Melissa & Doug Animal Puzzle Set: Excellent for Language Development

September 24, 2020

We live in a technological world and technology is everywhere, including children’s toys. There are talking toys, baby laptops, children’s cellphones and blackberries, noisy toys, robotic toys………the list goes on. But are these actually the best ones for our children in terms of developing their speech and language skills? It turns out the answer is a resounding “no”. Recent research out of Northern Arizona University compared both parent language and child language during play with traditional toys, books and electronic toys. The results showed that electronic toys result in less language and a poorer quality of language for both the parents and children. Traditional toys and books are simply better! The researchers go so far as to discourage using electronic toys with children. Check out this article in JAMA Pediatrics.

As a parent and a speech-language pathologist, I have never been drawn to noisy electronic toys. I have an affinity for books and good old-fashioned toys, both of which I use in my therapy. Of course I still use games like Pop-Up Pirate and Hungry Hippos, but these are not really high tech! The Melissa & Doug puzzle set pictured here is my latest addition to my therapy stash of traditional toys, and my young toddler clients love it! The possibilities for language and speech development are endless, and it can be used in so many different ways for a variety of communication goals.

One of the reasons I think traditional toys may be better, is that there is so much more to say about them, whereas electronic toys do the talking for you. Or due to the noise other toys make, there is no need for either the parent or child to talk. Plus traditional toys provide so many more options for developing creative pretend play, also linked to language development. So pull out those old-fashioned, traditional toys, play with your child, and watch your child’s language bloom!

Thanks for reading , happy playing and happy spring!

Cindy McCallum, M.Sc., R-SLP, SLP-C, CCC-SLP

Registered Speech-Language Pathologist

Founder, WiseOwlSeech

Sources:

bit.ly/talking-toys-study

Basic, Non-Electronic Toys May be Better for Parent-Toddler Communication