Tips To Choose The Right Toys For Your Child

My niece Durga said, “We got Pranav a lot of toys, he loses interest very fast and is more content playing with our mobile or the TV remote.”  

This is true of most toddlers because they are in a stage of discovery of their lives and each toy holds interest only for a short time. This does not mean that toys are useless for children; they promote learning and increase curiosity in children.  

Valuable tips to select toys for your child:

 
Toy telephones are the best toys that encourage interaction in your toddler and entertain both of you in pretense conversation. As they grow up they would love fantasy and role play with dolls, stuffed toys and toy utensils.   

Toys for toddlers should be simple and durable with no sharp edges or toxic points because toddlers have a tendency to put everything in their mouth. Toys need to be durable because toddlers have a tendency to bash and hurl about toys.

Most toddlers delight in kicking, throwing, bouncing and crawling behind balls; a light beach ball is not only portable, but also a tool for initiating social interaction as most people enjoy playing with a kid that has a ball.

Toddlers do not read books, however it would be a good idea to get them books with stiff cardboard pages and large colorful images that they can turn back and forth. They will appreciate books that have pictures that they can point out and name as his/her attention span, memory and language skills improve before graduating to story books.

Most toddlers love to draw and color including scribbling on walls though they may initially just make wild strokes and not be able to hold the pencil or crayon.  Give your toddlers a large supply of rough paper to try out his/her artistic skills and follow it up with coloring books once the toddler’s small motor skills develop and they get interested in stories.

Most parents buy form boards and stacking rings for their toddler to facilitate learning of shapes, colors and forms; this is no evidence to support this presumption as household items could also help in this regard.

Complex puzzles do not suit toddlers as their small muscles may not be developed enough to allow for precise movements necessary to manipulate the pieces; however you could go in for 2 or 3 piece puzzles or those that have small knobs or handles attached to them.

Simple mechanical toys are more ideal for toddlers than battery operated ones as they develop their small muscle skills. Toddlers are fascinated by toys that contain levers, push buttons, dials, hinges like small hammering toys and peg boards, or large interlocking beads that toddlers can manipulate by themselves.

Toddlers enjoy building blocks; buy lighter blocks of cardboard or plastic instead of wood as they would cause lesser damage as toddlers enjoy constructing and knocking down constructions.

Finally understand that each toddler has his/her own way and playing and learning; accept the individuality of the toddler.