Why Educational Toys are Important to a Child's Development
Toys. Toys. Toys. As a parent, you probably trip on a toy almost every day, and it pisses the hell out of you. But did you know toys are more than just fun and games? NAEYC has shown that more than 90% of preschool children’s play involves some educational toy.
Why, you ask? Because educational toys are designed to help children learn social skills, think critically, be creative and develop their problem-solving skills. But that’s not all they do.
1. Educational Toys Inspire the Desire to Learn
Let’s face it, learning, especially the way they do it in school is super boring. Nobody wants to sit down for hours memorizing flashcards and repeating what the teacher says.
But what if there was a better way, a more fun way to learn about numbers, animals, and the alphabet?
Well, there is. Parents and teachers can buy interactive posters and toy tablets that will teach your kids all they need to learn without them realizing it. These interactive and educational toys are colorful, stimulating, and incredibly fun.
For example, this toy tablet from Just Smarty can help your child learn the alphabet, numbers, and spell through songs and other fun study modes. By making learning so fun, kids will want to do more of it, and this desire continues throughout their life.
2. Educational Toys Develop a Child’s Cognitive Skills
Cognitive skills are core abilities that help us memorize, think, read, concentrate, problem solve and reason. These skills are critical for the child to understand the world around them and manage the information and experiences they come across every day.
The most common toys to develop a child’s cognitive skills are interactive posters and puzzles. As they try to solve problems and make sense of the many elements in these educational toys, their brain has to expand and get creative.
3. Educational Toys Develop Fine Motor Skills
When children are playing with educational toys, they engage the small muscles of their fingers and hands, hence developing their fine motor skills. The more kids practice fine motor skills, their muscular abilities, hand-eye coordination, and balance develop as well. This comes in very handy in different areas of their life from tying shoe races to typing on the computer and even writing.
4. Educational Toys are Specific
Ever noticed how most girls are drawn to dolls and colourful stuff while boys go straight to cars, trains and dark colors? This is a natural phenomenon that the education system tends to ignore. While girls and boys can still learn with the same toys, both genders tend to be drawn to certain colors, patterns, and types more than others. This is how their mind works naturally, and it’s how they understand the world. The books in school may ignore this, but educational toys do not, which makes them better teaching tools.
It’s no secret that children learn better by playing, interacting with others, and exploring their imaginations. At Just Smarty, we have interactive toys that mentally and physically challenge your child to use their imagination, discover new things and have lots of fun while doing it.