Infant Toys To Help With Development

To us adults, a toy is only a plaything, but to a child it is a gateway into a new and imaginative world filled with wonder and creativity. Good toys help children develop the necessary mental, physical, and social skills to grow up to be responsible adults. Toys also help kids to relate to the ‘adult’ world around them and help them feel connected with grown-ups. As soon as a child is born, he or she is perfectly capable of feeling with all senses. However, their interpretation of the senses is at best dictated by reflex action and nothing more. At such a crucial time in their lives, it is important to develop these senses to help with their self-preservation and to prepare them for the next steps in life. Among those that need to be developed is visual, sound and touch cognition, spatial relationships, cause, and effect. These can be reinforced through select toys that produce distinct sounds, sport monochromatic colors, and have unique texture. Such toys may also be designed to improve your infant’s motor, memory and social skills, which will be needed much later but whose early development will make them better prepared for life ahead.

 

 

Here are some toys you can gift your infant to develop necessary skills:

 

Infants love playing with rattles. Just give one to your child and watch him or her try and shake it around and giggle uncontrollably. However, what your child develops unknowingly in the process are motor skills, hand -eye coordination, and visual and auditory cognition.

 

A baby mobile is ideal in developing your child’s visual and auditory focus. It also helps the child learn cause and effect and is a great way of keeping your infant occupied till he or she falls asleep.
 

Baby books with simple color or black and white pictures are a must for your little one. Reading books aloud to your child also develops a deeper bonding with your child, as he or she will love your presence and the sound of your voice.

A baby mirror helps your children become aware of themselves. Baby mirrors also help them learn spatial relations and this aids in development of self-preservation skills to an extent.

A stuffed animal provides your baby with a companion when he or she is alone. It also helps your kid develop social interaction skills. If the stuffed toy is also textured and colored with bold primary tones, your infant will develop touch and visual realization of the world around him or her. 

Tips on Appropriate Toys
There are innumerable variations of the toys mentioned above and there are many more that you will only come to know of only after a trip to the toy store. However, since we can’t be too casual when picking toys for kids we should keep some guidelines in mind before forking over cash to the person behind the toy store-counter: 

Infants have a tendency to suck on anything they get their hands on. So, it would be best if the toy you are buying for your child is too large to be swallowed.

 

Toys with small detachable parts are bad for the same reason why you should avoid small toys altogether; your little one could easily swallow these little parts.

 

Since kids love putting just about anything into their mouth, the toys you choose for your infant should be made from safe and healthy materials and should not contain toxic or lead content.

 

At infancy, the visual senses are the only senses that are least developed. Little babies fail to identify most colors except for black, white, and red during the first few months of birth and later, they begin to identify other primary colors like green and blue. So toys with primary bold colors are perceived more easily by infants.

 

Children love to explore and learn more about the world around them in as many ways as possible. A toy that is textured will help them develop their sense of touch as well as the visual perception of different kinds of textures.

 

Above all, it’s your involvement as parent that determines the individual your child will one day grow up to be. So always, talk and play with your baby when he or she plays with the toys you bought for him or her. Not only will this help your infant develop faster but it will also help you and your little one develop a special and sacred bond.