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Educational Toys
Dr. Marian Diamond and Ms. Janet Hopson in the book "Magic Trees of The Mind" had this to say about a child's brain development. 'Remarkable gains in the 1990's were made by researchers in understanding how a child's brain grows, develops, and creates distinctive human capacities'.
Diamond and Hopson also said "At the same time, they discovered new ways to foster greater intelligence by nurturing brain growth during its most active phases. Where society once viewed the child's brain as static and unchangeable, experts today see it as a highly dynamic organ that feeds on stimulation and experience and responds with the flourishing of branching, intertwined neural forests. " In other words there is a strong correlation between your child's brain development (and growth) and the stimuli you make available to your child.
Then Diamond and Hopson say this, "This discovery presents us with a way of helping our children reach their fullest and healthiest mental development. But it has a dark side, as well, if the child's mind is under-stimulated and underused ." Therefore, not stimulating your child enough will have an impact to your child's detriment just as successful stimulation will have a positive effect.
Hopefully you will see that your efforts in-part during your child(s) developmental years can affect his/her future success in an ever changing job marketplace. Efforts in this endeavor could have much impact on your child's development.
Part of your child's surroundings or stimuli is in his/her toys, games and activities.
Gross motor skills involve the greater movements using the large muscles in the arm, feet and legs. These skills help a child to sit up, crawl, rollover, walk, and run.
Gross motor skills develop at the same time as fine motor skills. This enables you child to learn to handle many activities that require both skills.
At around 3 month, you will eventually see your child bring up his arms across his chest so that he can touch each other hand. The movement of the arms together comes from this skill where as the touching or playing of hand/fingers is a fine motor skill.
When you see your child use gross motor skills you can encourage him to practice them more by giving him activities that require the same motions. Help him expand his skills in little steps. Too much may be more then he is ready for. At around 18 months he may be ready to use the gross and fine motor skills necessary to use a shape sorter box. This is a great educational toy to use to help advance many different skills.
The link below should help in finding a good educational toy that can help develop gross motor skills along with others.
When it comes to child toy brands
think of your child. This is why you should consider great child toy
brands. The latest Cartoon Shows are easy to convince children to ask
for cheap quality toys, when instead you can get them a toy that will
help your child's development.
There are quality brands that might costs a few dollars more but will
likely last many time longer. This means it can actually be less
expensive in the long run. These are all good points you should remind
yourself when it comes time to buy toys for your children. You child's
successful development may depend on it.
Naturally, all toy manufacturers put a lot of money into advertising and
into convincing you and your child to get this or that toy. However, it
will depend on you to get the right one that will last longer, develop
your child's brain better, and help develop all the skills (creativity,
problem solving, motor, etc.) in your child necessary for future
success.
There will be many times that you get a toy that just doesn't live up to
your or your child's standards. You can reduce the likelihood of this
happening by trusting a few quality brands. This trust will effectively
put more money in your pocket by not spending your hard earned cash on a
soon-to-be boring or broken toys that your child does not use.
Consider these points. Brand name toys are more likely to:
-Invest heavily in research to create toys that help child development
and adhere to quality standards.
-Cite appropriate age levels of their products for effective child
development
-Back their products by guaranteeing them in writing
-Provide understandable instructions for appropriate usage
-Deliver much better value for your money
-Focus on what is good for the child
-These companies know that catering to you and your child's needs will
not only help them by making money but will also help your family. This
is a win-win deal that all good businesses subscribe to. These companies
make a lasting commitment to good business by delivering to their
customers needs.
Shown below are some of the brands from companies that are generally
thought of as reputable.
Discovery Toys - Discovery
Toys have perfected the ability to help a child to learn and develop for
each age group, learning style, and cognitive skills. It is hard to go
wrong when selecting a Discovery toy for your child. They have won many
awards for their educational toys.
Fisher Price - Few toy companies can hold a candle to this brand.
Fisher Price has been around for a long time for good reasons. They have
great quality toys. Their varied line of products doesn't water down
their quality, but in many ways is enhanced.
Lamaze Baby Toys - For children birth to 2 years these baby toys
from Lamaze will help your baby reach many development milestones.
Lamaze has a reputation for quality. This brand will give your baby new
avenues of play.
Leap Frog - The strides and leaps this company has made towards
the top of learning toys has been nothing short of extraordinary.
However, when you have a good product, word travels fast. Sure, they
have done some advertising but what really has made them successful
comes from there success in listening to customer needs and answering
them with great products.
Lego - This brand takes the simple idea of traditional wood
blocks and goes steps farther. They know one many things children like
to do is create. Lego has reached pinnacles in helping children reach
high levels of creativity while producing great products.
Chico Toys - This brand name represents high quality and the
ability to provide age appropriate toys to children's developmental
needs and stages.
K'NEX - This brand created by Joel Glickman gets down to the
heart of creativity in kids. This brand's success has led to further
groundbreaking products. In 1994, this brand came out with K'NEX
Education, a line of products program that goes to further levels with
the purpose of being integrated into school, after school and other
organized learning situations. Through this line K'NEX reaches further
heights in bringing out the creativity in a child.
Elenco Electronics - Elenco is one of the most well-known toys to homeschoolers and public schools! The brand carries Snap Circuits that have won numerous toy awards for their educational purposes. It allows kids to understand about electronics and how to work their mechanical skills.
For more information on toys and your child's skills, go to Educational Toys Time. They bring up very good points and have done a lot of research of what skills are good for what and why children need them.
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