Practical guide to choosing the best toys

Toys and games are a fundamental and important part of children's lives. As parents, we must take advantage of games and toys to educate, enhance creativity and teach values ​​in a fun way. It is very important to "play to grow."

What is play?

Playing is one of the fundamental activities in people's lives. The game, in addition to being a fun activity that provides pleasure, is one of the best learning activities. The boy and the girl, playing, learn everything.

They learn to develop their senses, develop diverse capacities, such as: perception, attention, memory, imagination and fantasy. When we play we show ourselves as we are, we act as we are and we say things as we think them. Thus we acquire habits, norms and rules of all kinds, among others, everything related to behavior and respect for others. We learn to know people, their name, their way of being and behaving.

We cannot conceive of a childhood without games. Through play the child observes, discovers, manipulates and experiments, that is, interprets the world around him. As the child grows, play helps him learn to relate with the rest.

On the other hand, the game is not exclusive to childhood. Playing is an excellent resource of fun for all ages, which favors relationships and communication between adults, children and adolescents.

What is a toy?

The toy is the instrument through which the process of the game is carried out, so it must stimulate the imagination to unleash the mechanisms of the game and enrich its setting, favoring interaction, ensuring communication and perfecting the activity carried out.

It is important to remember that in the hands of a child any object can be turned into a toy, stimulating their imagination and creativity. For example, a cardboard box can be a truck, a shopping cart, a crib for your favorite doll ...

The toys must be attractive and stimulating for the child, allowing them to develop a rich game that stimulates their development in general or that affects some specific area such as motor skills, the senses or intelligence.

When purchasing a toy we must take into account

• The child's age
• Your personal interests
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• Comprehensive development of the child: cognitive, social and
• Quality and safety parameters

The main mistakes when buying toys

• Acquire many unrelated toys.
• Giving away toys that are not suitable for the child's age.
• Video games before 8-9 years old.
• Mobile phones before 11-12 years old.
• Television and computer for your room: the TV and the computer must be shared as a family, since the contents must be controlled by the parents.
• Games, toys or.
• Buy very expensive toys that we later prohibit to use so that they do not break.
• Sophisticated toys that are often attractive to adults but are not useful for children as they limit their imagination and encourage contemplation and passivity.
• Encourage sexist roles in boys and girls: both must play with all kinds of games and toys ... There are no games for girls and boys.

How many toys should you give a child?

The list to the Three Wise Men or Santa Claus is usually endless, but sometimes not appropriate to the age or the needs of the little ones. It is not an easy task to choose the suitable toy with good judgment, setting priorities, without disappointing the children but also not submitting to all their wishes. Television constantly advertises a lot of toys; in some cases misleading messages confuse the child's happiness with having many things.

The main mistake of parents or relatives is to buy everything that the child asks for. There comes a time when the child enjoys breaking the packaging more than with the toy itself. Giving a lot of toys is not educational: the child piles up the gifts, does not value them and does not even have time to play with them.

You have to use the magic of the Magi to take advantage of it, so that the child learns to accept life as it comes, that they bring him surprise gifts, that he did not expect and that some he has asked for are not, because that is the reality. The child must learn to tolerate frustration, your future life will be full of frustrations.

Children are not traumatized by not having the fashionable toy or because their friend has a console and he does not. This fear belongs to the parents. If the child is clear that they have brought a special gift for him, he will be delighted and will not care what others have and if not, there is a problem. Because if the child is satisfied, valued and loved, he will be delighted with what they bring him.

A trick…

Parents must set limits on both the number of gifts and the familyit is at the time of buying them. A good tactic is look for a theme every year: animals, bicycle, travel, dolls ... so that if we buy a bicycle for our son or daughter, other relatives buy the helmet, the protectors, a cycling suit, a rear-view mirror, the basket or the horn. In this way, all the gifts have a connection and the child can value it better.

When they are older, they can give away things that are not so material, such as a themed family trip with all the family members and a briefcase with a toiletry bag for the holidays.

Types of games

• Sensorimotor games: stimulate and develop psychomotor skills, knowledge of one's own body, the notion of space. They are toys based on movement and the development of physical abilities. There are several types:
  • Sensory: mobiles, mirrors, musical instruments, inflatables and play blankets,
  • Manipulatives: rattles, teethers, baby gyms, bath toys, sand, stacking games
  • Motors: rockers, balls, crawling tube, ride-ons, tricycles, bicycles ...
• Symbolic games: they stimulate the child's imagination by imitating the adult world: playing mothers and fathers, doctors, teachers, shopping at the store. They help to represent reality, to imagine everyday life situations. These types of games range from books and paintings to dolls, miniatures and vehicles that imitate their surroundings.
• Construction games: stimulate spatial perception through pieces to fit, assemble, stack and build. They work on precision, attention, patience, the capacity for spatial orientation and creativity. They include puzzles and lace, crafts, modeling ...
• Regulated games: mainly group games, which promote socialization. They are games with specific rules; They allow to develop social skills, cooperate, associate, compete ... They can be the board games of a lifetime or sports.
• Safe toys: A toy is any product intended to be used for play by children under 14 years of age and, therefore, must be safe. All the toys that we buy for our children must comply with European regulations that comprise the mandatory provisions that manufacturers, distributors and traders must adhere to. In order to be marketed, they must be marked with the CE mark, which determines compliance with the applicable safety regulations.

A book, a different gift than the usual toys

Books can be considered as real toys. From the first months of life we ​​can buy books for babies, made of fabric or plastic, with different textures, images and attractive colors to touch, explore, observe and entertain.

Between 1 and 2 years We can offer them books with laminated cardboard pages that allow verbal and imaginative play and promote learning. For the 2 and 5 year old childrenIn addition to the stories with illustrations and short text, we can find the books stamped with simple mechanisms, such as cardboard strips that are manipulated and allow movement.

From 6 years on, they can start reading books where words, stories or adventures appear ... Here the book becomes a toy or support for the most characteristic game: fictional or symbolic. With books, the taste for reading is encouraged from childhood.

• Playing develops the senses and other capacities of the child such as memory, attention and imagination.
• Giving away many toys is not educational: the child piles up the gifts, does not value them and does not have time to play with them.
• When choosing a toy, its safety and quality must be taken into account, as well as the child's age, interests and educational criteria.

Pediatric Specialist