Toy Play Analysis

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Using toys to play holds a critical role in the intellectual and social development of children. Children often use their daily playtime as a way to engage in the world around them. This play also helps them to have a better understanding of their surroundings. The most recent definition of play consists of five different criteria according to Pellegrini and Boyd (as cited in Toy Play in Infancy and Early Childhood: Normal Development and Special Considerations for Children with Disabilities, 1994). These criteria consist of attention to means, intrinsic motivation, nonliterality, active engagement, and freedom from external rules (Toy Play in Infancy and Early Childhood: Normal Development and Special Considerations for Children with Disabilities, …show more content…
Some of the main challenges that they face, according to Eileen Allen and Lynn Marotz, are the development of their motor skills, vocabulary and intellectual skills, and creativity (2000). Between the ages of 2 and 5 children are in the process of building their social skills and learning how to properly interact with others. According to Carol Sigelman and Elizabeth Rider (2015), this time span is often referred to as the play years. During the play years “we can detect two major changes in play: it becomes more social, and it becomes more imaginative” (Sigelman & Rider, 2015, p. 452). One type of play that fosters the growth of social and imagination skills is called fantasy play.
According to “Toy Play in Infancy and Early Childhood: Normal Development and Special Considerations for Children with Disabilities,” fantasy play serves as the primary form of play throughout the preschool years. Fantasy play, as described by Kathleen Kirby, is “play that assumes a certain role of pretending with objects” (1998). One of the many types of toys used during fantasy play is a dynamic
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Dynamic toys, on the one hand, give the child an opportunity to feel his/her own motions and their results, and, on the other hand, reflect the most important physical rules of the environment. While playing with such toys children are able to observe and perceive different concentrated types of movement. Children would also have an opportunity to observe not only quite evident features, but also those forces which are usually quite invisible e. g. inertia, friction, gravity, gliding (p. 2).
Dynamic toys allow children to explore their creativity and social interactions. One specific example of a dynamic toy is a train table play set. Train sets can be used to help the preschool age group to overcome their challenges of motor skills, social skills, vocabulary and intellectual skills, and

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