5 Tips to Choosing the Best Developmental Toys for Your Children

If you’re looking around your living room thinking ‘I do NOT need anymore toys in here’, I hear you. Toys are visual evidence of the toddler takeover of every room in my household. (As a beige loving mom, I cringe at the pop of color everywhere I go.) But alas, the children will have the toys whether we are the ones supplying them or they arrive via friends and family. Toy boundaries are a real thing, but how do we choose? Will we be ‘bad parents’ if don’t give our children the hottest toy on the market? Been there, bought them. Some of them lost their appeal after 5 minutes, and others are a daily interaction. Our children are constantly learning about what they like, and as a result, so are we. While we learn our child’s preferences however, we can encourage education through play with toys that will support their journeys of learning and growth. Here are 5 things to look for when selecting the developmental toys for your children.

1. Is it Safe?
   This is something I constantly ask myself over ‘is it age appropriate?’. Age suggestions on packaging are focused on development level for children over 3 years of age (toys that read 3+ are still recommended for that age simply because of choking hazards and should be treated as such). We all know our children best, and we know that what may be considered ‘safe’ on the market, may not be safe in their hands. As parents, its important to control and limit the hazards in our household and especially in our children’s bedrooms, playrooms and play spaces. If you receive a toy that your child is not yet ready for, you can play along with them for full-supervision or put it aside until they are.

2. Does it Promote Independent Play?
   Up until the age of 4 and beyond for some, many children will tend to focus their attention to what is called ‘parallel play’. At this stage, kids will focus on playing independently with their own toys alongside other children rather than playing with them. Toys and games that require multiple participants may not grasp your child’s attention just yet. Instead, opt for things that allow your little one to develop their own skills on a personal level. Early learners may be looking for a cause-and-effect type of reaction. In this case, musical instruments or electronic toys such as audio books and singing or moving stuffed animals or dolls can prepare children for their next steps in learning. ‘When I push X, Y happens,’ is a foundation for early subjects such as science and art. Toys such as puzzles, sensory toys and builders (blocks, playdoh, magnetic tiles) will not only encourage imagination and but also logical thinking and understanding of how things work together.

3. Does it Promote Creativity?
   On the note of encouraging imagination, promoting creativity is key in toddler and early learning through artistic expression. This can come in the form of crafts such as painting, molding, attaching/building and more. Observing children with these types of toys can also teach you a lot about how they learn, what they choose and their thought process along the way. Are they focused with a goal in mind or do they just want to have fun? Are they painting something specific or is the result completely abstract? Are they building a village or the tallest tower? Do they try again if they get frustrated or do they pick themselves up and try again? With creative toys comes much internal learning and understanding about oneself. Allowing children the space and freedom to play with imaginative toys is key to building their confidence, patience and logistic skills.

4. Does it Encourage Your Child’s Learning Style?
   If you find your child flourishing in a specific learning area, look for ways you can elevate them or develop them to the next level – for instance, books at a higher level for our literary learners or sensory bins for our tactile and kinesthetic learners. Finding the right fit will ensure that your kiddos are kept busy and as parents, sometimes the objective of playtime is to buy us time to get a million other things done. Having a variety of learning tools on hand and rotating through them will always ensure that your child has something ‘new to catch their interest’. This of course doesn’t meant to only focus on one learning style. Encourage your child to lean in on their areas where they may not be as interested initially. This may take some parent-play demonstration and interaction. Your presence alone in their ‘world’ of play will help them to develop their skills in other areas.

5. Is it Practical?
   As parents, guardians and relatives, we don’t always put practicality first when shopping for toys for our little ones. I can’t tell you how many bins of stuffed toys we have in my home yet my children will only rotate through a dozen or so. Before offering a new toy to my child, I make sure to ask myself the following:
   – Does it require supervision? (This includes toys that need a workspace such as kinetic sand or slimes)
   – Does my child already have something similar in their toy rotation?
   – Does it fit in our space? (I actually specify to family that we cannot accept toys over 1sq ft. due to storage space)
   – Is it valuable to their current development level?
   If the toy doesn’t fit into these guidelines, it gets returned, donated, or re-gifted. We have a wonderful agency in our hometown that collects toys for babies and children who are rehomed at a young age and set their new families up with toys and tools to prepare them for the new addition.

Choosing the best developmental toys for your child doesn’t half to be limited to these suggestions. Sometimes our kids ask for something that won’t check any of the boxes but it ends up being one of their most-loved toys anyways, and of course if it keeps the kids busy, it makes the parents happy. If your child asks for a toy at the store that you’re not entirely sure is right for them, let them hold onto it anyways. Give them the respect and confidence to make their own decisions. There’s a high chance they either get bored of it or find something else that catches their eye before you leave the store. At the end of the day, just remember that you are the parent, and you get to make the final call on whether or not a toy is right for your child. Even if it results in a (hopefully short-lived) tantrum. We can only make the choices we feel are best.