Educational toys---the importance of play

What makes a toy educational?

　　To be considered an educational toy, the toy must meet certain criteria. It must also be designed to stimulate learning or provide an educational value, such as helping a child develop a certain skill or learn about a specific subject. Generally, educational toys claim to enhance intellectual, social, emotional, and/or physical development. Many are designed to target developmental milestones within appropriate age groups. Most importantly, educational toys encourage kids to play.

　　Play increases the size of the prefrontal cortex, meaning that the brain is more efficient at making plans, solving problems, and regulating and identifying emotions — basically all things required for a successful life.

　　Play is so important, in fact, that it’s recognized by the United Nations as a human right for children. The importance of play for children wasn’t thoroughly researched or even really considered until the second half of the 20th century but we can sum the research that has resulted thus far with the famous proverb, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

　　How to pick an educational toy

　　Here are some basic questions to ask yourself when picking an educational toy for your child:

　　• What areas of learning will this toy allow my child to tap into?

　　• What new skills will my child develop by playing with this toy?

　　• Are there different ways for my child to play and engage with the toy?

　　• Will the toy grow with them and last for years to come?

　　• Can the toy be played with independently and cooperatively?

　　Why are STEM Toys so popular?

　　Recently, the big buzz word surrounding educational toys is STEM learning. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and STEM Toy are learning toys developed with an educational focus in one (if not more) of those four principal areas of study.

　　The idea here is that more jobs will be coming out in future years that require science, technology, engineering, and/or math skills and thus introducing children to these concepts at an early age can give them a leg up on their fellow students — aka future job candidate competitors. STEM learning is becoming so popular that earlier this year, Amazon went as far as to launch a subscription program that delivers monthly educational toys to children.

　　The benefits any STEM toy provides depends on the subject matter it is intended to teach, but in general, STEM toys go a bit further than regular educational toys to enhance divergent thinking, enhance innovative thinking, help children develop hand-eye coordination, and better promote spatial skills.

　　However, just because these toys are STEM-focused, that doesn't mean they're not creative, artistic, or educational in other ways, so don't get hung up on the labels. As long as your kids have fun and are learning while they play, that's all that matters.So how to choose a fitable educational toy for children is very important, and also depends on what kind of knowledge parents want them to learn.