Nowadays we have so many toys to choose. But what are the most effective toys for toddlers to build their language skills?
Toddlers continue to use all of the toys mobile infants use during playtime, but they use them in a more sophisticated way. Children learn how to move, think, communicate and relate to others when they play with toys. For example:
- Push and pull toys facilitate pretend play, e.g., wagons, mops, doll carts
- Mirrors, dress up and dolls help toddlers engage in pretend play by dressing up as princess and using dolls to bathe and feed
- Puzzles develop sorting, matching, and thinking skills
- Memory-matching games develop sorting and applied-thinking skills
- Stuffed animals, use of LEGO figures and farm animals helps toddlers dramatize and use their imagination skills
- Transportation toys improve fine-motor skills and enhance creativity by riding on trucks and using shovels, knobs, levers and button toys
- Blocks facilitate imagination and pretend-play skills
- Riding toys, large cardboard boxes and tricycles promote gross-motor-skill development
- Drop and dump toys, such as bean bags, squeeze toys in a pitcher, baskets, stacking rings and shape boxes
- Simple board games, such as lotto cards and Spot It
- Tunnels, obstacle courses and climbers provide physical challenges and excitement along with gross-motor-skill development
- Arts and crafts such as finger paint and paper crafts promote creativity and imagination
- Bubbles promote oral motor functions
