Category Archives: Children And Play

Less Toys Are better For Your Kids

Yes it does seem strange for a toy manufacturer to say ‘buy less toys.’ However here at Wild Thing Toys we truly believe less is more when it comes to toys. A few good quality heirloom toys made from natural materials are worth far more than an entire room of plastic themed dolls or toys that need a switch to move or talk or flash. With pre-determined toy, especially true of merchandised toys, everything in that toy is intentionally planned out so your child does not need to use their imaginative skills at all. The fantasy and discovery of play is restricted.

Two German researchers, Elke Schubert and Rainer Strick in the 1990s conducted an experiment where toys were taken away from Munich nursery for three months. After short period, researchers say children re-adjusted and their play became more social and creative. You can read their findings here.

Of course, we are not advocating a toy free world for your children. Toys are an important part of your child’s life, they teach your child about the world around them and about themselves, but limiting the amount of toys you give to a child will have greater benefits.

Boost creativity

Less toys leave room for a child’s participation and creative imagination with the toys they do have. Simple open ended toys are the toys children comeback to again and again. These toys are appealing and long lasting because of their ability to fuel the imagination. Research shows children who are encouraged in imaginative play prove to be more creative in later years, have better vocabulary, have less aggressive tendencies and are more confident with other children.

Longer attention span

Being bombarded with too many toys, a child will go from this toy to that toy, for temporary amusement and distraction without feeling inspired. A study by Claire Lerner, a childhood development researcher funded by the US government to run pre-school educational programmes across America reported that children under the age of five that have too many toys, cannot concentrate on one thing long enough to actually absorb from it, instead they feel duty bound to rummage everything without ever fully immersing themselves in any one activity or ever learning from it. “Our studies show that giving children too many toys or toys of the wrong types can actually be doing them harm. They get overwhelmed and cannot concentrate on any one thing long enough to learn from it,” said Lerner.

Toy is appreciated

A toy given only on certain occasions only or not very often, will hold more value to the child and the child will have an emotional investment to it knowing that he/she had to look forward to this toy and it is something special. The child takes care to look after it and appreciate it more, as they know that there is no replacement at hand.

Better social kills

Children with fewer toys to play with learn better at how to improve their personal relationships and social skills with other children and adults. They spend more time in natural play as well as outdoor play. Endless toys which require staring at a screen and pushing buttons will only have a passive negative effect on building the social skills they require.

Interest in other activities

Less toys can mean more time to play out doors, read books and paint and draw. Good old fashioned childhood activities such as kicking a ball about with friends, playing with marbles, inviting friends to play with dolls, making dolls clothes, making paper planes, and reading a book in a cosy corner are all unstructured play activities that nurture their creativity, intellect and social skills.

Benefit Of Dolls For Girls And Boys

Little girls have always played with dolls, however all children should have the opportunity to own and play with dolls regardless of gender. Toys that are aimed at boys are usually based on aggression or competitiveness, whereas dolls are generally aimed at promoting nurturing and social skills. A healthy balance would be for both girls and boys to have a chance to play with toys that promote all these skills. It is widely accepted these days that girls should be encouraged to play with toys that are traditionally ‘boy’s toys’ such as cars and Lego, however sadly it is not the same for toys that are traditionally aimed at girls.
Playing with dolls can be hugely beneficial for boys (and girls) in their developmental skills.

Language Skills
A doll is a toy that can really assist in expanding a child’s interactive play. They learn a lot of language through playing with dolls giving them the opportunity to use and practice their speech and linguistic skills. As they progress into greater imaginative play, they will further extend their vocabulary.

Cognitive & Motor Skills
Children use dolls to practice skills before they are able to apply it themselves, such bathing, getting dressed and brushing their teeth. Boys tend to develop their fine-motor and self-help skills a little later than girls, therefore have an even greater need of a doll. At the age of two or three a doll can become a friend and confidante that can help overcome fears or emotional issues. Dolls can be a source of comfort and assist in make believe scenarios similar to the child’s own, helping them face challenges and find solutions.

Nurturing skills
Caring for a doll increases caring and nurturing skills. Children learn to be responsible for the doll as they care for it and pretend play imaginary scenarios. This gives them the opportunity to see beyond just themselves and develop vital strengths such as empathy and selflessness, which will hopefully lay down the foundation for empathetic parenting when they are older.

The Need for Pretend Play in Child Development

Article from Psychology Today

[This post was co-authored with Jerome L. Singer and Dorothy G. Singer]

Many people often think of play in the form of images of young children at recess engaging in games of tag, ball, using slides, swings, and physically exploring their environments. But physical play is not the only kind of play. We often use the terms pretend play or make-believe play (the acting out of stories which involve multiple perspectives and the playful manipulation of ideas and emotions), that reflect a critical feature of the child’s cognitive and social development. Over the last seventy-five years a number of theorists and researchers have identified the values of such imaginative play as a vital component to the normal development of a child.

Systematic research has increasingly demonstrated a series of clear benefits of children’s engagement in pretend games from the ages of about two and one half through ages six or seven. Actual studies have demonstrated cognitive benefits such as increases in language usage including subjunctives, future tenses, and  adjectives. The important concept of “theory of mind,” an awareness that one’s thoughts may differ from those of other persons  and that there are a variety of perspectives of which each of us is capable, is closely related to  imaginative play (Jenkins & Astington, 2000; Leslie, 1987; Singer & Singer, 1990; Singer & Singer, 2005).

