Best Toys for Boosting Development

I'm going to be taking a slight detour from the usual focus around here and put on my researcher/advocate hat for a post or two.

Even though Halloween is still ahead of us, I'm seeing the initial rumblings of the holiday season. Given that many more of my friends are now parents than even this time last year, and those of you who aren't still undeniably now have more littles in your lives--I thought I'd try to capture of my thoughts on early childhood, play, and yes--toys--as you might be working on your list for Santa or Hanukkah Harry starting soon.

For some quick context: I have worked in the field of early childhood education for a decade now (OH MAN). This is longer than some, but not as long as many. I was a toddler/PreK classroom teacher for several years, after which I got a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology. I am now in the last minutes--we're talking death rattle here--of finishing a Ph.D in Early Childhood Intervention and Special Education. As such, I have a solid foundation in child development, for typically developing children as well as children with disabilities. I focus more on the preschool age (3 - 5 years), but have infant knowledge as well. My primary research interests are children living in poverty and children with challenging behavior. The purpose of this brief resume is not to toot my own horn but to say that I sort of know what I'm talking about from many angles, with the notable exception being the experience of actually being a parent. Take that for what you will.

I wanted to take a stab at helping parents/grown up people navigate the loud and light-up world of the toy aisle, and provide a little guidance for choosing items (gifts or otherwise) for young children that a) promote growth and development, b) are a justifiable investment for the purchaser, and c) are fun for kids. I will walk through some suggestions, explaining why I think they fit the bill, and then end with a set of guiding questions to help you assess such items on your own and learn to buy with a discerning eye.





Best Toys to Boost Development (across ages)


1. Books

Nerd alert! I know. But they're truly the gift that keeps on giving. Piles of research have consistently shown that providing books to children and reading with them are overwhelmingly linked to positive future outcomes, including school performance. Children can learn from books on their own and through interactive reading with you or another person. These benefits begin in infancy--it's never too early to read to your baby. When you do, they build:

• Early-literacy and print concepts
• A book is right-side-up vs upside-down
• We read from left to right (in English, that is)
• Written words have meaning
• Pictures and words match up and tell us about the story
• Narratives have a beginning, middle, and end
• Expanded vocabulary
• The greater the diversity of words parents use, the higher children score on language measures at later ages
• Books contain many words that children are unlikely to encounter in spoken language (or on TV)
• Understanding of emotions and social problem solving
• Many, if not most, children's books center on a problem (a child loses something, feelings are hurt or scared or sad). This provides many opportunities for talking about how characters feel, why they might feel that way, what they could do, and how others would feel--tremendously important for building empathy, an awareness of the feelings and experiences of others. Put simply, young children with better social skills do better in school. 

In addition, looking through books provides many opportunities for asking closed-ended questions to build some concrete skills (e.g., what color is the balloon? How many ducks do you see?) but--more importantly--to ask open-ended questions to build critical thinking skills (e.g., what do you think is going to happen? How would Little Bear feel if...? How did you know whose footprints those were?)

Good bookstores should have knowledgable staff that can recommend high-quality choices for you, ranging from the classics to newer books. You can also depend on Amazon reviews or the like (to some extent...some of those people are WAY overzealous) or ask around. Our office, for example, has some really good lists of books related to social emotional development for young children. We also wrote a series of "Book Nooks" (listed below Book List) that have suggested questions and activities for favorite books. These are more classroom-oriented, but you could adapt parts for home as well. 

The great thing about books is that they can be adapted for any age or ability level (or attention span), and they can grow with your child. But here are a few considerations for the littlest readers:

How do you read to a baby?

• Use small, chunky board books that baby can easily hold onto (or chew on)
• Talk about the pictures with your little one
• Sing the text to keep baby's attention
• Play peek-a-boo with lift-the-flap books
• Help your baby touch and feel in texture books

To really keep on giving, consider signing the little one in your life up for Books from Birth's Imagination Library. This is a truly remarkable program that will provide a book a month from birth to age 5, free of charge, to any child. It was started here in Tennessee by no less than the fabulous Dolly Parton, but is now an international program. 

you know you love Miss Dolly.

If that's not really your thing, or the child is already signed up, you can also make a donation so that books are gifted to other children in honor of the child of your choice. I've done this for baby showers, etc. The honoree gets a nice letter. 

Imagination Library also divides the books they send into thematic and conceptual units, based on age. Even if you're not doing Imagination Library, this is a good set of guidelines for choosing books as children grow.

2. Blocks

For boys and girls alike. As one source put it, "blocks are the educational equivalent of a multivitamin." Children are learning, exploring, and growing in all the developmental domains (language/communication, gross motor, fine motor, social-emotional, cognitive) when they play meaningfully with blocks. One study has even shown that preschoolers who were more adept at block play had higher math scores as middle schoolers. Not to say that the point of play is better grades, because it's not, but some parents need to hear ways in which the benefits of play are quantified.

