How Educational Toys Can Improve Social and Emotional Development
As parents and educators, we all want to see our children grow up to be confident, well-adjusted adults who can communicate effectively and build positive relationships with others. One way to help children develop these essential social skills is through the use of educational toys.
Often overlooked, there has been a significant advancement of educational toys for emotional and social development. They often allow children to physically play alongside each other, something that technology cannot provide. While playing, children can encounter social cues such as laughter, crying, anger, and figure out how to understand and react to these sorts of social situations. These toys often involve sharing, waiting your turn, and leadership skills, all important attributes to social development. Toys are an important part of a child’s development, and they can have a major impact on social skills and emotional skills.
In this blog post, we'll explore how educational toys can help children develop social skills and why they are an important tool in promoting healthy development.
How to improve a toddler's social skills?
There are many ways to improve a toddler's social skills. Toddler's toys often help in social development, as they incorporate playing with others. Here are some suggestions:
- Role-play social situations: Use toys or puppets to role-play different social situations with your toddler, such as how to greet someone, how to share toys, or how to ask for help.
- Play games: Playing games that involve turn-taking and cooperation can help your toddler develop social skills such as sharing and taking turns.
- Model positive social behaviours: Your toddler is constantly observing and learning from you, so make sure to model positive social behaviours such as sharing, taking turns, and saying please and thank you.
- Using stuffed animals or dolls, you can interact with your child through the toys. Having conversations through toys teaches kids to recognize behaviours and communicate their feelings. They practice their social skills through the toys in an imaginary way.
How do toys help in social development?
In the vast availability of toys and games for children nowadays, educational toys are designed very carefully with specific learning goals in mind, and many of them focus on building social skills.
- Role-playing: Toys can be used for role-playing, which allows children to practice social skills such as taking turns, sharing, and communicating with others.
- Imaginative play: Imaginative play with toys can help children develop empathy and social awareness as they pretend to be different characters and engage in different social situations.
- Communication skills: Toys that require communication, such as dolls or action figures, can help children practice social skills like initiating conversation, asking questions, and responding to others.
- Building relationships: Toys that encourage interaction with others, such as sports equipment or musical instruments, can help children build relationships and friendships through shared interests and activities.
- Cooperative play: Some toys, such as building blocks, board games, or puzzles, require cooperation and teamwork, which can help children develop social skills like sharing, taking turns, and problem-solving.
Toys that develop social skills
The Toy Room has the perfect collection of educational toys to help you incorporate social skills in your little one’s from an early age. The social skills toys encourage imaginative play and communication, all important components of creating strong social skills. From board games to stuffed toys and more, The Toy Room collections of toys can help your toddlers and older children learn how to share and take turns.
Brand - Orchard Toys
Age 3-5
Dinosaur Dominoes by Orchard Toys is a fun and engaging way for children to develop both social and emotional skills. Playing together can help children learn to cooperate, share, and respect each other's turns. Dinosaur Dominoes is a social skills toy which helps children develop emotional skills like patience, perseverance, and empathy. As children take turns and wait for their turn, they learn to be patient. As they try to match the dominoes, they practice perseverance. When they make mistakes or lose, they learn to empathise with others and develop emotional resilience.
Brand - Aurora
Age 0-3
Mini Flopsie Sloth by Aurora is a soft and cuddly toy that can help toddlers and young children develop both social and emotional skills. Toddler's toys often help in social development, as they incorporate playing with others. Children can hug and cuddle the sloth when they are feeling sad or anxious, and the toy can help provide a sense of security and comfort. The toddler's toy can help develop sharing and cooperation skills as children play with the sloth together, take turns holding it, and learn to share it with others. This toddler's toy helps children in developing hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. Social skills are an important aspect while choosing your toddler's toys.
Brand - Orchard Toys
Age 5-8
Speed Spellings by Orchard Toys is a fast-paced spelling game that can help children develop both social and emotional skills. The game can help children develop emotional skills like resilience and sportsmanship. As they race against the clock and compete with others, children learn to deal with disappointment and develop emotional resilience. This fun, educational and literacy game with unique and engaging gameplay is sure to make spelling practice fun.
Brand - Happy Puzzle Company
Age 5-8
The Genius Square game by Happy Puzzle is a great tool for young children to develop their social skills through play and collaboration. By working together and solving challenging puzzles, children can learn important social skills that will benefit them in school, at home, and in their future relationships. This game can help children develop their problem-solving skills as they work to find the best solutions to the puzzle. The genius square game is a challenging brainteaser game that helps in developing problem solving skills.
Brand - Think Fun
Age 3-5
Zingo! Bingo Game Zingo is a fun and interactive game designed for children to help them develop various skills such as pattern recognition, matching skills, Problem solving skills, memory skills, social skills, and listening and communication skills. Zingo! helps to improve social skills by encouraging children to take turns, follow rules, and communicate with others during the game. As Learn from teaching, in this game students can develop their number recognition and listening skills while also having fun and interacting with their peers.
Brand - Playmonster
Age 8-12
The 5 Second Rule (Electronic) is a fun and fast-paced party game from PlayMonster that challenges players to come up with three answers to a given category within 5 seconds. This Brainteaser and engaging game played with an electronic timer that counts down from 5 seconds and plays a loud, suspenseful sound when time runs out. It helps in Encouraging creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Children can improve their General awareness and problem-solving skills with this board game.
Conclusion
Educational toys have proven to be effective tools for improving social and emotional development in children. By providing children with educational toys that promote social and emotional development, parents and caregivers can help them develop the necessary skills to succeed in school and in life.