When the adjective "educational" is applied to anything, be it television shows, books, games, and especially toys, one tends to associate words like boring, tedious, dull, and so on to whatever it may be. Yet in recent years the importance of assistance like educational toys in the developing child has become not only popular but quite necessary to promote the growth of healthy brain function and skills adults use on a day to day basis. But not to worry these are not the educational toys of old, they are bright, colorful, spark imagination and are so engrossing many times the child doesn't even realize all they are learning.
The first 8 or so years of a child's life are extremely crucial to the primary development of both physical skills and mental capacities. It is said that a child's IQ can be increased by about 50 or so points in early childhood through the proper stimulation. While the idea of playing classical music to your baby in hopes of increasing intelligence is still being widely debated about effectiveness, educational toys designed specifically to encourage basic math, science, and creative concepts have been proven to work.
The critical stages of the child's primary development can be broken down into parts and they mark new beginnings and exciting changes in your baby's maturity. The period marked from birth to about age 3 include what are called, gross motor skills. These gross motor skills include: sitting, walking, lifting of the head, crawling, balancing, and some beginning hand-eye coordination. The next stage is roughly between age 3 and 5, and includes the development of fine motor skills.
The fine motor skills are the use of small muscle movements, usually associated with fingers in coordination with the eyes. Also during this important time, there are rapid changes in the child's cognitive (thought processes) and language. Now these stages are not passive procedures, even though they can develop on their own to an extent. They need to be actively stimulated and worked to ensure full development, so when the child enters into the next stage of school years they will have all the necessary prerequisite skills needed so they can be ready to learn.
Educational toys provide a great way to guarantee a child is growing throughout the stages of development. Blocks, for example, are a fantastic way to cultivate the fine motor skills because they require hand and finger coordination. But not just any blocks will do, blocks like the Magna-Tiles by the Valtech Corporation are what to utilize because they are designed specifically for childhood development. They are 3D magnetic building tiles that can either be clear or colored and come in 32 or 100 piece sets.
The Magna-Tiles help in developing a child's ability to pattern, shape recognize, understand magnetic principals, and help in 3 dimensional thinking. They are also widely used in early childhood education programs. Along the same line as Magna-Tiles, there are WEDGiTS from ImagAbility. WEDGiTS are a type of building block that can be nested, stacked, lined, and wedged together to create millions of different shapes, creatures, and designs; the only limitation is the child's imagination. The multidimensional, challenging building sets boosts the cognitive process by stimulating the creative process and providing a chance to let the child's mind wander to far-off places.
Another useful educational toy is the Oball from Rhino Toys. This amazing and uniquely designed toy comes from the Rhino Toy founder David Silvergate, who just so happens to have a degree in Physics. The Oball is a sculpted light weight ball that is formed from overlapping rings, which makes it easy to catch, throw, hold, hit, and kick. The Oball is the farthest thing from an ordinary ball and is sure to inspire a child's imagination, while developing gross and fine motor skills.
Educational toys are vital in developing a child's mind. They are fun, promote creativeness, and help in the necessary skills a child has to master for school years and life. They come in all forms, shapes, and colors so maybe the term "educational" might not be so boring after all.
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