Sunday, November 21, 2010

Stages of Developmental Toys

Lots of toys are designed with child development in mind. But, do you know how to choose the ones that are developmentally appropriate? You probably have a general idea, based on your knowledge of your child's developmental level. But, you can use this guide to be sure that you are not missing the opportunity to identify and nourish a critical stage of your child's development.

1) To encourage the first stages of development, remember to focus on visual, social, touch, sound and smell. Newborns can focus best eight to twelve inches away from their faces. It is easy to hit all of the areas of development if you just talk to your baby. Give the baby plenty of gazing time to focus on your expression. Let them learn to recognize the sound of your voice and the smell of your skin. Avoid perfumes and scented soaps. Skin can be very sensitive, so gently let your baby feel soft objects only during the first three months.

2) By three months of age, a baby should be developing some social skills and some hand-eye coordination. This is a good age to start encouraging your baby to play with soft toys. Babies also love to study themselves in the mirror at this age. They should be able to imitate some facial expressions and movements. You can encourage hand-eye coordination by wearing a nursing necklace during feeding times, giving the child a target to focus on grabbing and manipulating while they are relaxed and content. Start working on gross motor skills by letting your baby stand with help in your lap. Developmental toys would include ones that are activated by swiping or kicking.

3) At seven months, your baby can most likely roll, sit and stand with help. The brain is developing very quickly and you will notice more problem solving skills emerge. For example, children around this age will figure out that they can move objects from one hand to the other if they need to hold on to something. Encourage these cognitive skills by purposely offering desired object to the child, one after another, all from the same side. Hide objects to see if your child can find them. Bouncy seats, assisted walking and jumping in your lap are appropriate gross motor skill activities.

4) By one year of age, your baby will understand facial expressions, tones of voice, have verbal responses to let you know how they feel, and many other skills. One year olds will be learning to walk, run, climb and jump. They will also be learning to speak and solve more complex problems. This is a good age to introduce puzzles, learning toys, and preschool toys without small parts. An activity table will encourage your child to develop some fine motor skills. Pincher motions are important to focus on at this age.

If you have questions concerning your child's development, talk with your pediatrician.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

5 Great Educational Toys

Everyone knows that children learn by play. So it stands to reason that we all want our children to get the most out of their play. There are many great toys around, and so why not combine a great toy that kids love with a learning tool.

Here are five great educational toys for children and why they are so good for your kids

1) Wooden Blocks

Wooden blocks have been around for ever and there is a simple reason for that, children love them. Kids of all ages and genders love playing with wooden blocks.

They are great learning toys for kids because they teach them about:



Shapes: blocks come in a variety of shapes with flat surfaces for stacking, arches, cubes, pyramids and domes.



Feel: wooden blocks aren't cold or too hard to the touch. Wood is soft, and won't do much damage in an accident.



Colours: wooden blocks are usually multi coloured. This gives a parent the opportunity to teach a child about colours and for a child to enjoy the beauty of colours.



Fine motor skills: a child will learn how to handle blocks, as they grow older, they will learn to stack them and line them up. The older they get, the higher their towers, bridges and cities grow.



Cognitive skills: Some children might like to sort blocks into groups of colour or shape or size. A parent can also introduce a child to discover this recognition of groups and like items using simple blocks.



Imagination: A child can build anything with blocks; their imagination is their only limitation. Blocks provide a great outlet for children exercise their imagination.

2) Puzzles

Puzzles teach children so many wonderful skills. There are puzzles suitable for all ages and levels, from two and three piece sets to multi piece, more difficult ones.



Cognitive Skills: A child will learn how pieces can fit together to make a whole and how to find and place these pieces. Some puzzles use simple shapes to create an image or shapes to fit a board, or cubes to form a picture but most puzzles are complex images on irregular shapes that come together to form an intricate picture.



Fine Motor Skills: Little fingers will gain pleasure from fitting into position these simple shapes. Smaller pieces will make this more challenging as they get older.



Patience and Social Skills: A child can learn patience from puzzles as they take time to master, and learning to take turns build better social skills.

3) Books

Children will learn many things from books that will serve them well into their older years. They learn about allegory, rhyme, rhythm and repetition. They learn listening skills and observation skills. Eventually they will learn reading skills but most importantly reading to your children provides them special time with their parent or loved ones.

4) Shape Sorter

Shaper sorters provide a child with many hours of entertainment and provide them with an opportunity to practice their fine motor skills, by fitting pieces into holes and cognitive skills by learning to recognise the different shapes and visual skills by learning about different colours.

