is no better way to interact with your child than a television and computer keyboard. Second, by not buying this toy, you may be stunting your child’s cognitive development.

According to her new book, Buy, Buy, Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds, by Susan Gregory Thomas, the infant and preschool toy market is a whopping $3.2 billion industry, with “educational toys” leading the way. In fact, the era of the “educational toy” is a fairly new one that developed from a collision of very specific cultural occurrences in the past decade. In 1997, the Clinton Administration held the White House Conference on Early Childhood Development and Learning. Experts presented that the brain develops most quickly during the first three years of life and that what young children need most is a safe, nurturing environment to explore and a secure attachment with their primary caregiver. This famous conference was pivotal in funding early childhood programs. However, much of the research has been irresponsibly manipulated by marketers to tap into parents’ fears that they must cram their child with every possible learning experience before it is too late. Around the same time, a poorly designed study made its way through popculture commonly known as “The Mozart Effect.” The belief was that infants would be smarter if they listened to Mozart. We have since learned from follow-up studies that the Mozart Effect does not exist but that exposing young children to a wide array of music and rhythm in conjunction with positive adult interaction can be very enriching for young children. This can best be done in the daily interactions with a primary caregiver or a group experience, rather than watching a DVD. But when national attention to early childhood brain development and pop-culture collided, we had the makings of a perfect storm.

A few weeks following the White House Conference, Julie Aigner-Clark, a stay-at-home mother launched the DVD series: Baby Einstein, which is now regarded as the birth of the “educational toy” boom. The DVD series is intended for infants and toddlers and consists of pictures of everyday objects combined with words in foreign languages and classical music. Within one year, Aigner-Clark had grossed over a million dollars. Within five years she had sold her series to the Walt Disney Company for over 25 million dollars. A 2003 report by the Henry K. Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than half of parents believed that baby videos such as these were “very important” to their babies’ cognitive development. This is a mindboggling statistic considering the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television, DVD or computer time for children under the age of two. Even more concerning is, at that time, no research had been conducted to inform parents whether infants watching television was effective at boosting babies’ brain power. It wasn’t until this past August that the Journal of Pediatrics published a study reporting that the use of such videos may actually slow down infants’ language skills. The research found that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs, infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them. Andrew Meltzoff, the well-respected scientific coauthor of the study theorizes that “Parents and caretakers are the baby’s first and best teachers. They instinctively adjust their speech, eye gaze and social signals to support language acquisition. Watching attention-getting DVDs and TV may not be an even swap for warm social human interaction at this very young age.” Despite all this, it’s estimated that thirty percent of parents have a Baby Einstein in their home.

As high-tech Generation X parents learned more about the importance of children’s learning during the first three years, the business of “smart toys” began to explode as Leap Frog and V-Tech introduced their line of “learning” toys. The LeapPad is such a well-marketed toy that an estimated 77% of households with young children own this $50 toy. What does the LeapPad do that is so amazing? It tries to simulate what a parent already does when he or she sits down and reads a book with their child. The problem with many of these “smart toys” is they do not require any creativity; the child quickly becomes bored, and the toy goes unused. Of course, this is very lucrative for the toy manufacturers who will rapidly develop the next expensive toy as a replacement. Even more concerning is what Susan Linn describes in her book, Consuming Kids: the Hostile Takeover of Childhood, as “The Death of Creativity.” Many older children today do not know how to play independently or imaginatively because they have become used to being entertained by toys with bells and whistles. I am particularly concerned over how these toys provide immediate gratification by pushing a button, with no necessity for patience, problem-solving or concentration.

So the question remains, what is an “educational toy?” The short answer is that children learn best when offered a wide array of developmentally appropriate, openended objects that a child will continue to use creatively throughout his or her development. Open-ended means there is more than one way to play with a toy such as building a tower one day and creating a train the next. Developmentally appropriate means that the item is safe, interesting to the child and that the child has the necessary skills to manage the toy. What is most important is that children are offered a selection of different types of objects in order to develop all the different parts of his or her self. A true “educational toy” is one without batteries. The more a toy is powered by batteries, the less it is powered by your child’s brain. The magical part of play is that with carefully selected items, a child can generally continue to play with many of the same toys from one year of age up to preschool or elementary age. So when choosing toys for young children think of the following categories. Remember you only need a few from each:

Fine Motor Skills

These are the skills used by our smaller muscle groups and utilize hand-eye coordination.