Psychologist Sandra Russ (2004) identified a number of different cognitive and affective processes that are associated with pretend play. Her research dealing with play involves  fantasy, make-believe, symbolism, organization, cognitive integration of seemingly separate content, and divergent thinking (the ability to come up with many  different ideas, story themes, and symbols). Pretend play allows the expression of both positive and negative feelings, and the modulation of affect, the ability to integrate emotion with cognition (Jent, Niec, & Baker, 2011; Seja, & Russ, 1999; Slade and Wolf, 1999).

The research reviewed by Berk, Mann & Ogan, (2006) and Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, Berk, & Singer (2009) suggest that make-believe games are forerunners of the important capacity for forms of self-regulation including reduced aggression, delay of gratification, civility, and empathy. When children use toys to  introduce possible scenarios or friends, the representation of multiple perspectives occurs naturally. Taking on different roles allows children the unique opportunity to learn social skills such as communication, problem solving, and empathy (Hughes, 1999).

An important  benefit of early pretend play may be its enhancement of the child’s capacity for cognitive flexibility and, ultimately, creativity (Russ, 2004; Singer & Singer, 2005). Russ, for example, in longitudinal  studies, found that early imaginative play was associated with increased creative performance years later (Russ, 2004; Russ, & Fiorelli,  2010). Root-Bernstein’s research with clearly creative individuals such as Nobel Prize winners and MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant  awardees, indicated  that early childhood  games about make-believe worlds were more frequent in such individuals than in control participants in their fields (Root-Bernstein, 2012).

What are the sources in children’s environments that promote early and frequent imaginative play? Research has demonstrated that parents who talk to their children regularly explaining features about nature and social issues, or who read or tell stories at bedtime seem to be most likely to foster pretend play (Shmukler  1981; Singer & Singer  2005). A school atmosphere in which pretend games are encouraged, or even just tolerated in the curriculum or recess play of children has also been shown to  lead  to  even greater amounts of imaginativeness and enhanced curiosity, and  to learning skills in preschoolers or early school-agers (Ashiabi , 2007; Singer and Lythcott 2004) . Indeed, educators are using pretend games to teach math and reading (Clements, & Sarama, 2009; Ginsburg, 2006).

A key question that arises from the literature is how parent and teacher training in “guided play” may influence literacy. Singer and colleagues conducted a series of studies on the effectiveness of Learning through Play, an intervention program designed to teach parents and educators how to engage in learning-oriented, imaginative play games with children (Singer, Plaskon, & Schweder, 2003). In the initial evaluation of the program kindergarten children of low-SES parents who participated in the intervention showed significant gains on an academic readiness assessment than those whose parents did not participate. Modest improvements were found in subcomponents of the test, including vocabulary, knowledge about nature, general information knowledge, and knowledge about manners. In another curriculum, Tools of the Mind, inspired by Vygotsky’s theory, scaffolding of cognitive control is woven into virtually all classroom activities (Bodrova, 2008).  For example, teachers encourage complex make-believe play, guiding children in jointly planning of play scenarios before enacting them. Teachers also lead rule-switching games in which regular movement patterns shift often, requiring flexibility of attention.

Perhaps the idea of a built-in ‘pretend play recess’  during the regular school day—where children can get together and explore an infinite amount of possible combinations of ideas, emotions, and perspectives—will one day be just as acceptable as traditional, but no less important, forms for recess and play.

This article is from Psychology Today

Why Simple And Natural Dolls?

We believe that dolls with just a hint of facial features, or even no features at all, are more likely to stimulate a child’s imagination and encourage more open ended play. A doll with a minimum of expressions can have various emotions, just as in real life situations. It can be happy or sad, bossy or strong and can imitate the child’s own range of feelings, ultimately giving the child control over the numerous play possibilities.

A plastic/vinyl doll on the other hand has one fixed frozen smile feature. One can argue that some plastic dolls have a positive role to play. Some fashion dolls have themes to them, such as vets, horse trainers or doctors. However, even with these themed dolls, the play is ‘fixed’ to the theme, resulting in limiting the child’s independent thinking. Alternatively a simple natural doll  can help boost creativity as the child has to think and use his or her own imagination to create the play, as opposed to the doll dictating to the child how to play.

Another concern is that many manufactures of plastic dolls are quite happy with promoting early sexualisation with their dolls.
The plastic dolls which are suppose to be ‘positive role models’ have full make up, high heels and highly sexualised unrealistic body forms, which are not an ideal role model for any little girl or boy to look up to. There’s already enough pressure from the media and society to look a certain way without implanting these unnatural standards in to dolls.

Handmade dolls

We are accustomed to living in a throwaway society where toys are thrown out and replaced at an alarming rate. Rarely will you be able to repair a plastic doll with a broken limb. Instead, hordes of these dolls end up in landfill sites. Well-made heirloom quality cotton dolls can be cleaned and repaired and passed down to other children instead of being thrown out. They can be treasured in childhood, and remembered with fondness in adulthood.

Our fair trade dolls are all hand made. The dolls are created from 100% cotton which is hand loomed by age old production methods without any usage of electrical machinery. This produces a heavy high quality cotton that is beautifully tactile to touch. Each doll or soft toy is then lovingly handcrafted by artisans who work under fair trade conditions.

The dolls are beautiful in sight with a range of skin colours to compliment the diversity of people in the world. Without sounding too clichéd, each doll is made with care and love by the doll maker to be treasured by the child.

A wonderful quote that captures the value of a handmade doll is by the doll maker, Maricristin Sealey, “…a handcrafted doll is one of a kind, an individual which carries the spirit of the maker in its stitches and absorbs the spirit of the child who loves it.”