Learning to take turns with siblings and friends teaches children important social and negotiation skills.

5) Role Play

Toys like doll houses, pirate ships, shops, garages or castles that consist of perhaps vehicles, dolls, people and various items will help to teach your child role play. Role playing, is when the child uses their imagination to create characters and a story using props. Boys might prefer cars and fire engines or pirate ships, and girls might prefer dolls and shops.

Kids toys so often combine fun with learning, and it is not hard to find the toy for the right time for your child to actively learn about their world.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Promotional Anti Stress Toys - Relax at Work

There is no getting around it. The office is a stressful environment. For most of us, people can either be triggers for our stress or sources for relief for our stress. Unfortunately, because of the need to maintain a professional rapport with our workers, we have to be conscious on exposing our feelings too readily. That stop valve we put on our emotions at work can be a cause of stress in itself, and we have got to make sure the containment of stress does not lead perversely to the angry and hostile release of stress.

We need an outlet. The gym is an outlet for stress. Walking or jogging in the park is an outlet for stress. Punching a punching bag is a release of stress. Yelling in your car is a release of stress. But few offices come with their own gym. Offices are confined and don't have the real estate to afford you a really satisfying jog. Maybe you could somehow get a punching bag into your office, but start yelling at the top of your voice from your desk and you might just find yourself out of a job.

Promotional businesses are only too aware that stress is one of the leading causes of decreased work productivity and absenteeism around the work place. Promotional businesses know there is a market for stress relief in the work place, and not only that, but promotional businesses want your business name and logo to be associated with good health in the workplace. Because the primary health issue in the workplace is stress, promotional businesses are glad to offer products designed chip away at any building stress in the work place. They are promoted as 'toys' but these are not toys in the sense that they are childish or forgettable. The toys offered by promotional products are toys in the sense that they are used for no practical purpose, but they are used.

The 'relieve stress mentality' is about finding something to occupy yourself without getting to occupied about it. Promotional Anti Stress Toys provide employers and employees with something to do without something to stress about, and as frivolous as they may sound, they're very effective. The Promotional Anti Stress Ball is the most popular for squeezing away your anxieties. But there is also The Anti Stress Globe, The Anti Stress Cricket Ball, The Anti Stress Tennis Ball, The Anti Stress Golf Ball, varying sizes of anti-stress soccer balls and footballs, anti-stress cars, planes and trucks, anti-stress hard hats, hammers and bricks, an anti-stress boss caricature, anti-stress puzzles and anti-stress phone chairs.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Finding Preschool Educational Toys For Your Child

Preschool educational toys can be as simple as blocks, puzzles, memory games, and plastic food. They can also be more involved with the newest technology where you child sits down to watch videos and follow along with books. The choice is yours. Below we will be looking at how a few of these Preschool Educational Toys can be helpful in getting your child ready for school.

Blocks are perhaps the simplest Preschool Educational Toys you can have. Blocks help build the child's mind from discerning shapes to figuring out how to build something. While blocks are simple, they allow your child to develop the fine motor skills it takes to stack and stack without collapsing. They also enable your child to use imagination and start a project and finish it. This is also true of puzzles and the memory game. With puzzles, even the most simple, enables your preschooler to visualize the piece and how it will fit within the rest of the shapes. They also get the joy of seeing the picture complete. You will be amazed how many times they will do puzzles over and over again. Memory games allow the child to see the pictures and match them up with the corresponding piece.

The newest technology for Preschool Educational Toys involves children's laptops as well as videos to watch. These can be helpful as your child gets older, but there is nothing like playing. Arts and crafts seem like a messy waste of time, but it can be huge in watching your child grow and develop. By all means get some LeapFrog Videos and even some Baby Einstein but make sure you don't let those take the place of play.

The idea behind Preschool Educational Toys is to help your child develop their five senses as well as help them develop the use of their brain. A young child's brains has the power to soak up as much information as you can supply. Whether you choose a Preschool Educational Toys or just some scissors and paper, choose them and allow your child the chance to develop while having fun.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Birthday Gifts higher for children with autism

What birthday gift you should get your autistic child?

Toy develop fine motor, gross motor and sensory abilities:

What birthday gift you should get your autistic child? A perfect gift, you and your child would like to have, that therapy toys. The benefits of therapy with toys are two different things. They are very effective in the treatment options and are toys that are fun to play with really!

E 'for children with Autism, delays in motor skills. A child with delays in motor skills should be given treatment by a certified professional therapist. However, a parent can also use the fine motor skill development of the child by the appropriate baby toys at home. Toys such as mouse clicks, blocks and puzzles are excellent for developing motor skills. If your child loves trains, or animals, he / she love to have more puzzles, blocks orToys> are designed with this type of images.