Blocks are perhaps the best illustrator of the first rule in choosing toys: The toy can be used in more than one way. From this flows the fact that the toy is adaptable across a child's age and ability. For you, this translates to more bang for your buck--it's not a flash-in-the-pan toy; it can grow with the child and he or she can explore it in new ways as capabilities grow. Fancy researchers call these "divergent playthings," as opposed to "convergent playthings" (i.e., those that are used in primarily one way).

To illustrate this flexibility and convince you that even the littlest can play, I'll discuss the three stages of block play.

1. Tote and Carry
1. This is most closely associated with 2-year-olds, but I've seen children (especially girls) start it earlier. Your toddler will be doing little to no building, but will pile, carry, drop, and so on. In doing so, she's learning about weight and balance, plus practicing her own motor skills. I used to teach in a 2's-3's classroom, and at the end of the day we would find all the blocks (or toy food or little people) in tote bags, the grocery cart, backpacks...anything that could be used to tote them. This might be annoying to adults, but it is a normal stage and serves a purpose!
2. Toddlers may not stack blocks on their own, but if you (or an older sibling) does, you'll quickly see another hallmark of this stage: knocking things down. It can lead to sibling issues and lots of noise, but this toppling is another feature of initial block play. They're learning about gravity, cause and effect, and so on. Unstable things fall down, and stable things don't. Also, toddlers just love to create chaos. It's kind of their thing. 
2. Stack and Row
1. Around the age of 3, kids will start aligning blocks horizontally and/or vertically. They're not building structures with any purpose usually (so try to remember this if you join in the play), but they're learning about patterns and sequences--which are mathematical fundamentals.
2. Some kids might put all the blocks of the same shape together, end to end (such as all the rectangles), and some might experiment with twists in the patterns. This is also important for learning concepts around parts and whole. 
3. If more than one child is playing together, you'll probably see more parallel play (doing the same thing side by side) than cooperative play (really playing "together"), which is normal and necessary.
3. Bridging
1. Some time in the preschool age range, children will start building simple structures. Your child may put two blocks down, and then a third over the space between them. This "bridging" leads to building "enclosures," and helps kids learn about balance and other building concepts. Building enclosures is an important development, because kids must think about what they'll need to complete the enclosure--now they're learning about planning ahead and problem solving.
2. As your child is ready, you will see imaginative and social play enter in to this. Maybe the enclosure is a garage for cars, or a barnyard, or a house that people live in. Other toys and ideas can enter into play (even if it's not exactly how you'd do it). This is why it's important to have other items available to complement block play, whether you're in the classroom or at home. They don't live in isolation--think about vehicles, construction items, dolls or people, play food, books, animals...kids can think of tons of ways to integrate their play. 

Thus concludes the developmental sequence of block play. The purpose of describing the sequence of development is not to help you push your child to the next stage, but rather to assure you that the way your child is playing now is normal and serves a purpose, even if it doesn't look particularly complex to you. Of course, if you have concerns, you can discuss those with your pediatrician or a knowledgable professional (probably not other moms...just a hunch). 

Also remember that these facts about block play refer to the tried-and-true old school wooden blocks, but also to Legos, foam blocks, cardboard blocks, empty boxes, and so on. In my experience, though, they all love the good ol' wooden ones--and you can't beat that value. If you're gifting, you could think about a starter set and add on down the road according to the child's development. 

requisite stock photo!

Examples: 

Melissa & Doug 60-pc starter set (in general, this is a great high-quality brand)

Tons of sets at Constructive Playthings (some are pricier, but this is the company lots of educators purchase from)

Lakeshore (some are more for school than home, but the site lets you sort by age, which is helpful if you're looking for a gift for a specific child)

Plan Toys set (smaller blocks for little hands. Fifteen bucks!)

As I've said, we don't have our own little in this house yet, but every year I shop for high-quality toys for Angels we've adopted off the Salvation Army Angel Tree. I want to give them something long lasting, especially if they don't have much. In doing so, I have learned that they do NOT have a lot of these good, basic toys at Target, Walmart, and other big-box retailers. Those places, while wonderful, have fallen more into peddling the noisy, light-up, so-called "educational" toy market (for the record, I don't think these toys will ruin your kid, but in my experience they don't actually hold kids' attention for very long, and don't really teach ABCs or whatever magically, unless you're sitting there with your child. They're really marketed for adults who want a "learning" toy). So shopping online or at an independent retailer might be a better bet (locally, you could try Phillips Toy Mart, Brilliant Sky in Green Hills, and I don't know if Parnassus Books has a toy selection or not. Let me know).

Thanks for slogging through...if you've made it this far, you deserve a gift yourself! I hope those are good suggestions for basics at any age, with a few guidelines to help you make a selection. Coming up, I'll get more specific and do some breakdowns by age groups (infant, toddler, preschool), plus a big link-filled list of suggestions if you just need a gift for a kid and don't care about all the WHY. Your feedback is welcome.

To go directly to another installment, click: The First Year

Also, check out my "Best Toys" board on Pinterest.