Child Development Through Play

Soft baby toys and educational toys are an essential part of a childs development. In the early years soft baby toys and learning toys play an important role in stimulating a childs senses (touch, sound, smell, sight and taste) to ensure a childs maximum potential development is reached. Educational toys are "tools" that help build and develop a child's fundamental skills and have been proven to encourage self-confidence, creativity, coordination, language development and academic skills.

The Senses:

Touch: At aroud seven months your baby starts to explore through touch. Toys that respond to your baby's manipulations, such as pull toys, rattles and soft toys can encourage this.

Smell: At around 11 months your babies sense of smell will begin to develop. You should help your baby explore smells and as bizare as it may seem, letting them smell and see an item such as a lemon will encourage development in this area.

Sound: At around 10 months your baby will begin to become more receptive to sound. If your baby hears sounds such as the phone or door bell you should show them where the sound comes from. At this stage babies enjoy musical toys that respond to their actions.

Sight: At around 7 months your baby will start to get more interested in visual aids. This can be encouraged by reading baby books and popup books and maybe interacting with your baby through a hand puppet.

Taste: Newborn babies have a well developed sense of taste and some people believe this peaks at around twelve months. At this stage, you should be introducing your baby to a wide variety of tastes, experimenting with flavours and trying to discover their likes and dislikes.

Other Skills:

Self confidence: Praise your child when they have done something right or well! Really pay attention to what they are doing and encourage them by letting them know their ideas and views are important. Applaud your childs efforts to improve and consider an unexpected reward which will serve as positive reinforcement. Educational toys and games that can be played by all the family are designed to stimulate your childs development promoting their self confidence through encouragement from you.

Creativity: Children have an endless well of creativity and imagination and have an innate ability to create something out of nothing. Imaginative play plays an important role in your childs development and you should encourage this as often as possible. Toys such as puppets, dollshouses and track and rail sets will help stimulate a childs social and intellectual development as well as encouraging empathy in a child.

Language & Academic Development: Spell slowly to your child to allow them to take in what you are saying and respond appropriately. Praise your child for using words correctly. Encourage imaginative play where language can be used effectively. Educational games can be used to provide opportunities for children to initiate talk and respond to their verbal and non-verbal communications. Encourage children to talk about their experiences, present, past and future. Answer children's questions patiently and fully, do not talk down to them but give positive feedback. Find opportunities to expand the child's vocabulary and to explain new words and ideas to them. Educational tools such as science kits that incoprate expermients are a great idea at this stage.

Co-ordination: Hand-eye coordination is an essential skill that your child will need to use every single day for the rest of their lives, from combing their hair to tying their own shoelace. All children can benefit from some activities designed to improve coordination. You can give your childs coordination a boost by introducing toys that require manipulative play. For example, toys that require clutching, grasping, aiming, digging, and fitting pieces together. Outdoor games such as quoits and skittles will also help improve a childs coordination.