gofer articles

Just what parent doesn’t want educational toys for their youngsters?
While the theory behind them range from sound to pure marketing hype, they’re an critical part of modern childhood for many families.
In fact, such toys make up a considerable subset of the multi-billion dollar toy industry, so much so that just about everyone, it seems, is touting the educational benefits of their designs.

But do educational toys actually help with learning, and are they really any different than other toys available on the market?
After all, what child isn’t going to “learn,” somehow, from a toy – or any other object worldwide?
Certainly, the younger the child, the more likely it is that she or he will learn from anything at all, whether it be a piece of paper or a metal spoon.
(Ironically, it is precisely the youngest children of all for whom the greatest number of such toys are made!)

Needless to say, educational toys are made to exercise and even increase upon motor and cognition skills, but it is controversial that most anything can serve the same purpose.
Yet many parents are under the mistaken notion that something labeled “educational” must surely be so.
Moreover, they may also be under the misimpression that such toys work their magic devoid of parental support.

On the other hand, child psychologists note that interaction with the parent is much more essential; it’s considered by most of them to be the number one factor in how wise, healthy, and happy a chid grows up to become.
Too many parents utilize toys and television as babysitters and then wonder later on just where, in spite of all the money spent, things went wrong.
No matter how educational the toy or activity, sharing it with the parent is the key ingredient of achievement, second to none!