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Austin Babies
Plastic Blinking, Loud Toys vs. Wooden?
Hi- serial lurker here. I love this board (everyone is so normal and nice!) but hardly ever post.
My 11 month old has been playing with plastic toys (FB, vTech, etc.) since the beginning and husband and I are starting to wonder if it giving him ADD (this is said with irony but you get my drift). I have zero attention span but my husband is an computer engineer so obviously he doesn't have a problem. I'm hoping his side wins out but in the meantime, we are wondering if the constant lights and sounds are too much. It doesn't seem like these toys encourage a lot of cognitive skill.
I'd love to hear thoughts on this. Are we over thinking this whole thing?
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Re: Plastic Blinking, Loud Toys vs. Wooden?
I'm a huge fan of non-sound/light toys (esp wooden toys). I think they encourage attention span, problem solving, allow the child to listen to their inner voice (the talking you do to yourself as you're figuring something out, exploring something new). Did a lot of reading research about this in grad school, which is kind of what convinced me. We have very few noise-making toys in our house and they were all gifts. This is the same reason I don't have the TV going all the time, either. Just my opinion
When she was really young, we focused heavily on the wood toys. Now that she's gotten older, she's got a mixture. She usually goes for books and the non noisy toys anyway (except for her prized Buzz Lightyear), so I don't go out of my way to discourage people from giving them to her.
I attribute part of that to her going to daycare every day. They don't have many things that make noise, so she is used to things that are fairly quiet.
She does get to watch TV though on a limited basis. I like the background noise, and she rarely watches it unless it's something she wants to see in particular. It's not a novelty for her, so she doesn't pay it much attention.
Ditto this. My preference has always been to give non-noise-making toys but I never intentionally discarded or withheld toys that had lights/sounds. She definitely moves in phases - some days she won't put her toy laptop down but other days she is none to happy to play with blocks all day.
IMO, it - as with all things parenting-related - is really up to your personal preference and what you are comfortable with in regards to your specific child.
Kate only has 2 toys that make noise, both were gifts. She likes Violet (Leapfrog Dog) ok, but the batteries ran out and it doesn't seem to have made any difference to her. She got a Little People van thing that sings a super annoying song, but honestly, she hardly ever plays with it. Our big exception to the "no batteries" rule was our jumparoo. When we are at playdates, she does initially gravitate to the plastic light-up toys (which is fine with me) but usually ends up playing with blocks or trains and such.
We did only wooden toys for a long time, but I gave up shortly after her 1st birthday. How could I resist legos?
We still buy wooden when it's an option though. We are mostly interested in open ended toys, ones that can be used in a variety of ways and promote creativity. Big favorites at our house are blocks, legos, playdoh, books, and her play kitchen. I think we have too many toys, but I've noticed that we have far fewer than a lot of people, specifically my nieces and nephews. This is an intentional choice. I would rather buy one expensive high quality wooden toy than 10 cheaper plastic toys. We shop at Kaledoscope or Terra Toys rather than Toys R Us.
I don't know how much is nature vs nurture, but she is quite independent and has enjoyed playing quietly by herself from a young age. This makes it easy for us to do no TV too. Now that's she 2 1/2, we have an occasional family movie night (maybe once a month? DH and I got a TV for Christmas.), but there's no TV in our living room.
Um ok. My husband is a computer engineer and has ADD. This sentence doesn't make sense.
In my opinion, the constant lights and sounds are too much because they're annoying. All electronic toys (all of them have been gifts, btw) have their batteries taken out in my house. I've found my kids, especially around your child's age, enjoyed things like boxes, blocks, paper towel roll tubes, things they can hammer, etc. to fancy flashy light toys.
I don't think flashing lights and sound from toys is going to cause a child to develop ADD.
Sorry, meant that he has an intense ability to focus and I sure don't (was I distracted while writing that- ha!)
Actually, I was diagnosed with ADD so I can crack jokes about myself and I don't think they are going to cause ADD either. I was kidding, but perhaps in poor form.