Toys for Early Childhood Development
It’s said that a child learns more in their first year than they will throughout the rest of their lifetime. Very early in our lives, we discover the act of play. Playing continues throughout our entire lives. As adults, we may play chess or sports, we may enjoy computer games, or we may simply bounce a balled up piece of paper into the trashcan now and then. Playing is important regardless of your age, but it is most important in early childhood.
The vital importance of playing and toys came to prominence in the psychological community thanks largely to the book Homo Ludens, or Man the Player, written by Johan Huizinga, a Dutch cultural theorist. Huizinga argued that playing is not merely for children, or “just for fun”, but the basic starting point for all personal development.
Huizinga’s book succinctly sums this whole approach to playing with a single sentence: “Let my playing be my learning, and my learning be my playing.” In other words, play serves as a form of practice and training, a way to exercise our body and mind without the actual stakes involved in “real life”.
An obvious example of play used in training would be flight school. A virtual flight simulator used to prepare pilots is, by definition, a video game, but it serves an important function in a pilot’s learning process in that the trainee is free to experiment and test the boundaries of his aircraft without actually putting his own safety at risk. When he’s finally put into the cockpit of the real airplane, he knows exactly what it can do the first time he takes the captain’s seat.
For young children, playing often works on a broader level in that they are still developing motor skills. A toddler plays with a bouncing rubber ball not because bouncing a rubber ball is a specific skill they’ll need later in life, but in order to develop body strength and reflexes.
Children begin with basic physical and sensory learning. If you observe an infant, you’ll see that one of the first skills they attain through play is the ability to grab. At this point, learning toys are simple; a soft blanket, a stuffed animal, anything that the child is able to interact with in a physical capacity. In regards to sensory learning, an infant simply needs sounds and images to stimulate them.
Beyond your child’s physical and sensory development, the brain, likewise, needs to be stimulated and kept in shape. Studies have shown time and again that people who are read to as children tend to do better in school and in their careers. Children’s books and regular reading sessions can make the difference between a child who enjoys the challenge of schoolwork and a child who finds schoolwork to be a chore.
In any context and for any individual, taking time to play is important and should never be neglected. There is perhaps no greater tool in learning. This is true in adulthood and much truer in early childhood.
