When it comes to selecting toys for children there are a number of criteria I expect them to meet, but two of the most important aspects are that the toy is an open ended material and that it will be able to provide appropriate challenges for a number years. Many toys on the market have a single and obvious purpose, (they are often made of plastic and beep or sing songs), this means that there is little or no room for creativity, organic exploration or problem solving AND that you are buying a lot of toys.
In my opinion, a good quality toy should promote creative thinking, math skills, problem solving, used in dramatic or social play, support language and fine motor development, encourage flexibility and have an increasing level of difficulty as the child grows.
This is an example of one of O's toys that he has found multiple ways to explore and will grow with him over the next few years. It's the Melissa & Doug Shape Sequence Sorting Set. The age rec for this item is 3 - 7 years but we gave it to him at about 16 months.
At first he needed a lot of support from us in figuring out that the the shapes did not just fit into any space but he has become quite good at testing out different spots before finding one that fits.
Sometimes he matches the solid and hollow shapes separate from the board, this helps him in becoming familiar with the different parts and how they fit together.
Currently, he is able to put all the pieces in their appropriate slots but they are not in size order and the hollow, outer blocks do not match their solid partners in the order in which they are meant too.
As he grows and it is age appropriate, we will encourage him to sort by size and match the pieces as they are intended.
Other ways in which O has already discovered this toy to be useful include:
* music: banging two pieces together to make a beat
* social play: holding one piece up his eye to look through (similar to peek a boo)
* cognitive and fine motor development: stacking (see pictures below)
Other areas of development that can be encouraged using this toy include:
* art: labeling colors, darker than/lighter than
* math: counting, shapes, size, matching, sequencing
* language development: vocabulary words (bigger, smaller, into, over)
Stacking...
No comments:
Post a Comment