04. September 2008
Interview with an expert on educational toys
Sneezing dinos, pink Game Boys, talking pandas… educational and multimedia toys were the stars of the show at the Nuremberg toy fair. But do they really educate? Dr Nicole Becker gives the answers.
YO- YO: Dr Becker, what do you think of educational toys? Don't they risk losing the carefree play element?
DR. NICOLE BECKER: Many parents, listening to the current debate about the effectiveness of state schools, worry that their children aren´t learning enough there. I think educational toys are fine so long as they do something worthwhile and children enjoy them. Because if children enjoy doing something, they´ll certainly be carefree about it.
But it often goes further than that: childminders talking to babies in English, toddlers being made to play alphabet games, etc.
That´s all to do with worried parents who are scared that their kids might miss out on something. We´re always talking about the "knowledge society" and harping on about the importance of brainwork and qualifications if you want to get on in the world. But it´s no use confronting children with educational content before they have the cognitive maturity to process it. A one-year-old has quite enough to do with his own development in other ways. He can´t cope with alphabet letters yet.
Should parents worry if a child can't yet cope with toys that are said to be suitable for his age group?
No. People are not machines that work according to a prearranged schedule. Every individual has to develop at his own pace. If parents regularly take account of pediatric examinations and these don´t find anything that suggests their child´s development is seriously behindhand, there´s no need to worry.
Kids love Nintendo Wii and iPods. What do you think of this particular high-tech trend?
I don´t think that kind of game is automatically a bad thing. It all depends how much it´s used. Some kids have a good feel for when it´s time to leave the Game Boy for a bit and go and socialize, other kids don´t. It´s up to parents and caregivers to set limits.
Parents often don't share their children's preferences. Adults like wooden toys; kids like laser swords, monsters and plastic zombies. Is all this "junk" bad for kids?
Adults have different aesthetic preferences and we often forget that we used to like garish colors more than nice natural pastels. I think laser swords and plastic monsters are popular because they take you outside the world of the everyday. For example, children usually go through a stage where they like to imagine they´re all-powerful. Toys also need to look different to what you already know. We really ought to find out what it looks like from the child´s point of view! Only then will we really know whether these toys – which look so weird to adults – are really harmful to children.
Have drawing, making things and claymodeling had their day?
No, not at all. These pastimes will be around for years to come. They have a big motor element – the really basic practical stuff – and give kids space for their own imagination and creativity.
Just why is play so important?
It´s the way kids discover their world. It develops essential cognitive and motor skills. Adults may think it´s just a game; for kids it has to be their natural way of accessing the world. It helps them develop and probe their own limits.
Are people playing less and less?
No, on the contrary. The more leisure a society has, the more room for play. That applies to adults as well as kids. And I don´t agree with what some people were saying in the 1980s, that all the new media are destroying childhood. Play is changing, that whole area of life is broadening, and childhood is changing along with it. But all that means is that kids play in a different way and with different things.
Contact to Dr. Becker:
www.erziehungswissenschaft.uni-tuebingen.de
