Toys: To Distract or Develop?
Penetrating into our consciousness, sound helps us to make the first step into dealing with the world around us- the beginning of communication. The development of the auditory system of a baby (and other senses), promotes further adaptation to their environment. However, there are side effects of excessive sound to a child and some toy manufacturers go to extremes to fill their products with low quality sound chips and very loud music. As a result, such a cacophony does at beat distract the child, but at worst can adversely affect the nervous system of a baby. In distracting the child, the toy will give the parents a break, but it should not be exploited.
As a point of difference, educational toys that do not have many sounds, but useful and educational functions instead, have no side effects. Squeaking or clicking a toy is equally as good at encouraging curiosity from a child and each product is designed to engage baby where their pressing, twisting or spinning the product, allows them to draw natural sounds themselves. Therefore your child will learn to recognize the connection between cause and effect. It is this combination of sound and unobtrusive design features that set “silent” educational toys apart as they strive to not only entertain but to enhance development.
In not focusing a child’s attention solely on melodies and loud music, such toy not only gives a huge variety of activity but also multilateral development for babies. If you decide to give your baby a toy with musical content, avoid products with lots of bass and sharp or high pitched sounds. To also enrich the aural experience of a baby create sounds using simple instruments. From the age of 9 months a baby will happily try to extract melodies with such toys as musical instrument range- the Maraca, Drum, Accordion, Xylophone and Trumpet.
When buying a toy for your child, always ask yourself whether you want to merely distract your baby or to encourage their development and education. In giving development the preference, choose toys for your child where they can create pleasing sounds themselves!
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