How a child is brought up and what they become depend on what we do for them in the first few years of their lives. A child whose brain is stimulated from an early age will develop into an individual who is confident in themselves with a healthy self-esteem. Toys are an excellent way to encourage your child’s intelligence. And what greater joy can you give a child than a toy? It not only acts as a means of interacting with others, whether they are children or adults but also is a form of distraction and pleasure for children.

Almost all toys boost a child’s learning skills. Playing with them encourages children to go beyond what they already know and learn more about their environment. Today with the development in technology the choice for toys that support a child’s learning is endless. These toys are specially designed so that the child learns from them in addition to expanding their imagination.

There are numerous categories of toys available today that cater to the physical, social and emotional developmental needs of children. Hands-on toys are one such example, consisting of toys that necessitate your child to move them about physically. These include puzzles and jigsaws that improve hand-eye coordination and abstract thinking by permitting the child to take things apart and put them back together.

Dolls and various stuffed animals are geared to enhance your child’s imagination. Imaginative play helps a child to be in charge and be the person they wish to be. These toys promote role-play where a child develops his or her own story and have pretend play sessions after assigning different characters among their peers. Such interaction with peers will guide your child to be co-operative while teaching him or her to listen to other’s opinions.

Different types of art material will enable your child to develop his creativity. The importance of this is that gradually children develop their reading and writing skills. Books and music play a vital role as they appeal to a child’s visual and auditory senses. Even though a child cannot read yet, books are still important as leafing through the pages while taking in the pictures stimulates their visual sense. Music in various forms will help children to identify and appreciate different sounds.

Blocks may be a great starting point to improve hand-eye co-ordination and learn spatial relationships. Blocks are primarily related to mathematical skills and give children an understanding of basic geometrical shapes such as circles, squares etc.