On electronic toys
Sep. 17th, 2007 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Somebody offLJ posted about taking away the battery toys from her young child, and I commented agreeing with her, pointing out that these toys can't be really played with, they only entertain a kid.
And the thing is, I look at these toys, and I see a few things that irritate me or concern me.
1. I see a lot of toys where the fun is in the nonelectronic component, and it seems that the battery operatedness has just been gratuitously added on. This may not be specifically detrimental to a kid's development, but it's sure irritating to me. Like, at the SICM they have a ball pounder that lights up. Why not get a wooden one that doesn't light up? It's just as much fun.
2. I see, even more than that, a lot of toys where, if they were used properly, they'd be educational - but they're not. They're given to children too young to use them properly, and whose parents don't sit down and show them. Like, a toy that says the letters of the alphabet when you press them (in lieu of the adults doing the same thing) could be educational, if the kid doesn't just randomly hit the buttons six at a time and too fast to hear anything, and switch from the letter to the sound to the word option every five seconds. Naturally, of course, this is how kids use these toys.
3. And of course, I see people who buy "educational toys" and then leave those toys to do the educating. But they've just moved from one electronic babysitter to another. I keep on saying it - you don't learn to count (no matter what you may think of your two-year-old's abilities in this area!) from pressing buttons that recite the numbers for you in seven different languages. You learn to count by being given things to hold and count - like blocks, or cups, or dolls. And that goes for nearly everything.
Have I said this before? I must have.
And the thing is, I look at these toys, and I see a few things that irritate me or concern me.
1. I see a lot of toys where the fun is in the nonelectronic component, and it seems that the battery operatedness has just been gratuitously added on. This may not be specifically detrimental to a kid's development, but it's sure irritating to me. Like, at the SICM they have a ball pounder that lights up. Why not get a wooden one that doesn't light up? It's just as much fun.
2. I see, even more than that, a lot of toys where, if they were used properly, they'd be educational - but they're not. They're given to children too young to use them properly, and whose parents don't sit down and show them. Like, a toy that says the letters of the alphabet when you press them (in lieu of the adults doing the same thing) could be educational, if the kid doesn't just randomly hit the buttons six at a time and too fast to hear anything, and switch from the letter to the sound to the word option every five seconds. Naturally, of course, this is how kids use these toys.
3. And of course, I see people who buy "educational toys" and then leave those toys to do the educating. But they've just moved from one electronic babysitter to another. I keep on saying it - you don't learn to count (no matter what you may think of your two-year-old's abilities in this area!) from pressing buttons that recite the numbers for you in seven different languages. You learn to count by being given things to hold and count - like blocks, or cups, or dolls. And that goes for nearly everything.
Have I said this before? I must have.
