How Musical Toys and Outdoor Toys Aid a Child’s Development

There are many toys that are not actually called educational but certainly help to increase a child’s spatial or motor skills in some way as well as creating an opportunity for their imagination to work overtime.

Outdoor toys such as balls and skipping ropes not only provide the opportunity for healthy exercise, but can be used in any number of imaginative games. In addition, balls help to develop small motor skills and even gross motor skills as the child grows older. They can be kicked, thrown and bounced in any number of ways and even just learning how to pick up and hold a small ball often fascinates a toddler who can only just crawl.

Many outdoor toys such as sand-pits, pools or outdoor tables with sections designed for water play can enhance your child’s play time as well as their motor skills and teach them things about gravity that they do not even realise they are learning.

Musical toys are usually indoor toys and these too can be considered educational in that they aid a child’s development in many ways. First they have to learn what to do to make the toy play music. This could be as simple as pushing or pulling buttons or levers on a musical table designed for toddlers. The reward for learning what to do is the music which is often accompanied by flashing lights or other noises besides musical ones.

But it is not only the fun of learning what to do to hear the noise that is educational, but often what they hear teaches them something too. For instance, they can learn colours and numbers as well as their ABC from such musical toys. Hearing rhymes or simple songs over again also helps them to memorise words.

Musical toys for older children often require children to develop small motor skills to be able to play with them. Some toys such as xylophones can be used by littlies as they happily dong away without needing to know how to play a tune; then they can be used by an older child who is able to read the booklet to learn how to play a recognisable tune.

About The Author

Child Specialist is a trained and certified child nutritionist and specialist helping new parents with expert advice on child growth.