So what exactly are tech toys? And how will they help or hinder your child’s development? Tech
Tech Toys are exactly what they sound like: toys that have partial or full technological components? Game boys, cars that toddlers can drive, electronic puppies and the like. However recently, the trend has the most popular children’s tech toy aisles stocked with virtual reality technologies, drones of a types, shapes, and sizes, and toys that your child can code themselves.
But does playing with these toys do anything beneficial for your child?
Here’s what to look out for:
- Open-Ended Tech Toys
This means the toys you choose are not based on a single story line (a particular movie or cartoon your child likes, for example). This influences children to simulate the exact story line they learned while viewing the movie or cartoon rather than to develop their own scripts. This limits their own creativity and mental flexibility as well as lessens opportunities they have to explore and work through their own challenges, curiosities, and thoughts through play. Opportunities to do just this is what makes play so value for children’s healthy development.
2. Tech Toys with Immediate Feedback and Reference
So you really want your child to have 21st Century Skills and have early exposure to coding? Before you buy that caterpillar you might want to make sure that your child’s work and thought process is stored in a way that makes each step they took to code an action available to them. This way, when something goes awry in their design they can actually solution-seek rather than use guess-work to get their desired outcome. This will allow them to purposefully redesign, learn from their mistakes, and not be afraid to make more mistakes in the future – a critical skill that will assist them in becoming the great innovator you dream they will one day be.
3. The Power of the Parent
Don’t ever forget how important your presence is as a parent. You might see your child perfectly content to play with their device alone, but your child learns a lot more when you are there to explore with them and interpret any information that may be confusing. This doesn’t mean you should explore for your child, simply that you remain attentive. Even if you don’t directly teach your child something while engaging with a tech toy, remaining present and attentive fosters positive parent-child interactions which hold influence in other spheres of children’s lives. Children with positive and secure parental attachment reap benefits both academically and socially. Every interaction matters.
Check out these worthwhile tech toys and begin with them if you’re looking for a starting place:
This awesome tech toy allows children to get creative and build whatever they want including a function of their choice with electronic building blocks. While there are 16 close-ended designs, once your child figures out what functions are available they can go on to create their own new inventions. Check out the website for more details: https://shop.littlebits.cc/products/gizmos-and-gadgets-kit-2nd-edition
This Tech Toy allows for the integration of hands-on play and technology as well as for interactive play with others and coding your child can see! Check out the website here: https://www.playosmo.com/en/
Dash and Dot Coding Robots also provide trackable, visible coding! Check them out here: http://bit.ly/2rgofMM
Tech Talk Kids 