The Toy Dilemma

Do you feel like toys are taking over your home?  When the little ones are awake, do you have to clear a path from one room to the next?  Is our parental inclination to buy every toy that will help our kiddos learn actually affecting development in a negative way?

I came across this study that might help alleviate the feeling that if we don't buy the latest developmental toy than we are failing as a parent. 

Toddlers were engaged in two supervised, individual free play sessions.  One play session allowed the children four toys to play with and the other play session allowed sixteen toys to choose from.  The study found that with fewer toys to choose from, there were fewer incidences of toy play, longer duration of toy play, and the children played with toys in a greater variety of ways.  This suggests that when provided with fewer toys in the environment, toddlers engage in longer periods of play with a single toy, allowing better focus to explore and play more creatively.

One of the struggles our little ones are growing up with is learning to focus in an over-stimulating environment.  An environment with fewer toys will lead to higher quality of play for toddlers, the ability to attend longer to a single toy, and an increase in problem solving skills and creative play.

My hypothesis is that combining fewer toy options with caregiver participation in the play will help kiddos learn relationship building and promote creative play at a faster rate.  So put away a box full of toys littering your living room.  You can switch out the toys every few months to generate more interest in the variety of toys you already have.  Then get in there and have fun with your little one.

You can read the article at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163638317301613