Infants are attracted towards the objects that are colorful and help the infants visualize shapes and faces at specific angles. It provides the infants with the adequate learning environment that also supports the development of motor, cognitive and perceptual skills. The development of such toys require a substantive amount of finance and time, however, the outcome of using such toys to enhance the skills of infants, makes the individuals to develop such toys (Soska et al., 2010). In this manner, it is suggested that an educational toy should be made that can be operated electronically and can provide infants with the motor and cognitive activities.
The shape of the prototype toy would be cubical and each side would be colored, mainly comprising of red, yellow, green, blue, violet and maroon. These sides will be decorated with the colorful textures made up of smiley faces and animals, which will also act like buttons in order to play the interactive music or sound. The buttons, when pushed, will enlighten with their specific color and will play an interactive sound that will attract the infants to play with this toy. The buttons will represent their link to the sound by having similar shape to the type of sound that it represents; for example, the lion shaped button will play the sound of lion whereas, the fruit shaped alphabets will play the music and name of the fruit.
The prototype toy will be considered appropriate for the infants aged between 6 months to 24 months. The infants who are aged between 6 to 24 months develop the cognitive and motor abilities and learn to handle objects. In this case, the infant will learn to press the buttons on the cubicle and after the development of the fine motor skills, the infants will be able to move the cubicle on their own. Similarly, the cognitive skills by means of the working and long-term memory will also be developed in which the infant will develop links with the different shapes and their sound. In this manner, the infant will learn to integrate sound with shapes on the basis of his cognitive skills and will utilize these cognitive skills in order to incorporate motor skills to carry out the specific task of moving the cubicle and playing the required sounds.
The prototype toy is cubical in shape which will help in the development of the motor skills because the infant will try to move the shape of the cubical so that the ideal or required side of the toy can be reached. It will intrigue the infant to reach, grab and turnover the cubicle by means of developing the muscles and will help the infant to acquire motor skills. The infant will learn to point his hand and press the buttons in order to play the sound. It will also help in the development of the cognitive skills by strengthening the listening skills and learning the sound that can be played with each button.
It will also help in the memory development in which the infant will be able to relate different colors of cubical with the specific sounds and will be able to retain the memory of each sound with the prevalence of the specific shapes and textures. It will help in the development of the working memory due to the continuous engagement in the activity whereas, long-term memory will also be developed because the infant will be attracted to the sounds, colors and shape of the toy. The interactive shapes of fruits and animals will be attractive for the infant and the colors will also enhance the visual sensitivity of the infants. The sounds will develop the sense of hearing in accordance with the specific button that plays a specific object and hence, the toy will be attractive for the infant and will help in the development of cognitive and fine motor skills in an effective manner.
References
Soska, K. C., Adolph, K. E., & Johnson, S. P. (2010). Systems in development: motor skill acquisition facilitates three-dimensional object completion. Developmental psychology, 46(1), 129.
