WRITTEN BY SALLY HILLS-DAVIS, CHILDRENS OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST AND KIRSTY BROCKLEHURST, CHILDRENS PHYSIOTHERAPIST
As our parents have often told us, there was a time when children had only one or two toys and just a few favorite games and that was all. Children now may have access to so many more toys.
Toys are important tools to help children develop. Toys are educational and help children to improve imagination, creativity and focus. They help to develop large and small movements, such as dexterity, eye hand co-ordinations and precision.
TV advertising can bombard you and your child with the want for must have toys and can make children want and expect more in their toy cupboard. Nowadays, birthdays and festive holidays can see children being bought so many toys by relatives, that they can get overwhelmed by the amount of toys.
Rotating toys can benefit your children as well as your home. Having toys put away and getting out a box of toys to be enjoyed for a certain amount of time, daily or weekly, can reap some benefits. The idea is to choose a selection of toys for, or with your child to play with, with the rest of the toys put away for another time.
Trying rotating toys at home is worth the investment of time. If you sit and watch your child with a room full of toys the chances are that they will flit from one thing to another. With a smaller number of toys, they may flit but more likely than not, they will come back to certain toys to play with.
If you give it a go, please let us know if you find it successful or not. We would love to hear!