Small hand toys

How to choose educational toys for a child over the age of 3?

First of all, you need to understand that at preschool age, the development of a child occurs unevenly, spasmodically and very individually. In addition, this is a period of intensive development. Children at three, five or seven years old are very different.

Anna Teplova believes that, firstly, parents need to understand the specifics of the child's age and take into account the particular development of their child. Often parents are in a hurry, which does not lead to a good result. Secondly, we need to understand what exactly we want to develop in a child. Usually parents focus on intellectual abilities, strive to prepare the baby for school. And what will help here, for example, a doll? It is not perceived as an educational toy. And it helps the formation of emotional intelligence, social representations, teaches the baby to love and care.

Or a nesting doll - a real educational toy. In the game with the matryoshka, the concept of more-less develops, the skills of opening and closing, building the correct order, counting, speech development.

According to Aleksey Kozlovsky, at the age of 3 children still "taste" objects, so the toys should contain only hypoallergenic and safe materials.

It is better to give preference to goods without sharp corners and many small details. For outdoor games, you can expand the child's arsenal and buy a jump rope or a bicycle. For the formation of new skills, thematic sets, constructors and simple board games are the best helpers.

What educational toys does a child need?

A child needs a variety of toys. The main thing is that they provide an opportunity for independent activity, imagination, awaken the imagination of the baby. In this sense, the best educational toys are: rope, pebble, stick.

Modern toys fully contain everything necessary for their use, leaving no opportunity for the child to come up with something of his own when manipulating them.

- This is called the hyper-setting of a toy, when it is not the child who plays with the toy as he wants, but the toy requires the interaction algorithms set by the child. As a result, the child simply has nowhere to show initiative and independence - everything is ready for consumption and use, - says Anna Teplova.

Today's children need to develop fine and gross motor skills. Therefore, they need mosaics, constructors, hand cubes and balls, balancers, balance bikes to develop ideas about their own body and its relationship with space. According to Alexei Kozlovsky, in order for the child to move more, rocking chairs and wheelchairs are needed.

Interactive tables and pyramids are suitable for developing fine motor skills, attention and memory. With the help of tables, children learn letters, numbers, songs and rhymes, and pyramids will help to learn animals.

— For a child of this age, the expert says, thematic cards with professions, plants, vegetables and fruits will also be useful. Educational musical toys: guitars, drums, xylophones are necessary for the development of musical ear and rhythm. For older children, you can buy a bicycle or a scooter, as well as sets of a young chemist, designers.

At what age do boys and girls need to buy different toys?

According to psychologists, girls and boys can play with the same toys at any age. The stereotypes that cars are just for boys and dolls are for girls are outdated. Alexey Kozlovsky believes that dolls are suitable for emotional development and communication and empathy skills. Constructors, transport and other mechanisms are responsible for the development of logic and thinking.

Are educational musical toys suitable for all children?

The best way to develop a child's musicality is to play music and sing together with educators. Any musical toy is, firstly, an electronic sound, and secondly, a limited set of musical material. Children like singing toys, as they constantly play their favorite song or motive, but then they get bored. And the quality of the musical material is often not up to par.

Therefore, Anna Teplova recommends that when choosing a musical toy for a child, pay attention to the possibility of improvisation, independent music-making by the child. And, of course, it is worth studying the purity of sound and intonation.

Aleksey Kozlovsky believes that musical toys are suitable for all children, but the age of the child should be taken into account when choosing. At 4 years old, children are interested in playing pipes, whistles, drums and a children's piano. In order to teach your child to read, parents can also purchase music books. Such an item is more interesting than the traditional paper version.

How to use interactive educational games?

Most often, interactive toys can talk, imitate interaction with a child, sing a lot and play music. Such instances are overloaded with didactic possibilities, which does not correspond to the age of 3+. The development of the child is presented as the "sum" of the formation of various skills (understanding and discrimination of shapes, sizes, sounds, colors, etc.).

