Playing is an essential part of childhood. It allows children to explore, discover and learn about new things. More importantly, it helps kids develop their physical, mental and social skills. This makes playing a crucial part of a child's normal growth and development.

Melissa Doug

And with playing comes toys. Toys make playing more fun and enjoyable for kids especially for toddlers. Parents often go out of their way to choose and purchase the best toys their money can buy. As there are a lot of different sorts of toys to choose from, others are known to be useful and more stimulating than others. Not only do some of these toys function as good play things, they also help motivate fast learning and promote good response skills. Popularly branded ones are usually promoted better than others and are also relatively more expensive. Nevertheless, these branded toys are also known to be safer and more durable than unbranded or generic ones.

Melissa Doug

This is not to say that only branded ones are worthy of your child's attention and use. There are also simple yet very useful toys that need not be expensive. If you are a parent who intends to buy toys for your kid, it will indeed be worthwhile for you get yourself acquainted with information about the proper way to choose toddler toys and not just pick any toy that catches your child's fancy.

Is it age appropriate? As kids in the toddler age of 1-3 years old are in the stage of rapid mental and physical development, parents should be mindful of the toys that they let their kids play with. The good and branded ones usually have specific tags that inform the parent if the toy is indeed appropriate for a child his or her age.

Does it aid in the development of the motor skills? Developmental toys used to serve as tools for doctors to determine a child's mental and psychological well-being during the toddler age. Most of these types of toys are now available in the market and carried by most of the well-known brands of toys. Toys that help develop a child's motor skills are those that usually encourage sitting, standing, walking or even just holding out things. Examples of these are walkers that also turn into riders, soft blocks, hoops and pole toys.

Does it help your child develop mental skills? Most models found and offered by different brands of toys in the toy store have both audio and visual features through various lights and sounds. Many now offer toys with ABCs and 123 recordings while others feature popular nursery rhymes as sounds. A lot of these toys also come with matching glittery and colourful lights that help catch the toddler's short attention.

Some toys also present different colours and shapes. These advance toddler toys are designed to help your kid to easily memorize the songs and recordings as well as to teach your child how to identify and distinguish one colour or shape from another.

Toddler Toys - Selecting the Right One

Melissa Doug