Educational toys are entertaining, but toys are also instruments that help a child learn about themselves and the world around them. Play is important to the healthy growth and development of children. As children play, they learn to solve problems, to get along with others, and to develop the fine and gross motor skills needed to enhance and master living skills. Through educational toys, children discover about themselves, their environment and about social cues. By engaging in play, children are developing creativity and it builds leadership skills and healthy personalities. Play increases skills children need to learn to read and write. Playing with educational toys in early childhood is the best foundation for success in school.
Cognitive, social, language and physical are stimulated through the use of appropriate practices for young children. Involving active learning and active play is the process by which young children explore their world. Examples: observing, smelling, tasting, listening, touching and playing.
Physical and gross motor skills are developed as a child learns to reach, grasp, crawl, run, climb, and balance. Fine motor skills are developed as children handle small toys. Dexterity develops as the child holds toys or other items.
Children learn to solve problems (cause and effect), through play. Children also learn colors, numbers, size, and shapes. They have the ability to enhance their memory skills as well as their attention span. Children move on to higher levels of thought as they play with educational toys.
Language develops as a child plays and interacts with others. This begins with babies playing cooing games and advances to useful language skills such as storytelling and jokes. Learning to cooperate, negotiate, take turns and play by the rules are important life skills for interacting and communicating.
