The Affect That Scripted Toys and Interactions Have on Child Development Kethry Gerth Westview High School Kethry Gerth Per: 3 / 4 Senior Inq The Effects of Scripted Toys and Interactions Have on Child Development Everyone has memories of action figures and Barbie dolls from their childhood. From the moment we are born we are bombarded with different stimulants that are intended to help us grow and develop. Piaget theorized that children go through different stages of development, and these stages are crucial for later on in life. One of the repeated themes that shows up in each stage is the development of imagination and growth of self thinking. Piaget theorized that the cognitive development processes was a mix of biological maturation and the environmental experience a child receives. Different object are intended to stimulate different parts of a child’s mind. Most children have had books where you had to match the sound with a specific animal or the books that had touch and feel or scratch and sniff. All of these books and toys were intended to heighten children senses. When children use all of their senses while at play they tend to develop faster and better. As a children grow up they begin to play with action figures and Barbie dolls, these toys are often referred to as scripted toys and manipulative materials. A lot of these toys are based off movies or TV shows. Little girls will watch Frozen and then get barbies that look like the
Toys can influence a child’s behavior, and his or her identity. Children are given toys that demonstrate different significance about aggression, different genders and how to interact with each other. An example would be guns and swords; these are geared toward boys, and endorse fighting, and battling In retrospect, guns and swords can help children in developing
Jean Piaget developed his theory of cognitive development to show how humans develop intelligence. The first stage in Piaget’s theory is the sensorimotor period which lasts from birth to around the age of two. In this stage infants begin to develop their intelligence by interacting with the world around them. One of the primary way infants interact with the world is though natural reflexes, which exist cross-cultural, and by physically and visually observing the world around them. In the film all the infants are shown growing and learning from what are very different environments, but each child is still learning the same lessons through their environment. One moment in the film this is shown is when the infants are playing with toys, specifically a crib mobile. While not every child has a crib or a mobile as we think of one in western culture, the film cuts between each child playing with some form of toy that either hangs above their sleeping area or is held by a parent or sibling. Another part of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage is the development of habits. The film shows these habits forming in all the infants in simple ways, Panijao reaching for something or Hattie reaching for a finger to place in her mouth. The film shows that despite the infants developing in different environments and cultures they still grow and learn in much
While closely observing Zoe’s cognitive skills she showed evidence of Piaget’s preoperational stage. Zoe’s cognitive development is shown through her make-believe play. “Piaget believed that through pretending, young children practice and strengthen newly acquired representational schemes.” (Berk, 2007, P 227). When Zoe plays with her play dough she pretend that she is making pizza. She begins by taking a handful of play dough and placing it on the table, she then get a small rolling pin to roll the play dough out flat. Once the play dough is rolled out completely flat she uses little Lego’s to represent the pepperoni that tops most pizzas. Next she takes the finished pizza and puts it on the side of the table and
Mildred Parten and Jean Piaget are two theorists that have had great influences on the way we understand children. Piaget constructed the idea that a person’s thinking passes through four stages and as the person grows, their way of thinking changes thus entering a different stage. He emphasized mostly the preoperational stage, which is for ages two to seven years old. In this stage children are seen as illogical thinkers but they do engage in make-believe games by using objects for purposes other than their actual intended use. Between the ages of four and seven, they still do not think logically but they become interested in games that have rules, structure, and social interaction. Unlike Jean Piaget, Mildred Parten did not see types of
The types of toys children play with can affect how they develop. Toys can help or hinder a child’s development in intelligence, social skills and personality. Certain characteristics may be genetically entwined in a human being, but some characteristics and behaviors can be learned, from parents, surroundings, and the toys with which a youngster plays. Elise Moore, author of “How Do Toys Aid Development”, stated “if play is the work of the child, toys are the child’s tools” (Moore, 2).
In order to create play, they must represent these activities mentally and translate them into actions. While the thinking of preoperational children is more advanced, Piaget emphasizes that children at this stage of cognitive development are still immature and are limited by egocentrism. They are all about self and perceive the world based on their own assumptions and experiences, they have difficulty relating to differences such as lighter, smaller, and softer.
