Toys play a positive role in your child’s development. Toy and education can be combined into something interesting which helps children to keep building important skills in life.
What types of toys should my child play?
Children play different types of toys based on their age. Infants enjoy playing interactive games while preschoolers enjoy playing with toys that are more physical oriented.
What are the benefits of toys?
There are many benefits for your child to play toys. It can develop your child’s cognitive skills. Cognitive skills include memorising, problem-solving, recognising colours, etc. Children can acquire these basic cognitive skills by playing with colourful physical toys such as jigsaw puzzles. Toys can also develop their language skills as there are some voice base robotic toys which young children tend to imitate the sound spoken by the toys. One of the most important aspect is that toys can allow your child to use their imaginations and think outside the box.
Toy safety tips
There are toys that can be dangerous to a child, especially if they are not age-appropriate. There are also toys that are made from potentially harmful materials. As a parent, you need to evaluate the toys by following some simple steps and make sure they do not present any safety issues or risks.
- Choose toys that are age-appropriate and complies with the Australia standard. You can check the toy labels before purchasing them
- Choose toys that are not made out of brittle plastic. Avoid buying toys with sharp edges, or parts which could be pulled off
- Choose toys that do not have choking hazard i.e. toys with small parts that can fit in your child’s mouth
- Store the toys at a lower level that your child can easily reach so they don’t need to climb to get them
- When buying a toy, always check and read labels carefully. Warning such as “not suitable for children under three” indicates the toy may or may not suitable for your child
There are several regulations and regulators governing the safety of toys in Australia, but the Australian Consumer Law managed by the ACCC is the most important of these. The ACCC may make specific safety or information requirements mandatory under the ACL and these requirements may reflect those in voluntary Standards or be different depending on the findings from a Regulatory Impact Statement. There are also many online resources available if you want to learn more about how standards from ISO and CEN help to establish the safety of toys for kids.