The Benefits of Wooden Toys for Children's Development

In an era of overstimulation and constant stimulation, toys that promote a quieter and more sustained play environment can be hugely beneficial to young children and their cognitive development.

Wooden toys

are a great option for parents looking for a healthier and more sustainable alternative to plastic toys. Not only are they environmentally friendly, but they also provide a range of health benefits for children. When children play with wooden toys, they are in control of the sounds they make, rather than hearing the toy itself.

This allows them to keep their minds clear while thinking about different scenarios or solving problems. Sensory play also supports language development and encourages children to communicate effectively with others during the game. Wooden toys are essential for the development of fine motor skills, which is the coordination of small muscles and the synchronization of hands and fingers with the eyes. Pinching, lifting and balancing wooden toy pieces exercises the nervous system and develops the parts of the brain responsible for dexterity and coordination.

In short, playing with wooden blocks prepares the child for more complex tasks later on, such as holding a pencil and tracing and other complex, coordinated movements. Sensory play creates interconnections in the nervous system and brain pathways, which develops the child's ability to carry out complex learning tasks. Wooden toys support a child's cognitive growth, improving their thinking, reasoning and logic processes. By grasping and lifting, balancing and stacking, combining and sorting wooden blocks and toys, children learn to draw logical conclusions and to develop an understanding of physical attributes and the rules of weight, dynamics, geometry and volume.

Research shows that children experience quieter and more advantageous quality play with wooden toys than with any other material. Some of the classic wooden toys, such as puzzles and building blocks, help children learn arithmetic, motor skills and problem solving. There are wooden blocks for younger children, wooden puzzles for toddlers, and even wooden board games for older children. Activities such as building towers with wooden blocks or passing a rope through a series of wooden beads require children to pay attention to distance and location.

Wooden toys don't have electronic parts or voice commands to tell your child what to do. With the advantage of being stronger, wooden toys tend to live longer than many plastic toys, which break or crack easily. Nowadays, wooden toys are manufactured according to research and methodologies on children's learning and development, based on principles developed by legendary child psychologists, scientists and pedagogues such as Montessori, Steiner and Dewey. While the initial cost is higher than that of plastic toys, the lifespan of a wooden toy is significantly longer than that of a plastic one.That's not to say that wooden toys shouldn't be cleaned regularly; however it's easier to keep them clean for longer.