Toy Safety
Safety concerns with certain age groups
Toys come with a recommended age range for a few reasons. First of all, it has a lot to do with development levels. If a book is recommended for a twelve year old or older, that doesn’t mean that your eight year old can’t handle it, just that most eight year olds cannot. If your kid has already graduated from Doctor Seuss and Golden Books, they might be ready for the real literary experience waiting for them in the pages of Lord of the Flies or Winnie the Pooh.
Another reason for the age range is, of course, safety. Safety has more to do with physical development than mental or emotional development. The Haynes Internal Combustion engine is great for a kid who has grown strong enough to handle simple tools and carry slightly heavy parts. It’s recommended for kids aged eight to sixteen for reasons of both physical and mental development. A six year old would probably find it a bit cumbersome to put together when the engine block itself ways almost as much as they do.
If your six year old is the size of an eight year old, though, then you don’t have that to worry about. Safety issues are different from child to child just as mental development is different from child to child.
Under six years or so, though, you should probably be willing to treat these safety concerns as the gospel. Choking hazards are a very real threat, as are pointy, heavy, and delicate objects.
The importance of toy safety
The thing about recommended age ranges for toys is that… for many toys, it’s merely a suggestion. Your twelve year old child might still love the toys he had when he was six years old. Your six year old might be ready for something as complex as a Haynes internal combustion engine toy, and for the most part, this is fine. You know your child better than anyone; buy them something they’ll enjoy.
However, when toys are recommended for a certain age range because of a safety issue, you’ll want to exercise your own common sense, and you’ll want to consider the question of why that toy is recommended for that age group.
Where a lot of these age groups are kind of subjective, as in “kids around twelve should enjoy this toy the most (but who knows? Your eight year old might love it!)”, safety issues are focused on more practical measures than like or dislike.
For example, an obvious one is choking hazard. A young child simply has a habit of chewing on things while developing their teeth, and they simply have smaller windpipes than larger children. If a teddy bear has little button eyes and is deemed a choking hazard for your three year old, they’re not just whistling Dixie. Those little button eyes really are a choking hazard for your three year old, even If that three year old is reading at a college level, that doesn’t change the fact that buttons and three year olds do not mix.
