Guide to choosing toddler toys
The play has many more functions for toddlers than for adults. For toddlers, play is not just a way to relax but it is also the best way to learn and perfect skills like walking, balance and controlling the hands. Through play, the child discovers the objects and their functions and learns some social behaviors. His work "tool" is the toy. If for the little baby the toy is mostly a decorative object, for the toddler who is just starting to walk and talk, toys are absolutely necessary.
The parent must make sure to offer his child adequate toys to his age and skills level. The most indicated toddler toys are the functional ones, who develop and stimulate different processes and mental activities (knowledge, inventiveness, imagination).
Moving games are one of a toddler’s preferred activities. Small sized slides, wooden or plastic material cubes, arranged in a pyramidal shape helps toddlers develop their musculature and agility. Another open-air game for toddlers that requires manual skills is sand play. This game requires the toddler to make different sand shapes and even complicated constructions. Sand play is so important, that I advise parents to arrange a sand box inside the house!
A toddler also requires toys to play inside the house. For the interior, the most important toys for toddlers are the cubes. They are used by the toddlers as load for toys trucks. These cubes will later take part in construction games that help develop hand maneuverability, the capacity to concentrate and the imagination.
Toddlers, both boys and girls, love animals and dolls made of different materials. It is a mistake to believe that at this age dolls are specific only to girls. Dolls help toddlers to identify the role of the mother and father in the family and learn the different body parts that a person has.
From the list of toddler toys, we must not exclude books. For toddlers, beautiful colored books, with few images but well outlined, help enrich the vocabulary and verbalizing perception. As a parent, you can create short stories based on these images, using words that the toddler can understand, with similar activities and experiences to the ones the child has experienced. After showing him the images and explained what they are, we can ask the toddler "What is this?" "What does it do?" This way you test the things he learned. Besides enriching his vocabulary, this game wakes up in him feelings of trust and security.
