Educational toys are fun for babies and provide another tool to
stimulate learning and brain development in your infant. There are many
ways to teach a child and tens of thousands of educational toys on the
market to help parents in the endeavor. The challenge for parents, child
care providers and educators is to choose from the vast array of
educational toys available in a way that creates a balance of learning
techniques, is age appropriate, and most of all fun. This article will
provide basic facts about; how babies learn, types of educational toys
available and examples of each.
How Babies Learn
It is quite surprising the rate at which babies learn and develop.
Learning begins in the womb and continues throughout childhood. In early
life how a child learns centers largely around the relationship with
the parents. At least until the child starts preschool, the job of
stimulating and satisfying baby’s desire to learn falls primarily to the
parents.
While babies respond to their parent’s voice there are many other sounds
they find interesting. When parents are choosing educational toys for
babies they should look for toys that have sound, colors that are bright
and contrasted like red, black and white, and have interesting textures
that babies like to touch.
Sounds
Babies’ respond to sound and some of the best educational toys include
rattles and musical toys. Soothing music such as lullabies is usually
best. Auditory and musical toys are known to stimulate logical thinking
and imagery in babies and in adults for that matter.
One good educational auditory toy is the Electronic Metal Keys. These
keys are good for a child 6 months and up. The Electronic Metal Keys are
an imitation of the parent’s car keys. However, the Electronic Metal
Key toy is safe for the child to chew on and has a push button that
emits sounds like a car horn, doorbell, ignition, and remote control
door.
Sight
Bright colors in educational toys stimulate baby’s vision. Look for toys
with strong color contrast and patterns. A good one to look for is a
colorful crib mobile that emits music, has different textures, curves
and symmetry.
One such educational toy is the Bath Time Fishing toy. This item is
appropriate for babies 12 months and up. It’s a great prop to use during
a baby bath. Making the bath as fun as possible can also help overcome
any resistance or fear your child may have during the bathing process.
The toy is bright in color, has a rod and reel, and the strong magnets
attached to its tails allow for easy catching. Bath Time Fishing is
priced at around $16.00 dollars.
Fine motor play
Fine motor play educational toys are used to stimulate coordination in
baby’s finger and eye movements. One such toy aimed at developing the
hand-eye coordination is “Counting Pals”, which is aimed at babies 6
months and up. Counting Pals are 10 soft and squishy colored blocks.
They can be stacked, tossed, chewed by the baby. Counting pals also
provides animal illustrations that will enchant the baby. Counting Pals
educational toy is priced at around $12.00.
Cognitive Skills
There are some educational toys that promote cognitive skills in babies,
which is to say they stimulate the child’s memory, how they picture
things and their problem solving skills. Educational toys like building
blocks, activity boxes or puzzles are a good purchase for your child.
The puzzles can deal with numbers, letters or pictures; it does not
matter, but they should be fairly easy for a baby to grasp and
manipulate.