A toy is any object normally associated with pets and children which is used for playing. There are different types of toys which normally depend on ages for examples 6 to 12 months, 3 to 5 months and 1 to 3months. Toys help in determining how a child grows by developing cognitive behaviors and also improving creativity. They also help in improving physical and mental skills that children will find useful in the future. For example, a simple toy that one would use to improve hand-eye coordination is wooden blocks. Also toys allow children to use their minds and their body to learn about causes, effects and wide range of other skills.
At the age of 3 to 5 years, a parent is able buy his or her child a toy these toys includes dolls, animals and miniatures, vehicle and puzzles.
These toys are good for the child. A doll is a toy that resembles a human or an animal. They are normally made of plastics, cloth or even wood. Often dolls are normally made using the available materials. The dolls that are made of soft materials are called plushie and may also be referred to as teddy bears. A doll is normally associated with girls where they try to hold them careful, carry them and pretend to feed them as their mothers do. This is a characteristic of children at this age group as they try to imitate adult activities (“Toys Direct”, 2008). However some boys have dolls in form of animals, for example a dog doll; they normally study that doll and sometimes give them food and tie them as their parents do normally. With all these practices they become creative and also improve their skills physically and also mentally. The dolls are also applicable to children at this age group as they have just acquired bladder control and can at times go to the toilet. The child assumes this is the same with the dolls and they take them to virtual toilets periodically. This helps the child in gaining conscious over their excretion process.
Parents are comfortable buying their children dolls as the risk of them harming their children is minimal. This is because most of these dolls are built in such a way that they have neither small removable parts that a child can swallow accidentally nor sharp edges that can cut the child. At this age, I would encourage a parent to buy such a toy for his or her child, since they are significant in improving creativity and also concentration in knowing many things that will be helpful in future.
Another type of a toy that is used by children at the age of 3 to 5 years is a toy vehicle. Modern toys of these vehicles are normally made of matchboxes, where the matchbox is joined with some wheels and then a string is tied at the other end where the child uses it to pull the vehicle. A child is able to use the vehicle by pulling it around this helps him or her to be creative as they try to recreate different model of vehicles they see.
At this age, a toy model of a vehicle is good especially for boys since it helps them to become more creative. It also helps the children in practicing their new motor skills such as walking. As a parent it would be best to choose such toys since it is affordable and will make the child happier when using their toys and also helps them become active. With all these I would encourage one to buy these toys for their children since they help the child to improve mental skills and also their physical skills. Vehicle toys are good for increasing creativity among the children and also increasing how they socialize with others as playing with them is done alongside other children, thus helping in interaction among the children, and through this they improve their creativity (Tipton, 2002).
Another type of a toy for this age group is a magnet toy which is normally made of strong magnet bars and some plastic balls panels and steel rings. It is normally used for playing and teaching children and these would help the children to become creative. The magnetic toy is composed of 6 bars, 18 shorter bars and 12 balls.
With this toy the child can be able to play with the balls trying to put match them. With this type of toy a parent would help the child to play the game and through this the child will try to imitate what his or her parent has been doing, and at the end they end up mastering the concept. This toy is applicable at this age as the child is learning similarity in words and also in colors (Pakhare, 2010). Thus they are able to utilize this skill in matching the colors of the ball. Due to this the toy is also appealing to children in this age group. The toy is a welcome idea to parents who want to spend time with their children as it involves them teaching the young ones how to operate the toy. I would select this toy for use with a child of this age group as it stimulates the use of mental resources while playing. This in turn develops the child’s mentally to handle situations in future.
In general, toys help the children to become more creative, improve there mental and physical skills and also help in cognitive development as toys will help the children to recall essential things in future.
REFERENCES
Pakhare, J. (2010). Ages and Stages of Child Development. Buzzle.com. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ages-stages-child-development.html
Toys Direct (2008). The Impact of Toys in Child Development. ArticlesBase. Retrieved from http://www.articlesbase.com/babies-articles/the-impact-of-toys-in-child-development-381107.html
Tipton, D. (2002). Child development: stages & how children learn. Essortment. Retrieved from http://www.essortment.com/all/stagechilddeve_retg.htm
