Toys are known worldwide as tools to add some fun to their daily routine. Apart from this, toys aren’t all just fun and games ㄧ they’re also extremely vital for your kid’s development throughout their childhood years.
Toys benefit a child in various skills such as:
1. Motor Skills
Building on your child’s gross motor skills is important in his or her early years such as learning how to walk and performing simple everyday tasks. Walking, jumping and crawling are considered huge physical milestones that your little one can achieve during his or her toddler years. In order to improve these skills, toys that involve motor exercises should be incorporated into their playtime.
As your little one is learning to toddle, various play items such as baby walkers and activity cubes will stimulate physical activity such as standing and walking. These activities will give your child the opportunity to build their tiny muscles and physical independence.
Play Cube Centre – Forest, $198
Baby Walker Multi-Function, $109
Developing fine motor skills (or dexterity) increases ability in more precise actions like the zipping and buttoning up of clothing, tying shoelaces and so on. Activity cubes, puzzles and playing with dough are some examples that your child can have fun with while improving their fine motor skills. In addition, toys like play dough provide a great sensory medium for children, and will satisfy those who are sensory seeking, meanwhile providing them with an outlet to have a tactile experience during their play time. Furthermore, this will allow them to learn different motor skills such as pulling, kneading and rolling.
Working on dexterity at a young age is essential as this aims to help children hold a pencil and control it well enough to write on paper, and use cutlery in a proper manner. By incorporating these toys into your kid’s play time, he or she will also be able to understand objects of different shapes, sizes, weights and colours.
Wooden Puzzle, from $19.90
Clay Figurine Making, $38
2. Problem Solving and Thinking Skills
Toys that induce problem solving and thinking skills give kids the opportunity to develop persistence, patience and confidence to think out of the box. Having experiences like these allow children to acquire different sets of skills to solve challenges in the future, may it be in school or the outside world.
Puzzles and memory card games are ideal in further developing one’s frontal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for higher cognitive skills.
High-Quality Wooden Puzzle, $18.90
3. Language Development
Building on language development supports your child’s ability to understand, communicate and express their feelings to people around them. In addition, language development lays a solid foundation for both reading and writing skills in children when they progress through school. By focusing on your kid’s language skills, he or she will be able to interact and play better with others.
To tap into this aspect, you can introduce pretend play into their routine.
Pretend play is critical for developing oral language as it allows children to both have fun, and expand on their word vocabulary. By bringing in this interactive and engaging activity, children can learn about themselves and the world ㄧ their various likes and dislikes, interests and abilities. According to research, children who are engaged in pretend play would often use higher forms of language than they would use in typical situations. This is because these pretend play activities tend to stimulate kids’ language development, resulting in being exposed to complicated forms of language.
Safari Jeep, $55.90
Doll House, $219
4. Social and Emotional Development
It is never too early to begin working on your kid’s social and emotional development. According to research, young infants are able to interact with people in their environment, and even match different faces to their voices and expressions.
Neglecting a child’s social and emotional health can cause negative impacts such as not being able to understand educational concepts, inability to interact with people around them and possibly affect his or her self-esteem. Therefore, fostering these aspects at a young age is beneficial in processing the world around them, whilst understanding themselves and eventually establishing positive relationships with others.
To assist in building your child’s social and emotional development, incorporating toys into their play time is highly essential.
Apart from developing language skills, pretend play also includes other benefits such as providing your child with a space to unleash and build on their social skills. This imaginative play creates opportunities to learn about different perspectives on what others might act and think, whilst experimenting with the social and emotional roles of life. Through pretend play, a child will have the experience of “walking in someone else’s shoes” and act out situations from another’s viewpoint. Over time, your child might also be able to develop his or her own career interests, may it be a scientist or nurse!
Here at Trio Kids Singapore, we provide an extensive range of toys and educational toys for you to choose from ㄧ invest in your kid’s learning and enjoy some parent-child bonding time today!