Say "No!" to Plastic: Choosing Mind-Boosting Toys for Children

This holiday season, pressure from marketers and commercials might make parents cave to "buy buy buy!" the latest toys and gadgets for their children. But there are other avenues for gift-giving that enhance the creative, intelligent, emotional, and spiritual development of children, setting them up for a smooth transition to adulthood and beyond.

As a psychologist, I spend the majority of my time retraining people's bad behavior, much of which arises out of the skills missed in childhood. Most of these skills—such as in coping, language and communication, emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and socialization—are acquired through children’s play. 

Here is a litmus test to guide consumers on purchases and activities that enhance creativity and intelligence and promote a healthy psyche:

1.  The objects of play must be simple and safe, while allowing for imagination to flourish, freedom of movement, and range of complexity. 

The colors, materials, textures, size, and shape of the play object are just as important. The more distant the toy is from everyday "nature," the less value it has in play. Simple, natural materials with earth tones and earthy materials are all characteristics that develop brain, eye-hand coordination, heart, imagination, and joy of expression. (These are all skills that are necessary when boredom, confusion, or depression sets in.)

In his book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, author Robert Fulghum defines the need for simplicity in this complex world. In my opinion, the purpose of toys is to develop creative imagination and intuition, not to entertain. 

After all of the boxes have been opened during holiday gift-giving, the greatest joy for young children is playing in the empty boxes. This is because large empty boxes enable children to explore the "child" world, and bring them tremendous joy (next to using the couch pillows as forts and hiding places). In a box, a child can be exploring a cave, flying a plane, driving a car, or just finding a sense of peace and silence from our hectic world. 

Empty boxes are very, very important!

2. The best types of dolls are those that allow the child to "fill in the blanks."  

Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Waldorf Schools, explains that dolls made of cloth, with thread for eyes, nose, and mouth, allow a child more freedom and creativity of expression. Interchangeable clothing made of soft cotton (not synthetic materials) also has a variety of benefits. This type of clothing allows children to learn to button, snap, tie, and remove clothing that will later be translated into their own dressing skills. The textures of cloth enable children to develop their sense of "feeling" textures, something that plastic does not promote. 

Dolls of an animal nature are preferable to human in the early years because children until the age of eight relate to animals. Paper dolls for older children are excellent as well. By allowing kids to make personal accessories and clothing, paper and cloth dolls can open a world of joy, creativity, and skills to play. In contrast, dolls like Barbie, Ken, and GI Joe are cold, hard plastic with plastic accessories and inappropriate body dimensions, and they subliminally represent a distorted value system that children replicate in play and then life.

3.  The child’s room must be a source of peace and comfort. 

If the room is filled with bright colors, televisions, computers, and video games, there is little peace for the child’s mind to integrate information, rest, and assimilate—much less sleep. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright recognized that peaceful, earthy environments are more conducive to health, with an emphasis on pastels and earth tones, curved shapes, and child-sized furnishings and decor that enable a child to get in touch with the inner self.

The harsh (psychedelic) colors, bright or fluorescent lights, computer-generated textures, and cluttered spaces of today’s world do not allow the eye, senses, brain, and heart to develop fully. Rooms that display these harsh features overstimulate the retina and do not send proper signals to the brain. The books Whole Parent/Whole Child by Polly Berrien Berends and Open Connections: The Other Basics by Susan D. Shilcock and Peter A. Bergson offer additional suggestions for organizing a child’s space.

4.  Babies and young children should be in regular sight of and contact with loved ones. 

According to the latest research, and to texts such as Thomas Verny's The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, pre-birth babies have a more acute awareness of their environment than was previously considered. Because babies recognize the faces of their parents and other loved ones within the first weeks of life, a mobile in the child’s crib with faces of loved ones can reinforce a safe and secure environment while also promoting hand-eye coordination. To provide added comfort, record the voices of loved ones to play for the child along with soft music as the mobile spins.