Educational toys for children that harm
When you look around the rubble of toys with a tired gaze, you involuntarily think about a magic bag in which you could put it all at once – and throw it away. It seems that there is no benefit from this toy abundance, one frustration for mom.
Indeed, if this learned dog has to learn to sing and dance, why does it always end up over there in the corner, behind the curtain? And if these cards with words are actually so progressive, why do they always lie like a solid carpet, and the books still have to be read to the son out loud? And why, pray tell, does Vanya not build from Lego, if he has already bought three branded books with fantasy models? Probably, it was worth not filling your kopeck piece with all this developing trash, but limiting ourselves to cubes and pyramids, which once served us well.
“Now it’s very fashionable to talk about the early development of a child, about creating a developing environment for a baby,” says early development teacher Lyudmila Rabotyagova. – Mommies spend a lot of time on various forums making lists of must-have super development toys. And here we need to figure out: what do we want from a toy, are simple teddy bears so useless and why is the advertised game for the development of intelligence gathering dust on the shelf since 6 months, and the baby does not look in its direction?
In order for toys to arouse interest and serve the development of intelligence, the child needs to be shown how to play with them.
“Let’s start with the fact that with a creative approach, any toy can become developmental,” says our expert. – They gave the child a soft bunny, but he does not play with him, and so he lies on the shelf. But now it’s time for us to get vaccinated at the clinic. How to prepare your baby? We get our bunny, bear, doll, robot, “put” them inoculations, calm them down, treat them with carrots, honey, candy, machine oil. Let the baby tell the bunny himself why he needs the vaccine. Now it’s not so scary to go to the hospital, but we take the bunny with us – the baby will be calmer with him, he is already a loyal friend.
Plush toys are designed to be participants in a role-playing game, and its developmental role can hardly be overestimated. Such a game becomes the main one by the age of three or four years of the baby.
– Get your toys out, fantasize, involve the child – “shop”, “hospital”, “school”, “bus”, but at least a trip to the center of the earth! – advises Lyudmila Rabotyagova.
With similar enthusiasm, you need to approach all other baby games. Even if he seems to you amazingly, unusually smart from birth, he himself is unlikely to figure out how to play dominoes or checkers.
“You need to understand that even the smartest developmental toy will not be effective if you don’t put in some effort,” the specialist assures. – Again, the child needs to be interested in the game, to show how to complete the tasks, if it is difficult for him, to direct, praise, support. It is not enough just to buy development books and wait for the child to take care of them. Mom’s task is to make the game useful and interesting.
And do not complain that you do not have time for this. Consider that for this purpose you were put on maternity leave.
Separately, it should be said about toys that are claimed to be educational: all these musical tables, interactive dolls, singing microphones, talking posters.
“They are not bad in themselves, but you should not expect that, simply by pressing the buttons, the child will learn to read, count, he will learn colors and English himself,” Lyudmila Rabotyagova disappoints mothers. – It is interesting to play with them, the child can memorize several rhymes and songs (and this, of course, is wonderful), but they should not be confused with educational aids and games. An educational game requires methodology, efforts on the part of the mother and the baby.
How many toys should there be
The answer, of course, is individual, but in any case, it is important to place them correctly. It’s tempting to put the cars in boxes to keep the room tidy, but are they bought for that?
– The child should be able to independently get the toys of interest to him and then put them in place, – the teacher believes. – Therefore, ideally, toys should be placed on open shelves, be in full view of the baby. If a child sees a toy, he realizes that there is no need to shake everything out of the boxes to remember what is hidden there.
And if the boxes are not turned upside down, it will be easier for mom to clean! Sooner or later, it becomes obvious that a small child is not able to bring order to a high quality, even if it is interesting to him. This means that all the load remains on you. So keep as many toys at home as you are ready to put away!
But, of course, in places accessible to babies, you should not store toys that should be played only with mom, for example, constructors with small details.
The child will always find something to do with himself, even if he has very few toys. But if on the contrary, then most of them will remain unclaimed – the baby will not physically have time to play with everyone.
– It is better to take fewer toys, but fully realize their potential, – the expert believes. – After all, many educational toys have options for complicating tasks, levels.
There are so many educational toys on the shelves of the store that the attention of parents is scattered. But we already know that buying everything is not worth it, and therefore we must not lose our vigilance.
So, speaking about sound posters, the teacher advises avoiding those that teach the alphabet. Like other similar toys (phones, tablets), they help to remember the correct name of letters, not sounds. It is much easier for a child who knows sounds to learn to read than to learn the alphabet, and now he is perplexed over the non-existent word MEAMEA.
It is not easy with entertaining musical toys. Even if this is a trivial singing bear, it is worth checking what exactly he is singing.
– I will never forget a pirate mouse, of course, made in China, who sang a couple of lines from a once popular song three times: “It won’t get any easier for me, and you won’t, but that’s not the point!” Everything. And so three times! – shares Lyudmila Rabotyagova.
Even before buying, she advises asking the seller to insert batteries in order to find out if the bear is making an annoying hiss or squeak, to listen to what he says, if it sounds clear, if there are speech errors in its templates and if all phrases and songs are recorded correctly.
– Whatever the toy, the main developing force is you! – calls on the teacher.
Video source: Getty Images