The crucial aspects of human development are highly dependant on the ways toddlers aged between 1-3 are educated at home or kindergarten. During this timeframe, developmental aspects of a child are generally divided into the physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional milestones that shape his/her perception of the environment. In order to secure the stability of such development, there exists a variety of educational tools, e.g., toys, games, books, and videos, specifically focused on one of the three aspects. In terms of this paper, three examples of such tools will be analyzed on the subject of their interactivity, simulation, and development promotion.
The study sample includes a book aimed at developing toddlers’ cognitive skills and gross motor behavior, a go-get interactive game, and a video on learning colors with Crayons’ help. Press here, a book written by Hervé Tullet is focused explicitly on toddlers’ perception of object identification and gross motor behavior development by creating a task on each page of a book (Tullet, 2011). This tool is extremely appropriate for the children’s development, as researchers claim early motor development to be crucial in terms of the further kids’ cognitive performance throughout adolescence (Marrus et al., 2018). While being stimulating for the toddlers, the interactive illustrated book does not imply direct interaction with caregivers unless the kid intends to receive some help or support.
Another example of developing tools for toddlers includes performing interactive games to encourage toddlers’ first steps and language development. The game, called Go-Get, implies close social interaction with caregivers, as they are to give their children tasks to get a certain item around them. The game itself stimulates kids to learn new words by establishing a certain visual image corresponding to the lexical notion. Furthermore, while getting the objects caregivers to ask for, toddlers practice their walking and gross motor behavior skills.
Finally, the last evaluation item concerns an educational video aimed at toddlers’ stimulation to learn how to differentiate colors. In the very video, the emphasis is placed on the kids’ potential ability to recognize major colors of the rainbow through a variety of activities highlighted (Genevieve’s Playhouse, 2019). First of all, a toddler is engaged in the process by opening some colorful surprises inside of each Crayon while the author creates simple word combinations and phrases related to an object of a specific color. Such activity is, by all means, stimulating for the kids to develop their cognitive skills. When it comes to promoting social interaction with caregivers, educational tools like YouTube videos imply parents’ supervision in order for the kid to grasp the information properly. Otherwise, the desired outcome of the learning process will be minor.
Based on the following evaluation, it might be concluded that the current stages of toddlers’ learning development are quite diverse yet too generic in terms of learning complexity. All of the games and educational tools analyzed are primarily based on the average assumptions of the social, physical, and cognitive abilities of a toddler. Since there now exists a variety of development opportunities for kids, the specific emphasis should now be placed on embracing the diversity and complexity of their capabilities at this age frame. Hence, the future implications of the following evaluations should concern the application of basic theoretical approaches to the kids’ development to the ones that require a different perspective on the learning process.
References
Genevieve’s Playhouse – Toy Learning for Kids. (2019). Best learning video for toddlers to learn colors with Crayon surprises.
Marrus, N., Eggebrecht, A. T., Todorov, A., Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Cole, L., … & Emerson, R. W. (2018). Walking, gross motor development, and brain functional connectivity in infants and toddlers. Cerebral Cortex, 28(2), 750-763.
Tullet, H. (2011). Press here. Allen & Unwin.