…what is more beneficial for your child’s learning: battery-operated toys or natural toys (or even just items from around the house!)?
Maybe it’s just me, but this is something I’ve wondered about often!
Are the non-battery-operated toys better because they don’t “do it all” for your child, ensuring that he has to use his own brain to figure things out and hold a longer attention span…
…or do the lights and sounds stimulate your child’s brain in a way that the non-battery operated toys can’t (my son often seems to pay better attention to the flashing toys)?
I’m still not sure what the answer is, but for now, we’ve decided to try to have a mix of both, erring on the side of non-battery operated toys and just things around the house (I think we have a total of 3 battery-operated toys). If we do buy battery-operated toys, we try to buy bigger toys that aren’t likely to be chewed on as much as smaller toys because we want to keep as much plastic out of his mouth as possible because of all of the junk that has been found in toys (we invested in cloth and wooden teethers for this purpose).
This is probably a no-brainer question? I’m not sure, but I wish I knew more about it!
Aimee says:
We have both types of toys in our house. If we do buy battery operated toys I try to make sure that they are not overwhelming.
Right now my toddler’s favorite toys are cars, blocks, and his sock monkey. The only toys that he plays with that make noise are the Little People garage and farm. He must not like the noises and lights!
May 7th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
a says:
This is something I learned the hard way with my family, but getting rid of the electronics was the way for us. I suppose for others it is not so clear cut, but ours just zoned out on the overstimulating stuff, and became creative only when we removed those flashy noisemakers that did everything for them. Bliss!
July 16th, 2008 at 9:51 pm