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The toy industry is worth billions every year, especially in pre-school education, where manufacturers target parents who want to fast track their children's intelligence. Some of the claims made by toy manufacturers in respect of children's learning have been controversial and also been costly to themselves. Only a few months ago, the Walt Disney Company offered refunds to all parents who bought their Einstein DVDS within the last five years after a row with a campaign group over its educational merits.
Educational Toys Are Waste of Money
Krister Svensson, Director of The International Toy Research Centre in Stockholm, believes that the actual concept of "educational" toys is flawed. He said: “ Toys don’t teach cognitive or motor skills; they just encourage children to practise them. You can make a complex toy that forces children to manipulate them in a certain way, but children can learn just as much from repeatedly taking the lid off a shoebox and putting it back on again.”
Early Child Development and Learning
In her book, Buy, Buy, Baby, journalist Susan Gregory Thomas argued that limited neuroscience investigation into the development of children led to a national focus on the early years. In 1997, the White House Conference on Early Child Development and Learning was convened by Hillary Clinton with high profile media coverage. Thomas argued that this played heavily on the argument that there was a critical window of learning encompassing the first three years of child development, which susbsequently fostered the huge educational pre-school market, feeding on parental angst.
First Three Years of Child Development Critical?
Sara Meads, a senior policy analyst at Education Sector, published a report called: "Million Dollar Babies: Why Infants Can't Be Hardwired for Success." She argued that recent neuroscience research indicated that the brain continues to grow and develop and is not reliant on the first three years of child development as suggested. She pointed to overstimulation making babies (and adults) anxious.
Interplay UK
When the argument of educational toys moves away from the controversial first years, then the benefits become more apparent. The best educational toys are not necessarily aimed at pre-school children. Interplay, a UK based firm, has become the British Toy Industry's leading supplier of Nature and Science products with its ant farms, bath bombs and constructive kits feeding off the never-ending curiosity of young minds. Many of their products actually support the National Curriculum too. Other companies such as BrightMinds and Logiblocs are UK Curriculum friendly too.