In this case, the adult is replaced by a toy that addresses the child in a strange, artificial voice, unfamiliar to him, which is essential for the development of the baby. Such toys are claimed to teach the child words and speech. But mastery of speech occurs in live, direct communication, when the baby not only listens to other people's words, but answers to another person, when he himself is included in the dialogue. Moreover, he is turned on not only by hearing and articulation, but by all his actions, thoughts and emotions. But speech coming from an electronic device, in this case from a toy, does not become "one's own", says Anna Teplova.

Speech sounds that are not addressed to the child personally and do not imply a response do not affect him, do not prompt him to action, and remain an "empty sound". Toys try to teach children something that has no meaning and personal significance for them. As a result, an attempt to accelerate intellectual development with the help of such a toy, on the contrary, slows down, and sometimes blocks the formation of the child's personality. Knowledge and skills that are not included in the interests and practical fabric of children's lives remain alienated, not assimilated and do not lead to the mental development of the child.

According to Anna Teplovaya, any activity with a toy in an interactive mode requires the presence of an adult and a time limit. Therefore, when choosing such a toy for their child, parents should understand that, leaving the baby alone with it for a long time, they do not develop him, but tire him and scatter his attention.

Are educational computer games suitable for three years old?

It is widely believed that computer games that reproduce the actions of children with real materials (collecting pictures, transforming characters, building from blocks, etc. ) have the same developmental effect as traditional types of children's activities. Studies by domestic psychologists led by E. O. Smirnova showed that electronic programs and games, even with external similarities, cannot compensate for the lack of real practical and gaming activities.

Anna Teplova is sure that in the electronic version of the game the child is extremely limited in showing his initiative and independence, his motive is the “reaction of the program” - the encouragement or reprimand coming from it. This does not contribute to the development of the personality and activities of children. However, digital games are increasingly replacing traditional children's activities.

Is it possible to make an educational toy for a child with your own hands?

Store toys can be replaced with homemade ones. To create them, improvised means are used: cardboard, boxes, scraps of fabric, tubes, boards and even socks. For children from 3 years old, homemade puzzles, designers and board games are suitable.

Busyboards are popular - boards on which various objects are attached. Parents add household items to the playing field: locks, sockets, light bulbs and switches. Children not only play, but also develop motor skills, mindfulness and everyday awareness.

- Such a board can be created taking into account the interests of the child. The business board is designed as a car repair shop, a spaceship, a fairyland with fairies or a house for animals, says Alexei Kozlovsky.

Fine motor toys

Speech therapists and psychologists keep repeating how important it is to practice fine motor skills - first of all, for the development of speech, and also for coordination of movements, preparing the hand for writing, drawing, needlework, etc.

Dexterous, skillful fingers are a guarantee full intellectual development (attention, thinking, imagination, visual and motor memory). And in order to make the process fun and interesting, a lot of special games and toys have been invented.

For the youngest - from 0 to year

Approximately from three to four months, the baby turns into a real Hvatayka - the grasping reflex helps him in exploring this world. Tiny fingers strive to grab everything they come across along the way, squeeze, let go, and see what comes of it. Therefore, rattles are perfect for this age, and it is better if they are not only made of plastic, but also made of fabric, wood, wicker, etc.

After six months, the child will surely be interested in soft books fabric. A handmade mother can sew such a book on her own, while a less handmade and more busy mother will find a similar work in the store.

An analogue of a soft book, but in a larger version - educational mat . Usually it is equipped with various interesting details - an unbreakable mirror, soft springs, rustlers and tweeters, which the baby will be happy to press, exploring a new sound.

From about 9-10 months old, your young tracker will definitely need developmental center - it can be fixed on the bed or played with it on the table. It is a panel with various knobs, buttons, disks that can be turned, pressed, rotated, etc. Now there are both imported and domestic versions of such toys. They are able to distract babies even from their father's cell phone and TV remote control.

