‘Educational Toys’- the very word creates a buzz of excitement and we gear up to buy them for our children. We want smart kids and by providing them right toys we want to contribute to their sound overall development. But do we actually know what an educational toy is or do we go by the label on the box that contains the toy?

To make things easier for you, let’s look into some of the important aspects. A toy that is age appropriate, provides necessary stimulation, tickles the senses and requires the child to make an extra effort can be categorized as educational toy. Here are some characteristics that you should look for in an educational toy before buying it.

Degree of challenge

An educational toy has to be challenging. It should force the child to think out of the box but the degree of challenge should be within limits. It should not make playtime frustrating for the child. Our aim should be to offer a challenging environment to make the experience fun and rewarding.

Sensory stimulation

The toy you are about to buy should work on multiple senses. The variation of texture, sound, colors, lights engage almost all the senses and you can find that in a single toy as well. Initially, children need adequate stimulation of senses to recognize colors, shapes and sounds so a toy that takes care of all these needs works very well for the proper growth of the child.

Potential

You must also evaluate the potential of the toy. There should be many alternate ways to play with the toy. Such toys like wooden building blocks work on the imagination of children and encourage them to think differently every time. But make sure that toy you choose should be adaptable to the style and development level of your child.

Cognitive development

The toy should lay out choices in front of the child so that the child can understand the impact of a choice he or she makes. It should allow the child to express him or herself fully and should give the required push to the creativity. It should engage the child in problem solving and should have a reasonable level of difficulty.

Social skills

Social skill building is also a very important aspect of child’s growth. This applies to buying an age appropriate toy so if your child is 2 years old buying them a specific to to the age group and if they are 6 years old buying them toys that are in that age range category.  You must analyze whether the toy provides an opportunity for the child to play with others. While it is not essential for every toy to be played in a group, but you should pay attention to offering an appropriate combination of individual and social growth.

For children, play is work and it directly impacts the way they grow in their future life. Education toys are worth putting an effort. Just make sure that you look for all the characteristics and buy those educational toys that direct your child’s development in the right direction.