Purposeful Play : Choosing a Skill Building Toy
Our God is A Creative God
Let us Express our Creativity with our Child
It can be overwhelming to choose a toy for a child.
When it comes to choosing skill building toys, you may be seeking fresh ideas as your child improves
certain skills or outgrows certain toys.
Keep a child’s interests in mind when you go shopping.
Most importantly, the toy should be fun and capture a child’s attention. Of course, the toy should help a child develop and grow, but children need to play with the toy repeatedly for them to experience its benefits.
In order to give your children the best chance for success, look for a toy that:
1. Aligns with Their Interests
If you know that a child has an affinity for dinosaurs, outer space, or dolls, for example, choose toys with similar themes. A fun and exciting toy will give your child the best chance
for repeated play and success.
2. Matches Their Developmental Age
Developmental age is determined by the child’s degree of social, mental, and physiological maturation and is different than chronological age. It is important to choose toys based on your child’s skill level, rather than his or her age.
For example, an eight-year-old working on his or her fine motor skills may be successful with a lacing toy originally designed for preschool-aged children.
3. Has Sensory Appeal
Toys with multisensory components can help children to better process, interpret, and regulate sensory information, ( e.g. visual, auditory, tactile). Choose toys with lights, buzzers, music, scents, and various textures to aid in sensory processing.
Keep in mind that every child is unique, so a toy that is not stimulating enough for one child may be over-stimulating for another.
4. Provides a Challenge
While still offering opportunities for success, toys should also provide a challenge. Be sure to choose toys, games or workbooks with several skill levels or multiple ways to play so your child can “graduate” to something more challenging as he or she improves.
5. Encourages Inclusive Play
All of the toys in this guide are “inclusive,” meaning they are the same toys that your child’s friends and siblings would play with, but some toys in the guide are more likely to foster group play and social interaction.
For example, games encourage cooperative play, and scooters and ride-on cars make it fun for kids with special needs to play outside with their friends.
6. Is Open-Ended and Adaptable
Both open-ended and adaptable toys offer opportunities for success. Open-ended toys encourage creativity and self-expression, and adaptable toys inspire repeated play sessions. Consider adapting a craft kit by using the contents for a matching or counting game, or adapting Playfoam by using it to practice forming the letters of the alphabet.
Give your child several opportunities to fall in love with a new toy. If he or she isn’t interested during the first play session, try introducing the toy in a different room of the house or at a different time of day.
Above all, toys should be fun, so focus on what your child can do, and celebrate each milestone, big or small!
Let us Express our Creativity with our Child
It can be overwhelming to choose a toy for a child.
When it comes to choosing skill building toys, you may be seeking fresh ideas as your child improves
certain skills or outgrows certain toys.
Keep a child’s interests in mind when you go shopping.
Most importantly, the toy should be fun and capture a child’s attention. Of course, the toy should help a child develop and grow, but children need to play with the toy repeatedly for them to experience its benefits.
In order to give your children the best chance for success, look for a toy that:
1. Aligns with Their Interests
If you know that a child has an affinity for dinosaurs, outer space, or dolls, for example, choose toys with similar themes. A fun and exciting toy will give your child the best chance
for repeated play and success.
2. Matches Their Developmental Age
Developmental age is determined by the child’s degree of social, mental, and physiological maturation and is different than chronological age. It is important to choose toys based on your child’s skill level, rather than his or her age.
For example, an eight-year-old working on his or her fine motor skills may be successful with a lacing toy originally designed for preschool-aged children.
3. Has Sensory Appeal
Toys with multisensory components can help children to better process, interpret, and regulate sensory information, ( e.g. visual, auditory, tactile). Choose toys with lights, buzzers, music, scents, and various textures to aid in sensory processing.
Keep in mind that every child is unique, so a toy that is not stimulating enough for one child may be over-stimulating for another.
4. Provides a Challenge
While still offering opportunities for success, toys should also provide a challenge. Be sure to choose toys, games or workbooks with several skill levels or multiple ways to play so your child can “graduate” to something more challenging as he or she improves.
5. Encourages Inclusive Play
All of the toys in this guide are “inclusive,” meaning they are the same toys that your child’s friends and siblings would play with, but some toys in the guide are more likely to foster group play and social interaction.
For example, games encourage cooperative play, and scooters and ride-on cars make it fun for kids with special needs to play outside with their friends.
6. Is Open-Ended and Adaptable
Both open-ended and adaptable toys offer opportunities for success. Open-ended toys encourage creativity and self-expression, and adaptable toys inspire repeated play sessions. Consider adapting a craft kit by using the contents for a matching or counting game, or adapting Playfoam by using it to practice forming the letters of the alphabet.
Give your child several opportunities to fall in love with a new toy. If he or she isn’t interested during the first play session, try introducing the toy in a different room of the house or at a different time of day.
Above all, toys should be fun, so focus on what your child can do, and celebrate each milestone, big or small!
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