Child development is incredibly important for the physical, emotional, sensory, mental, and creative growth of your kid. So, let us take a look at 5 toys that can promote development whilst still being a fun, entertaining educational activity.
- Ride on Cars
When you are wanting to promote development of a range of different skills, ride on cars are the way to go. By allowing your child to drive these kid-safe cars, you will teach them about direction, hand-eye coordination, road safety, and motor skills.
Children will learn that when they turn the wheel, the car will go left and right, and when they accelerate or reverse they will be going forwards and backwards. This will develop their spatial awareness, as well as teaching them how to coordinate their movements in order to carry out a task.
- Building Blocks
Building blocks are fantastic for children of all ages. For babies, blocks can help them to develop their grasping skills, refining their motor skills in their hands. For older toddlers, these blocks can be piled into towers (and knocked down), promoting 3-dimensional awareness and creative play.
If your child is not into building, you can still utilise building blocks for their development. Opt for blocks that have a range of different colours, textures, patterns, and shapes. Children of all ages will love to explore the different sides of the blocks, which can turn into a fun educational game.
- Stackable Cups
The process of stacking cups is a fantastic way to aid the development of spatial awareness and hand eye coordination. Your child will have to get their perception just right for the cup to neatly stack into the others that came before it.
This is also a learning opportunity to teach your child about object permanence – an important milestone in child development. Object permanence is all about teaching children that objects still exist even when you cannot see them. For example, you might hide one of their smaller toys under the cup, and lift the cup up to reveal it was there all along.
- Play Kitchens
Play kitchens support creative play, allowing children to act out fantasies of being a chef, or simply acting like mummy and daddy making their dinner! There are many play kitchens on the market that include realistic sound effects to teach children what the cause and effect of each kitchen task they have seen their parents enact.
This is also a fantastic opportunity to dispel any misconceptions about gender roles. Traditionally, toy kitchens are stereotypically marketed towards girls, but the truth is that all children can enjoy play kitchens, no matter their gender!
- Stuffed Toys
A lot of children quickly become attached to their stuffed toys – some might even not be able to sleep without their plush laying next to them. However, this is a great chance to teach children about change, transitions, and temporality. For example, supporting the idea that their toy is only around when they need it to sleep can support you in explaining why mummy and daddy have to go to work without them.
And there you have it – 5 fantastic toys that can promote your child’s development throughout 2022.