Infants: Shape sorters, stacking rings, blocks, nesting cups, simple puzzles, containers.

Toddlers: All of the above plus magnets, peg boards, lacing boards, large building blocks.

Preschoolers: All of the above plus beads and string, log building, erector sets.

Gross Motor Skills

These are skills used by the larger muscle groups and involve more active play.

Infants: Balls, push-toys, slide, riding toys, tunnel.

Toddlers: All of the above, plus climbing structures, tricycle, wagon.

Preschoolers: All of the above plus, scooters, bike.

Creative /Messy Play

Although sometimes the most difficult for parents, this is a necessary part of children’s learning. Not only will they explore their creative side but they will also be utilizing many fine motor skills and learning necessary concepts for school such as colors and shapes. Like always, this is done with close adult supervision to ensure safety and limit setting.

Infants: Bath toys, sand and water play shaving cream.

Toddlers: Crayons/paper, play dough, beginner paint sticks, chalk, table and chairs.

Preschoolers: Art easel, fingerpaints, paintbrushes, modeling clay, felt board.

Books

Hard board books are best for young children so they can have the experience of putting the book in their mouth. Universally popular books are those with familiar objects, bright colors, animals, and words that rhyme.

Pretend/Dramatic/Nurturing Play

This is an important part of children’s play as they work out their own challenges and fears. Nurturing play gives your child the opportunity to feel what it’s like to be a “mommy” or “daddy.”

Infants: telephone, keys, dolls.

Toddlers: Dolls, stuffed animals, kitchen play, dress-up, little people and furniture, hats.

Preschoolers: Doll house, car garage, bubble lawn mower, doctor kit, “tool” set, puppets.

Symbolic Play

Simple, universal items that children can use to tell their own story such as: cars, plastic animals, farm set, stuffed animals, puppets, simple board games

Musical Play

Infants: Egg Shakers, hand drum, rattles, xylophone.

Toddlers: tambourines, sticks, bells, triangle, maracas.

Preschoolers, play piano, harmonica, drums.

Toys to Avoid

DVDs, video and computer software for young children.

“Smart Toys” or toys that require batteries.

Licensed characters- Toys such as Disney, Barbie, Thomas the Train, Bob the Builder, Care Bears. Marketing companies have deliberately placed these products on infant and toddler merchandise such as mobiles, crib blankets and diapers to gain new consumers who will identify with their products “from cradle to the grave.” When a child asks for this toy, it is not the toy they are asking for, but simply product recognition or conditioning.

Avoid toys that encourage “collecting.” You will never be able to complete the collection, your child will outgrow the collection very quickly and you are teaching your child that what they have is never enough.

Toys with Unhealthy, Violent or Sexualized Messages. Toys that promote unhealthy lifestyle choices such as the McDonald’s Play Dough Kit, Bratz Dolls or even Lingerie Barbie. Although it is natural for children to work through violent themes in their play, it is more appropriate for them to develop this play themselves, rather than being exposed to violent images created by adults.

How much is enough?

The number of toys is not as important as the quality of the toys. Presentation is they key; Children will play with openended toys repeatedly throughout their development as long as they have access to the toys in an organized manner. Rotate them out when your child becomes bored and bring them back again to explore in a different developmental phase. Too many toys become cluttered and over-stimulating. Set a budget and make a list of the precise toys you have selected for your child’s play experience. Shop on-line if you don’t think you can resist the lure of the toy store. These first early years define a child’s expectations for gift receiving. So if a child is bathed in a cornucopia of gifts when he or she is young, they will begin to expect this year after year. We are setting a precedent, so let’s think carefully about the messages we want to teach and model for our children this holiday season.

Stephanie Gomez, LCSW and mother of a delightful toddler, is the Program Coordinator for Parent Support And Education for First 5 Nevada County. Email any questions or comments to stephanie@first5nevco.org.