From one year and older

We deliberately do not indicate the upper age limit, because with many toys a child can play for a long time, training, for example, accuracy and speed of movements. If for the first experiments the task is simply to assemble a simple designer or to get a cord into at least one hole, then later the child can do it at speed, with his eyes closed, etc. So educational toys are a profitable investment, a toy not just for one time, but for several years.

Blocks and blocks

Building a tower is not an easy task. Especially for naughty fingers. But this, it would seem, is a simple task, it perfectly develops coordination of movements, a sense of balance, and introduces simple physical laws (for example, by experience, the child is convinced that it is better to put the largest and heaviest cube at the base of the structure, and the small and light one is useful for its completion). By the way, another version of the elementary constructor is the well-known pyramids.

It is better to choose the classic version - with a gradual decrease in the diameter of the circles. Material - preferably wood, painted in pure, saturated colors.

Older children will be happy to assemble houses, castles, appliances and even animals - special prefabricated wooden and plastic models are designed for children from 5-7 years old.

Frames and inserts

The famous Maria Montessori introduced these toys into pedagogical practice. They are flat and voluminous (for example, cups or boxes nested in each other, or nesting dolls). Another option for bulk inserts is the so-called sorter , or a logical cube (it is a rather large cube with holes of various shapes, where you need to put the corresponding figure).

The child trains the accuracy of movements, gets acquainted “by touch” with the basic geometric shapes. They are made of wood, plastic or foam rubber.

Soft constructors

They are figurines made of various fabrics (from chintz and silk to carpet) with Velcro fasteners. Again, they are planar - when you need to assemble a little man, an animal or a geometric structure on a one-color field, and there are three-dimensional, three-dimensional (snowman, clown, tower). For the development of fine motor skills, Velcro is used here.

Figures with magnets

Are you tired of the boring white surface of the refrigerator? In this case, you can entrust its design to your baby and give him a magnetic mosaic (it comes in the form of multi-colored letters, numbers, geometric shapes). While the child will train coordination and spatial thinking, you will just have time to cook dinner.

Seguin boards (collapsible pictures)

The simplest version of puzzles, accessible even to one-year-old toddlers. They are plywood boards with pictures, which are cut into several parts. A small handle is inserted into each part - so that the part can be easily removed from the frame, and then inserted into place. For the smallest parts, there should be a little - no more than 2-3. Then, of course, their number gradually increases.

It is desirable that the cut of the picture does not pass through the figurine or at least through the head of a person or animal. Firstly, the head of the character serves as a semantic center of the composition for the child, and secondly, some sensitive children are very upset when the dog or man is “cut”.

Three years and older

Lace-ups

Truly lacing up a boot is a bit tricky. You can first practice on a flat hedgehog, a house or a toy shoe. If the child managed to get into the hole, be sure to praise him and do not demand that he immediately "as expected" lace up the entire toy up and down. This will come later, but for now it is important to consolidate the first success.

Puzzles

Translated from English, this word means “puzzle, difficulty”. But we are not looking for easy ways! Moreover, puzzles can turn into entertainment for the whole family. In addition to fine motor skills, this game also forms a spatial representation, color perception (sometimes you need to choose a very accurate color shade). The resulting paintings can be disassembled and then assembled again, or you can stick them on a closet or on a wall, thereby obtaining a stylish mosaic decoration for a child's room.

Mosaics

This game was in our childhood (at least something familiar and recognizable, not counting, of course, nesting dolls and pyramids!) based on your own imagination.

Finger puppets and glove puppets

Finger puppets can be wooden (a small toy with a notch for a finger) and soft (a tube is sewn from fabric or knitwear, on which the head and other details are attached). A glove doll (bi-ba-bo) is put on the whole hand at once. Such a simple theatrical prop will help not only to arrange a home puppet show with the participation of your baby, but at the same time to train your fingers.

Perfectly develops fine motor skills and various creative activities - modeling, drawing, appliqué, sewing, knitting, etc.

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