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Toddler Educational Toys
Toddlerhood could easily be called “the age of discovery” since children this age are learning something new every day. Verbal, gross motor, fine motor, reasoning, and social skills are developing at breakneck speed, and this is a fascinating time for parents to watch their child blossom into personhood. Parents will find the toddler years the perfect time for introducing new educational toys, and there are many from which to choose that will help foster all areas of development.
Dramatic Play
Toddlers love to imitate, and are naturals at mimicking adult activities. Both boys and girls enjoy toys such as play food sets and play kitchens where they can prepare “real” meals just like mom and dad. Tool sets and other realistic looking versions of everyday objects are wonderful outlets for a toddler’s creativity. Dolls, stuffed animals, puppets, and figures will allow your toddler to set up an imaginary world over which he has control. These toys encourage imaginative play, fine motor skills, language skills, and problem solving.
Manipulatives
Toddlers are developing fine motor skills rapidly, so any toys they can hold and manipulate are great for this age. Good old wooden blocks, in chunky shapes and sizes that are easy for a toddler to hold, teach spatial relations, cause and effect, and balance. Lego makes building sets for a variety of skill levels, and their basic sets of colorful and easy to hold blocks help toddlers refine developing spatial relations skills as they interlock the connecting pieces. Lacing beads (so long as they are not small enough to swallow) also make great fine motor skill toys.
Language Learning
As toddlers develop new language skills, they want to practice them, and may delight in toys that allow them to communicate. Recorded voices on toy phones, for instance, allow children to practice using “grown up” technology; toys that allow a child to record and play back his own voice will amuse toddlers who are now getting a sense of their impact on the world around them.
While toddlers are too young for most art projects, they will still love to create their own masterpieces with chunky crayons or chalk, heavy paper, and finger paints. Better still are non-toxic modeling compounds such as Play-Doh that allow toddlers to squish and shape, cut and roll, all the while developing fine motor skills that are necessary for future writing. Artistic toys allow toddlers another medium for affecting change on their world; they can see the results of their work, and will revel in your praise of their artistic endeavors.
Musical toys such as xylophones and drums – provided parents can stand the “music” they produce – are wonderful ways to teach toddlers about cause and effect and to introduce them to the fundamentals of music. Toddlers’ gross motor skills will benefit from the balance, rhythm, and coordination that simply dancing along to music fosters.
Toy trains, cars, planes – nearly anything with wheels – are fascinating to toddlers. These toys allow toddlers to use their imaginations to make up adventures with the vehicles, encourage fine motor skills, and teach toddlers how fundamental physical mechanisms work.
Play is Learning
Toddlers learn through play, so the more variety of toys you can offer, the better. This doesn’t mean that your house has to look like a toy store run amok; try introducing a few news toys at a time, and putting away some for later use. As your toddler grows, so will his interactions with his playthings, and what is really an old toy may seem new again as he reaches another developmental milestone. Above all, enjoy watching as your toddler learns from a variety of educational toys. |
