Many relatives and friends tend to struggle when looking for a baby shower or birthday gift due to not knowing the gender. Not knowing which toys would be most appropriate for the birthday girl or boy. Instead of going through that ordeal, why not get educational toys instead? You might be wondering, are educational toys for kids too boring? Well, in this day and age, there are many educational toys to choose from. Educational toys now have games and music to interact with the kids. Not only that, educational toys also help to develop and enhance brain development. Let us tell you more about it.
From birth up till the age of 5 years old, a child’s brain development is more important compared to any other time in life. How it works is that the brain cells will begin to have a connection between each other to make the brain work. The connections allow us to move, think, communicate and do daily activities. That is why it is important for these cells to connect in the early stages of brain development. For a child’ brain to develop properly, they tend to rely on parents, family members or caregivers to help nurture and develop the child’s motor skills and such.
How the brain connections are built is through everyday interactions and experiences the child chance upon. They can be built through positive and/or negative experiences with their parents or caregivers. The experiences a child has will determine how the brain cells connect and whether it will last a lifetime. This makes a child’s relationship with the people around them very important for brain development. These relationships can happen at home and in school with parents, babysitters and teachers.
It is proven that children who receive more positive interactions and experiences in their early childhood tend to grow up healthier and more successful in life. Unfortunately, this means that the opposite is true. Children who are exposed to negative experiences and interactions tend to impact their development, health and eventually their success. This happens due to the fact that the negative experiences disrupt the neurodevelopment in children. It changes the brain in ways that are unhealthy and damaging to the body as the brain is the command center of the human body.
The reason why educational toys help to better develop a child’s brain is because toys use the child’s imagination to play. Educational toys help to develop problem solving skills, motor skills, communication skills, guide a child about conflict resolution and more. Children can start benefiting from educational toys as early as a month old. Kids at different ages tend to benefit from different educational toys.
From birth to 12 months old, sensory play tends to be the most suitable. Parents can introduce new toys to encourage interaction to help the child to grow and develop hand-eye coordination. Problem solving toys can also help a child to work through conflicts and be familiar with effects. Not only that, it helps the child to build confidence as they will learn how a toy works by repeatedly trying and playing with it.
From 12 to 24 months old, encouraging a child to learn more about balance and coordination through educational toys will build curiosity in them with their mobility. Toys like playhouses and such will help develop a child’s recognition skills. By incorporating numbers into toys, it will help the child become familiar with how the number looks and sounds even if they do not fully understand what it means.
From then on, kids tend to become more active and will be more interested in physical activities. Even though it is important to encourage physical activities like cycling, it is also equally important that they are aware of safety concerns like wearing a helmet and knee guards. This will help with motor skills, cognitive skills, language skills, and more.
Some benefits of educational toys are:
- Boosts IQ
- Enhances their senses
- Enhance motor skills and creativity
- Promote problem solving skills
- Develop social and emotional intelligence
There are many educational toy companies that offer a variety of toys, tool sets and kits, books and more. For example, Lego, LeapFrog, Learning Resources, and Camtec. Camtec is an educational toys company that produces educational toys for children of different ages. They cater to both girls and boys. For example, there are toys like jewelry making, robot making, chemistry and biology sets, and excavation kits. They have a toy for different kinds of jobs and professions.
The Clementoni – Amazing Chemistry kit is a small laboratory suitable for children to play with at home. It has over 180 experiments for kids to try out. The kit contains chemical substances that are safe to experiment with to get chemical reactions and create amazing results.
Another toy would be the Crystal Jwellery. It is also a science kit but kids are able to create their own jewellery and crystal to wear or use as room decor. Kids are able use the small laboratory kit to create coloured crystals and gems, and shape them into any jewellery they want.
The Evolution Robot not only allows kids to build it, it is also programmable to be able to pick things up and transport objects with it’s moving arms. The programming can be done through an app that Clementoni had developed. Not only that, the robot also features music, voice messages and facial expressions to entertain children. The Discovery Mindblown – Fossils Unearthed will allow kids to explore paleontology and biology using their dig kits. The tools provided are the same ones professionals use except it is a miniature version. This will help develop patience and motor skills in a kid.
To summarise everything, the early stages of a child’s brain development is a very important stage. It plays a big impact on the child’s future health and success as it affects how the brain cells connect and function. By getting educational toys for kids, it will help with their brain development, motor skills, and promote a better personality in kids.