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How Toys Affect’s a Child’s Development

Toys are more than just items that your kid plays with. The toys they play with have a huge impact on their learning and also affect the way they will later on have an approach in the real world. Since you are the one who selects their toys for them, it is essential you know the ways in which the kids are affected in terms of development.

A toy directly affects the child’s emotional, psychological, social and other aspects. Since the kid is still learning and knows nothing, it tries to understand and develop a perception about everything that comes their way. Unlike grown ups, they can’t differentiate between what’s useful and what’s not, and that is what ultimately goes into their brains- everything.

Here’s how toys have a direct effect on your child’s development

1. Toys directly affect the child’s senses

There’s a reason why toys are created the way they are, and that is basically because it does after all contribute to their development. Since different toys are designed in different ways, the way kids play with them is also different. And, it is in fact from you parents that they learn how to deal with them.

For instance, when rattles are hung around in the baby’s cot, it is because the sound that comes off it helps them gradually sleep off or calm down if they are crying. Similar is the case when you sing or talk to them in a certain way too. When kids play on the phone or watch TV or play video games, they are actually bettering their eyesight. It is the senses that ultimately help us all guide our way through, and similar is the case with kids as well.

1. Builds a better hand and eye co-ordination

As newborns, the children don’t know how to make use of their hands to hold toys or do anything at all for that matter. And hence, first, the toys gradually begin to come in a better view for them as they have colours and also have sound attached to them. Only then, they learn to lay with them which thereby improves their coordination in terms of using their hand and overcoming the short sightedness.

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1. Contributes to their understanding of gender

While it is the toys themselves that are gender specific, there are a lot of other social norms too which affect the perception of the child’s understanding of how he/she is supposed to behave based upon their gender. For instance, pink is meant for girls while blue is for boys. Similarly, girls should play with dolls while the boys get to play with trucks and bikes. Gradually, it does in many ways affect their understanding of gender and also, they get a sense of belonging to a specific gender based upon the toys as they grow up.

1. Selection of toys influences their career options in the future

This is in fact a rather arguable point, but if studies are to be believed, the toys that kids play with does sooner or later have a correlation with their career choices. For example, there is a reason why kids are able to say what their ambition is to be in life. If they did not know anything about a doctor set, they wouldn’t know what being a doctor is like. Also, this is one of the reasons why the toys should never be selected based on gender stereotypes and always be what makes the kid happy.

1. Inculcates social behaviour

While the very fact about kids playing with toys is in fact social enough, when they play with other kids or while at play school, there’s a lot it has to do with the way they think. It could be something as simple as playing with the kitchen set and trying to figure out the family hierarchy of the mother, the father and the kids. It becomes extremely essential to encourage play dates for that is what gradually helps them understand multiple social aspects in many ways.

So, if you think that toys are for play and will eventually mean nothing, you are mistaken. There are a lot of ways in which they affect your child’s development, which is what makes their selection an important one.