As parents, we fill our homes with toys that our little ones adore and have fun with. But did you know that encouraging your toddler to play with educational activity toys can help their intellectual and motor development?

By introducing educational and physical activity toys at an early stage of a child’s development, it can enhance their senses, spark their imagination and enhance their social skills.

A child’s mind needs a little spark to ignite it and light it up. The right sort of trigger can often lead to learning and understanding for a child. It can fill the mind of a child with questions and doubts as to why, how and when things happen. Educational toys touch on these pointers for kids, with their scientific, attractive and often engaging construction.

The right toys do more than entertain a child, they further their development and education by stimulating their minds. There are various different types of toys to activate various parts of the mind and what works best at one age isn’t the case for all.

While infants do best with sensory play, educational and learning toys for toddlers usually involve more physical engagement.

Benefits Of Educational And Learning Toys For Toddlers:

• Makes Learning Fun
• Enhances Creativity
• Fosters Social Interaction And Communication
• Build Real Life Skills
• Develops Fine Motor Skills
• Enhances Problem Solving Skills
• Improves Concentration

Makes Learning Fun

Children have a very short attention span. Therefore, they easily get bored with most activities. This is where the educational toys come in. They help children learn better by making learning more fun. They help children learn new skills, whilst at the same time ensuring fun and enjoyment.

Educational toys help your child’s intellectual, social, motor development, and more! These toys promote development as your child plays with them. If your toddler is having fun with his educational toy, it doesn’t feel like a learning activity to him. When play feels forced, kids tend to lose interest. Don’t let this happen.

Remember, play is how they explore the world and it is natural for children. If play feels like a lecture or chore, they won’t want to do it.

Enhances Creativity

Kids are born with an incredible sense of curiosity. In their efforts to understand the surrounding environment, kids curiously explore through the surrounding objects. Educational and learning toys for toddlers provide a safe experience of imaginative play, creative designing and building, experimentation, and exploration.

Play in the first year of life is all about exploration. Babies use their five senses to learn about the world around them: Does an object feel hard or soft? Rough or smooth? What happens if I drop it? What does it taste like? Most play consists mouthing an object, shaking, banging, or dropping it.

When your baby becomes a toddler he develops new motor skills, play becomes more coordinated and complex. His new pincer grasp makes it easier for him to pick up smaller objects, like blocks and other small age-appropriate toys.

During this time, play is usually a solitary activity and develops to playing side-by-side with other babies and imitating activities.

Fosters Social Interaction And Communication

Another benefit of educational toys is what they teach children when being used in a group setting. You can train and make your child a social being right at home. With educational toys, kids take on role-playing, understand emotions and develop empathy. These toys will put your child through various social situations that involve sharing, bonding, caring, leading, waiting his turn etc. If every child has their own digital device, they never learn how to share and they certainly don’t learn how to play together. Educational toys assist with social development and communication, as they encourage kids to play together as opposed to against one another.

Playing also develops their emotional intelligence as they respond to emotions such as anger, laughter or sadness.

Builds Real Life Skills

A lot of children’s pretend play leans towards real-life situations.

For example, you may buy your toddler a toy tool kit. He won’t need to fix anything or put up shelving anytime soon, but it’s never too early to teach him what tools are actually for. This tool kit also will help them do it while also giving them a good distraction from the real and dangerous tools. You could also demonstrate tool safety protocols.

Or, your toddler may have an electronic cash machine and toys in the shape of household items, food items, etc. He can use these items to pretend to play shopping at a grocery store. Here children use their imaginations to build real-life skills.

Develops Fine Motor Skills

Educational toys are linked to developing motor skills in children. Children will develop their fine motor skills naturally through play, some faster than others, and that’s okay. Educational toys, however, can further develop and enhance these skills, making it easier and more efficient for your little one to make movements using her fingers, hands and forearms. This will further promote better personality and communication skills in kids.

Enhances Problem Solving Skills

One of the main importance of educational toys is their capacity to challenge the mind of a child. Educational toys, such as puzzles and building blocks teach children how to problem solve. Toys such as puzzles encourage children to think as they follow a step-by-step sequence of solving a particular problem. They learn that if a particular piece doesn’t fit here, it must be placed somewhere else and if this block keeps falling down, perhaps a different shape or size should be used.

Puzzles vary in complication. The more complicated a puzzle is, the more energy, attention, and thinking is required from your toddler.

Some educational toys require your toddler to solve mathematical problems. As they learn how to solve puzzles and provide mathematical solutions using these toys, they become more efficient in handling real life issues. As they figure out different ways they can solve the puzzles, their minds grow and with time, they will develop problem-solving skills.

Improves Concentration

Kids have a short concentration span. They quickly get disengaged and lose interest. Without the right tools, they are unlikely to focus adequately on their academics and other activities. Educational toys make learning fun and manageable, and they increase a child’s interest in learning. With these toys, kids can acquire new skills while they enjoy their play.

Through playing, you help your child focus on a task for a larger span of time. Early introduction of toys will help your toddler improve his concentration. This simple tactic will, later on, be extremely beneficial to his academic progress.

Albert Einstein said ” Play is the highest form of research. Playing is the best way kids start learning. Kids love to explore and learn new things at a very early stage in their lives.

Introducing educational and learning toys for your toddler will teach him valuable skills he needs later in life and he will have fun doing it.

Does your toddler play with educational toys? How has this helped his/her development? I would love to hear from you. Please comment below.

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