The play has many more functions for toddlers than for adults. For toddlers, play is not just a way to relax but it is also the best way to learn and perfect skills like walking, balance and controlling the hands.
Through play, the child discovers the objects and their functions and learns some social behaviors. For him, the play is similar to the work of the adult: the toddler imitates the work of his mother, father and grandparents.
He repairs the car like his father and he cleans the house like his mother.
His work “tool” is the toy. If for the little baby the toy is mostly a decorative object, for the toddler who is just starting to walk and talk, toys are absolutely necessary.
The parent must make sure to offer his child adequate toys to his age and skills level. The most indicated toddler toys are the functional ones, who develop and stimulate different processes and mental activities (knowledge, inventiveness, imagination).
In fact, we can consider as toys all the objects that help a toddler’s play, many of which can be found in our house.
Moving games are one of a toddler’s preferred activities.
It is very good if near your house is a park with a designated place, with special structures for toddlers.
Small sized slides, wooden or plastic material cubes, arranged in a pyramidal shape helps toddlers develop their musculature and agility.
If it is possible, the family members, using non-expensive materials, can make these arrangements in the backyard. The children will use them until they will grow older.
Another open-air game for toddlers that requires manual skills is sand play. This game requires the toddler to make different sand shapes and even complicated constructions.
At the sand box, the toddler uses different plastic shapes (stars, cookie), shovels, little buckets, toy cars and kitchen vessels.
Don't hesitate to let the toddler play in sand just because he might get dirty or because sand play is a germ source.
Dress the toddler adequately and keep a watch on him not to put something in his mouth during the play. Sand play is so important, that I advise parents to arrange a sand box inside the house!
If you don’t think you can find a box good enough to be used for this purpose, or sand to fill it, you can also buy one.
A toddler also requires toys to play inside the house
For the interior, the most important toys for toddlers are the cubes. They are used by the toddlers as load for toys trucks.
These cubes will later take part in construction games that help develop hand maneuverability, the capacity to concentrate and the imagination.
Toddlers, both boys and girls, love animals and dolls made of different materials. It is a mistake to believe that at this age dolls are specific only to girls.
Dolls help toddlers to identify the role of the mother and father in the family and learn the different body parts that a person has.
From the list of toddler toys, we must not exclude books.
For toddlers, beautiful colored books, with few images but well outlined, help enrich the vocabulary and verbalizing perception.
As a parent, you can create short stories based on these images, using words that the toddler can understand, with similar activities and experiences to the ones the child has experienced.
After showing him the images and explained what they are, we can ask the toddler “What is this?” “What does it do?” This way you test the things he learned.
The child likes this because he can see the satisfaction a parent has when he answers correctly.
Besides enriching his vocabulary, this game wakes up in him feelings of trust and security.
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