Parents should consider the child's own personality, interests and strength, and development stages when selecting educational toys. Here are a few suggestions.
Baby Toys
These toys are great for children under 3 years old as they encourage the movement and coordination of muscles. Although baby toys don't have a great deal of educational value, they play a vital role in overall development of the children. They utilize a good part of their playtime and stimulate the five senses.
Age 12 months
Children's mental development at this age start to recognize sounds, bounces or dances to music. Says first words like ma ma, da da, have interests in picture books, pays attentions to conversations, claps hands, waves bye, and like to put objects inside one another. Toy suggestions: Musical toys, toys that make variety of sounds, balls of different sizes and colors, stacking rings, large plastic cars, trucks, and soft-washable dolls or animals.
Ages 12 to 18 months
At this age, they are building their vocabulary to say 8 to 20 words you can understand. Says words like "Hi" or "Bye" and uses expressions like "Oh, oh". Identifies objects in a book and asks for something by pointing or using one word. Children at this age like to play peek a boo, understands and follow simple one step directions, looks for objects that are hidden or out of sight and likes to take things apart. Toy suggestions: soft huggable dolls, musical toys or DVDs, objects to match, large, plastic or wooden blocks, soft balls of different sizes, push cart, dump trucks, toy phones.
Ages 18 to 24 months
By this age, children walk fairly well, likes to run, feeds self with a spoon, helps wash hands, stacks 4 to 6 blocks, and tosses or rolls a large ball, enjoys sitting on and moving small, wheeled riding toys. Their vocabulary has built to several hundred word, including names of few toys and has "favorite" toys, uses two to three word sentences, talks to self, hums or tries to sing, enjoys singing familiar songs, listens to short rhymes or finger-plays, and uses the words "Please" and "Thank you". Toy suggestions: pegboard and pegs, pounding bench, shape and color sorters, snap and lock beads, ring stack, bead mazes, soft huggable dolls, soft balls of different sizes and colors, musical toys or DVDs, crayon and paper, play dough, plush cart, riding toys, life play toys.
Ages 2 years olds
During this year, children enjoy simple stories, rhymes, and songs. Start to develop using 2 to 3 word sentences, says names of toys, hums or tries to sing, enjoys looking at books, points to eyes, ears, or nose when asked, and repeats words. Toy suggestions: large blocks, toy phones, table and chairs, play dishes, life play toys, tricycle, rocking horse, water and sand toys, bubbles, shape sorters, 3 to 4 piece puzzles, small and large balls, dolls with bottle and blankets, cars and trucks, nursery rhyme DVDs and books, large crayons, blunt scissors, stuffed animals, and wooden animals.
Age 3 years old
75-80 percent of speech is understandable at this age and talks in complete sentences or 3-5 words. Listens attentively to short stories, repeats words and sounds, and enjoys listening to stories and repeats simple rhymes. They are able to tell simple stories from pictures or books, enjoys singing and can carry a simple tune, asks who, what, where, and why questions. Can stack 5-7 blocks, enjoy playing with clay or play dough, puts together a 6 piece puzzle, draws a circle and square. Children can recognize everyday sounds, match objects and picture, and are able to identify common colors and can count 2-3 objects. Toy suggestions: nesting or stacking toys, puzzles, matching games, small peg, large wheeled toys, tricycle, wagon, small table and chairs, creative play, crayons, felt tip markers, play dough, glue and paper, arts and crafts, stickers, puppets, toy animals, dolls, balls of different sizes, large blocks and music and story DVDs.
Educational toys
For children 4 and older, educational games can help to develop concentration skills, creativity, and self confidence. For small muscle coordination, arts and crafts develop fine motor skills and to help them build communications skills, pretend play toys are very much helpful to encourage the children to use words. They can be very useful tools to promote sharing, expression and imagination. For children's early learning, these toys are very effective in encouraging the coordination, creativity, self-confidence, emotional and social resilience, academic skills, language development etc. In addition, wooden and natural toys have become very poplar for the eco-friendly.
Your child is unique and children learn and grow at different rates from other children. Therefore, choose toys according to your child's uniqueness.
For more information or ideas on educational products and toys for all ages, please visit http://jypkids.com/