Importance of Toys

Importance of Toys

Section I

1. A) Toys are products of the imagination that are capable of stimulating a child’s imagination. For example, a child may fold a piece of paper into a plane and then run around the house, flying it. As a creator, the child has produced a toy from his or her imagination of a plane. However, the child’s imagination has been stimulated by the toy, and this drives the child to run around the house flying the folded piece of paper. The ability of the child to create a toy from a piece of paper is stimulated by the child’s need to have an item to play with. While playing, toys are able to stimulate a child’s ability to become creative and imaginative to enjoy their playtime. For example, a child may imagine that he or she is a doctor when playing with a toy stethoscope that is sold in hospitals. To make their playtime even more memorable, a child incorporates a toy with his or her fun activity to make it more exciting and engaging. Toys are able to stimulate the creative nature of a child since they offer a variety of ways for them to be used as well as different games for the child to be playing. Toys also allow for parents to interact with their children which aids in strengthening the relationship. Parents can use the toys they have bought for their children to engage them in different playing scenarios that help improve their relationship. Through the use of toys, the parent may become imaginative and play a game of laser tag with the child using a toy gun. Toys allowed the child as well as the parent to come up with a number of ways to improve the child’s playtime. Thus, it is true that toys stimulants for the imaging capabilities of children.

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Section II

1. A) Toys are used to reflect the lives of adults through the eyes of a child and can be used to reflect the lives of people in society. Also, toys can be used to show the child’s future role in society. Toys provide a child with the knowledge of the real world with items they can play with, which helps them relate to the real world. For example, playing with a plane helps a child acknowledge the presence of a pilot which may help the child aspire to become a pilot in the future. Toys could also be used to show the social status of the child’s family. For example, a child with many toys could identify as being from a rich family while a child from a low-income family will have fewer toys. The behaviour of the two children could also be viewed through their ability to share their toys. Children from a rich family tend to be possessive with their toys while children from a lower social class share their toys. Toys play an integral role in identifying social change and can be used to empower or inspire people to make a positive change in society. Barbie dolls showed that women were able to take on various roles in society and not the traditional roles that were gendered. In addition to this, toys of black athletes and comic book superheroes helped to reflect that the issue of race and prejudice was changing and the presence of people of colour in entertainment and sports had been acknowledged.

Over the years, transportation toys like cars, planes, motorcycles and trains have become popular and sell better than other toys. For starters, these toys allow children to develop their motor skills. By racing a toy car or flying a plane, children are able to move around and exercise, which is good for their physical health and general well-being. Transportation toys allow children to become active, which increases their physical abilities. Another reason they are popular is that they offer the children an avenue for them to explore their creativity and imagination. Playing with trains allow the children to imagine themselves as train conductors while driving the car they can imagine themselves as racers. The toys also allow the children to socialize and interact with other children as they play with the transportation toys. The children race with each other, whether by flying or driving cars or trains. This aspect of socializing plays an important role in developing skills that make them competitive with each other. As they compete through racing, they become fast. In addition to this, the children are able to come up with strategies to help them win against their opponents.

Section III

1. B) Toys are made gendered by toymakers by identifying them or incorporating them with items that are used to identify masculinity and femininity in society. These items include colour, shape and design. Colour has been used to relate different genders as well as the ideology of masculinity and feminine. Thus, toymakers use colour to shape the type of toy meant for boys or girls. For example, pink toys will appeal more to girls than boys because the colour pink is associated with femininity. Toymakers also use design to help shape the preference of the toy based on gender. Boys are more likely to play with toys that are designed like vehicles than girls. Whereas girls will play with toys that look like dolls such as a barbie doll. The design of the toy shapes the perception of gender in children, and this makes toys to become gendered since they are geared at identifying with specific genders.

Apart from providing entertainment for children, toys help children develop their cognitive and motor skills as they play with the toys. Children are able to understand how they should act through playing with toys. Good behaviour and morals are inculcated within children as they continue to play with toys as well as play with each other. Toys are made to help children develop social skills by playing with others. As they interact and share toys, children can understand the importance of sharing as well as caring for each other. As a result, this understanding helps them become better people as they grow. Toys deliver a subtle message to children that they should share their toys with their friends.

A gender-neutral toy is a toy that is not gendered sensitive and children from both genders can play with it. An example of a gender-neutral toy would be a miniaturized kitchen-set toy that allows children to exercise their fantasy of cooking or baking. The toy would include a set of items found in the kitchen like an oven, microwave, pots, plates and also a rolling pin. The toy would appeal to both genders because cooking and baking are activities that traverse gender, and thus, many children can play with the toy.