How to choose a toy for a child: how to please your child

Baby develops and knows the world with the help of toys. Playing daughters-mothers or cars, children imitate the behavior of adults, and by assembling the designer and puzzles, they improve fine motor skills and imagination. But choosing a good toy is not easy at all.
The market is filled with low-quality products, which, at best, quickly break down, and at worst - negatively affect the health and psyche of the child. Therefore, when choosing children's toys, you need to take into account a lot of parameters: smell, quality of seams, material, age restrictions, themes, etc. Today we will tell how to do it.

How to find a quality toy for the child: options

Material and safety

Some toys are made from low-quality materials and are covered with cheap toxic dyes. As a result, they cause an allergic reaction (rash, cough, tearing, fever, runny nose, etc.) or even poisoning in a baby. To avoid this, you need to buy toys in specialized stores and from reputable manufacturers (for example, from Lego, Fisher Price, Tiny Love, Smoby, Eichhorn or Connoisseur). So you can be sure that the toys have received the necessary quality certificates and do not pose a threat to the health of the child.

Important to remember:

1. For small children (0–3 years old) it is not recommended to choose soft toys - they quickly get dirty, accumulate dust and can cause allergies. In addition, according to GOST, the use of natural fur and leather is not allowed in such products. It is also important that the toy does not have a long nap, which is easily pulled out, as well as small parts that can be torn off and swallowed by the calf.

2. Wooden toys should be made of well-treated wood, without burrs and wormholes. Painted products should be coated with clear varnish.

3. Do not use glass in toys for children under three years of age. In products for older guys, this material can be used only when it is necessary for the functioning of the model.

4. For children under three years old, you should not choose toys made of paper, brushed rubber (for example, latex), porcelain and cardboard.

5. Details for prefabricated toys (for example, pyramids and building blocks) intended for children 0–3 years old should not be less than 3.2 cm.

6. Rattles for kids under three years old should not weigh more than 100 g.

7. Laser toys are not allowed. Laser radiation can damage the retina and impair the child’s vision.

Details

Details on the toy (nozzles, eyes, etc.) must be tightly attached to the product. It is necessary that the cub could not grasp them with his teeth, tear off and swallow. It is also important that the legs, ears and other parts of the body in soft stuffed toys could not be torn off - otherwise the child may be fed with filler.

Sound

Before buying, check the sound that the toy makes. He should not "cut" the ear or scare the baby.

Smell

If the product has a strong chemical smell, give up the purchase.Most likely, it contains toxic substances (formaldehyde, methanol, toluene, etc.).

Marking

When buying, pay attention to whether the packaging of the toy or the package insert contains instructions for use, warning labels and age restrictions. They should indicate:

1. At what age can the product be used;

2. Lifetime;

3. Rules for storage and care (if necessary);

4. Producing country;

5. Trademark (if the manufacturer has registered it);

6. Precautions (if necessary) and rules of use.

7. Warning labels. For example, a toy indicates that it can be used only in the presence of adults or only from a certain age;

8. Date of manufacture.

9. Remember, products of dubious quality do not have a similar labeling.

The form

It is important that all the protruding parts of the toy have “protection” of rubber, plastic, etc. For example, tips for arrows, bullets and other projectiles must have protective suction cups or rubber caps, and their diameter should be 2 cm or more. Also not allowed the presence of sharp ends, corners and edges, which can injure the child. The edges of metal parts, to which the child has access, must have a special polymer coating or be curved or twisted in the form of a spiral.

Choose children's toys depending on age

Toys for children 0–1 year

For the first months of life, the baby should buy hanging toys (giraffe, tiger cubs and other animals). With the help of the baby will learn to distinguish between shapes and colors, focus on objects, develop hearing, tactile reflexes and fine motor skills. Rattles and rattles-teethers can be purchased from four months, and from five months, toys that make sounds will be an excellent option.

At this age, it is not recommended to buy soft toys that will accumulate dust and dirt, and metal (heavy) products.

At 6–7 months, the baby will play with pleasure with rubber beeper, pyramids, cubes and musical toys, and at 8–9 months, he will show particular interest in toy boxes in which you need to insert objects of a certain shape.

In the future, the cub can choose toys on wheels, which can be pushed, balls that he will roll on the floor and other educational models.

Toys for children 1-3 years

At this age, the child can buy game developmental mats that facilitate the development of motor coordination, motor abilities, agility and fine motor skills. as well as wheelchair-toys wheelchair-tolokara, contributing to the development of muscles and the formation of walking skills. Music boxes, pyramid sorter, dolls, collapsible toys, cars will be a good option.

Toys for children 3-5 years

Children over three years old enjoy playing with soft toys and doing “adult” affairs - they play with toy household items (pots, pans), treat their toy friends with the help of “doctor recruitment” and “save the world”. They also collect constructors, paint and paint pictures, mold them from plasticine and dough.

Toys for children over 5 years old

At about five years old, children begin preparing for school. Therefore, they should choose books, realistic toys, puzzles, board games, research kits, puzzles, radio control toys, etc.

What else to look for before buying

1. When buying, pay attention to the appearance of the product. Psychologists report that scary toys can negatively affect the psyche of children, causing aggression and fear. In particular, this applies to kids 2-5 years. The emotions and impressions received by the cub at this age have a strong influence on its development. It is at this age that he knows the world and builds his behavior on the basis of what he saw and heard. But what will happen to him if he plays ugly monsters or mutants?

2. Unfortunately, the appearance of toys is not regulated in any way, and how they look depends only on the imagination of designers and engineers. Therefore, you should not hope for the good faith of manufacturers - even well-known companies have products that can adversely affect the psyche of the child. Rely only on your opinion and choose beautiful and kind toys that will be a source of joy for the baby.

3. Remember that it is impossible to “dump” a child with toys. If the baby has too many toy “friends,” the less value they have in his eyes. In addition, with such an abundance, the attention concentration of the child suffers.

4. With a limited number of toys, the baby is easier to interest in reading, drawing and modeling, as well as teach him to take care of his things and be careful.

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Attention! This material is the subjective opinion of the authors of the project and is not a guide to purchase.