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Do you
know that playing with the right kind of child
educational toy is vital to your child's development?
Play is
arguably the most important phase of a child's life.
At babyhood, one passes the sharpest phase of life
in which they understand the most. It is at this age
that the cognitive powers of a human being take shape.
This is the age when the human brain is like red hot
iron - ready to accept anything taught. However, school
education is yet to begin for the kid experiencing
the most receptive phase of life.
This is
what makes it of extreme interest to expose the kid
to educational toys such as the Melissa
and Doug Toys and leverage the kid's cognition
and skills through the right kind of play.
Children
experience an electric-fast growth in brain powers
and motor-development as toddlers. This makes them
growing in demand for both mental and physical activities
that involve their attention. If you think of it,
the right kinds of toys are capable of nurturing your
baby providing the required traction to both these
fundamental requirements. And through these toys and
play sessions children experience the mental and emotional
positives that help their mind and psychology grow
in the right orientation.
Children
begin their play-life before their school life. The
preschool kids - mostly toddlers - step into a world
of toys in which a toy is initially a foreign object
of interest. As the kid keeps adopting the toys, an
entirely new universe opens its door in the kid's
eyes. From indoor table games that allow them to arrange
pictures and blocks to physical kid-games involving
battery-controlled cars, the growing toddler keeps
growing interest in almost every toy and game s/he
sees around.
As a parent,
your job would now be to mix a set of games and toys
helping the child develop mental and thinking skills
with those assisting him/her to grow in movement-based
skills. Interestingly, a child who gets a balance
of the two tends to grow better than a child who does
not get a good balance and than a child who is not
exposed to toys and games to the right extent. The
child carries the habit of play into school life.
The nature of play evolves. Children now get deeper
into involvement of cognitive activities into the
games such as making rhymes and songs, taking interest
in games with deeper rules and playing games that
may have results over longer terms spanning across
a time frame rather than immediate results.
Exposure
to play and good toys make a sea-change in a kid's
life. There are a number of significant benefits that
a kid experiences if s/he is given a well-balanced
and well-planned exposure to toys and the habit of
play in general.
Some of
the positives are as follows.
- Enjoyment
for the kid:
Play provides
relaxation to the kid. Since playing is one of the
most natural activities in a kid, usually you shall
never have to force the kid to play. The kid will
want to do it in self-interest. As a grown-up and
mature person, you would easily appreciate what a
huge difference it makes when someone (your kid) is
driving an activity on their own from getting the
activity done only against a push. Kids love and enjoy
playing - and nothing better than to morph their enjoyment
into their process of growing-up and education.
- Development
of cognitive prowess:
Games that
orient in thinking help your child develop cognitive
capabilities. Games that involve simple math, puzzles
that interest your child, pattern development exercises
involving your child's favorite niches (such as making
cars out of wood or plastic blocks), games involving
understanding and applying deeper rules and games
involving planning are some classes of games that
would leave a long-term positive mark on the cognitive
development of your child.
- Motor
development:
As mentioned
earlier, the motor activities of the child develops
in early childhood and stabilizes as the child grows
up. Hence, providing games that assist in such development
helps the child mature better in this area. The exercises
are good for the child's physical development. For
example, a three-year old trying to dig, scoop and
pour sand in a urn gets a good physical exercise in
parallel to envisioning the shape and size which gives
them mental exercise.
- Social
development:
Playing
in groups involves socialization. The child develops
his/her social skills in the process of playing multi-player
games.
- Psychological
and emotional development:
The child
learns to win and lose games, and learns to think
through processes rather than panicking. S/he learns
to take on new challenges and methodically work out
the way to overcome those challenges. All of this
leads to psychological and emotional development in
the child.
- Development
in creativity:
As the
child gets exposed to all the newer concepts coming
from the toys and rules of games, s/he starts to think.
Thinking capabilities and innovativeness are obviously
the most important factors that distinguish successful
adults from failures. Playing the right games triggers
the process of thoughts inside a child, which in turn
leads to creativity and innovation. A child who practices
innovation during childhood gathers the potential
to become a winner as an adult.
- Language
development:
With social
skill development, group games make the child communicate.
This leads to development in language skills of the
child. There are other toys and games such as word
makers that actively involve the child's language
skills and enhance these skills. All these games and
toys contribute in enhancing and nurturing the child's
grasp on language.
- Other
benefits:
Additionally,
the child enjoys some other benefits as a result of
playing games. Development of mental concentration
is one of them. Learning self-help is another plus.
Helping friends and colleagues is yet another take-away.
There are many more constructive but intricate benefits
that your child experiences and that shows up in the
longer run of his/her life positively.
Clearly,
with the right exposure to the right kinds of toys,
kids can immensely benefit from their favorite pastime
- play. Toy and games manufacturers such as Melissa
and Doug Toys tend to develop toy-set for children
that are well-balanced and targeted towards honing
the best of your child's skills. It is wise to make
the best of a child's phase of growing up by letting
them play well and play the right games - after all,
your kid will have only one childhood to enjoy as
well as to grow.
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