Children with autism often have delayed motor skills. They tend to be clumsy and have difficulty walking or cycling on a bike. You can give your child at home to play with toys for this promotion with his gross motor skills development. In a domestic environment, your child to practice physical activities in a pleasant environment. Toys that encourage improvement in these areas, bicycle balance training, softBalls and paddles.

Most children with autism have sensory processing disorder. There are many toys that are effective to help with. containing sand and water tables and trampolines. Sand and water tables are very effective to improve tactile development, driving the water and the sand between the toes of a child. A mini-trampoline with a handle is another great activity that is for every child. But to an autistic child, there are therapeuticThe advantages are obtained with the fun. The crux of the motion on the trampoline is very therapeutic in the regulation of child sensory systems.

Through play the child can develop and promote treatment. It 'important to go home and give the autistic child with opportunities for therapy toys and fun activities. This gives the child an opportunity to further expand its occupational therapy, while relaxing at home.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Educational Toys to Boost Intelligence

Kids have the fastest learning ability and you can boost their self esteem, growth and intelligence by making play educational. Educational toys create that right mental state that brightens the inner genius of young minds. Although many of us believe that animated digital toys and gizmos are the best options but studies have shown that they restrict creativity. Children just learn to respond with such toys and not develop an entire act using their imagination or role play.

Encouraging imagination

Toys that are programmed like scripted plays or computerized dogs or bears stifle imagination because children stick to what is served to them. On the other hand, free play with masks, toy action figures, non-digitized stuffed toys, and animal cutouts encourage children to use their imagination and creativity to develop entire conversation all by themselves. They put their thinking skills to use and in the process sharpen their brains.

Problem solving

Children are known to be creative when it comes to problem solving. Putting your child in commanding position does a lot of good as it forces him or her to come up with an entire plan of solving the problem. Puzzles, simple building blocks, rubber balls all work on cognitive skills and teach children the art of calling the shots without assistance.

Critical thinking

If the young eager minds are accustomed to taking challenges head on right from the beginning, they do not fear mind bending later in life. The toys like board games in different themes and extensions offer mental workouts that are must to develop critical thinking abilities. Crosswords, magic cube, mathematical scrabbles and puzzles, visual strategy games encourage children to think divergently in almost all the directions pushing them to think of alternatives and coming up with perfect solutions.

Augmenting learning

As children grow, their toys should also match their increased and improved brain power. The level of challenge should always be a step higher than their current capability but it should still be achievable. Introducing children to musical instruments help them in venting out their feelings and they learn the art of self-expression in a beautiful way. Books that match the child's interests are bound to grab their attention and we are not talking about curriculum books. You can inculcate the wise habit of reading in children by buying them some interesting material related to their hobbies.

The growing mind is just like wet clay that can be molded just the way you want to by making proper strokes. Boost your child's natural intelligence by choosing right and simple educational toys that have given birth to thinkers for decades.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Baby Toys for Life

When a baby comes into the world, it is important to get it toys after the first few weeks. The toys not only keep the baby occupied, they also play a great role in the baby's development. There are different types of toys; some of which include educational toys, development toys and even play toys.

The choice of baby toys should depend on the age of the baby in question. It does not make sense to get a one month old baby crayons and puzzle toys. Instead, newborns should be bought soft and light toys which come in different attractive colors to keep them occupied. By the time the baby is attaining his first year on earth, you can start bringing in toys like puzzles and those that produce different sounds. These toys are really helpful in the development of the baby.

As the baby grows, you can incorporate block puzzles and let the baby play with them. You can even show them how to go about arranging them and then let them do it on their own. The types of toys should change with age. The toys are meant to stimulate the five human senses of touch, sight, sound, smell and taste and in turn this will create attention, curiosity, memory and also help the development of the nervous system.

When getting baby toys, it is important to go for those which will last for a longer time so that they can be passed from one baby to another as they grow to new toys. Before your baby is strong enough to write anything, you can get cloth books which normally come printed with different shapes in different colors. Such kind of toys help in the long term development by encouraging pre reading skills while the different shapes assist in learning things like animal names, alphabets as well as numbers.

Other important toys can include stuffed dolls and animals which teach the baby how to do simple tasks such as buttoning and tying shoe laces. It is also easy to learn how to put clothes on and how to change. This is very important in the baby's development.

There are toys meant for baby boys and those for girls, so have this in mind as well as you do your choosing.