Most of the criticism of Piaget’s work is in regards to his research methods. A major source of his inspiration for the theory was based on his observations of his own children. And because of this small sample group, people believe that it is difficult and incorrect to generalise his findings to a larger population. Similarly, many psychologists believe that Piaget underestimated the age which children could accomplish certain tasks and that sometimes children understand a concept before they are able to demonstrate their understanding of it. For example, children in the Sensorimotor stage may not search for a hidden object because their motor skills are not developed, rather than because they lack object permanence. This has been supported by evidence from Bower & Wishart (1972). They found that the way that an object is made to disappear influences the child’s response. As well as this, Piaget’s theory has been said to overestimate that every child and adult reaches the formal operational stage of knowledge development. Dasen (1994) claims that only a third of adults ever reach this stage.
Piaget believed everyone had to go through each stage of development. Although some kids may show characteristics of more than one stage at a time, he was certain that cognitive development always followed the sequence of the stages, stages cannot be skipped, and each stage is marked by new intellectual abilities and more complex understandings of the world. With this experiment I will prove how each toy can improve, or dismantle each stage for children. While in the toy store I watched how kids were interacting with one another, and how they handled some of the toys. Having, a niece, nephew, and Godson who are infants it was easier to find
Piaget believe that children are active thinkers. He recognized that the mind develops through a series of irreversible stages. He also acknowledged that a child’s maturing brain builds schemas that are constantly assimilating and accommodating to the world around them. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is split into four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The sensorimotor stage occurs from birth to nearly two years of age. At this stage, infants learn about the world around them by sensing it and interacting within it. It is also in this stage that the idea of object permanence develops, that is, the awareness that things continue to exist even when they are not being observed. In my personal life, I am certain that in this stage of development I would have enjoyed peek-a-boo, because if I didn’t see it, to my developing mind, it wasn’t there at all. The second stage, preoperational, lasts from two years of age to seven years of
Toys can be remarkably important aspects of a child’s growth. They truly do help shape us into how we function as adults. “Research has shown that children’s learning mainly happens through play – and what else is a toy for but to play? When children play with toys, they learn and develop various skills
Toys play a major role in socializing young kinds into “appropriate” gender roles. The first obvious characteristic that separates toys for boys and toys for girls,
Girls liked playing with toy dolls that they could make say and do what ever they wanted, and they could live in a fantasy world with their friends. Boys liked playing with their toy trucks and tools because it was fun to run things over and play with toys in the dirt, or with the tools, they act like they could actually be like older boys or their fathers and build stuff. Neither one of the toys that the boys played with seemed that it would scar them for life. With Barbie they more and more have made her a more positive role model by having her say encouraging things. So when it comes down to it, how a young boy plays with his toys is the same as how a young girl plays with her Barbie’s because they both just want to have fun with a toy, and they can make it do whatever they wanted. Young children could have control over something which both genders liked to do.
Banerjee and Lintern (2000) examined the salience of children’s preference for toys in private and public settings. Their findings indicate that younger children hold more rigid ideas of what kinds of toys their gender should be playing with, and that children would
“Some toys have a powerful influence on children’s thinking, interaction with peers, and creative expression.” (Prof. Trawick-Smith) The environment around a child has an incredible impact on their development. From a home setting, to a park setting to a school setting a child is constantly learning. Many studies have been done to determine how individual toys can affect a child because it is important for parents and educators to be informed. Even though many adults have their own idea of what is a good instrument for their child's growth, research and test can help point the way.
The first stage of Piaget’s development theory is the sensorimotor stage which takes place in children most commonly 0 to 2 years old. In this stage, thought is developed through direct physical interactions with the environment. Three major cognitive leaps in this stage are the development of early schemes, the development of goal-oriented behavior, and the development of object permanence. During the early stages, infants are only aware of what is immediately in front of them. They focus on what they