In regards to cognitive and social skill building, what are some of the worst toys for young children? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Ian McCullough, Former LeapFrog Team Member + Several Toy Startups, on Quora:
I’ve got 15 years of experience in children’s toys and video games. My professional opinion on the worst toys for cognitive and social skill building is toy weapons. Most specifically guns and swords.
If it is personally important to you to have your child comfortable with guns or swords, I strongly recommend that you look to weapons for sport, not play. There are some key differences here. Sports typically involve training in safety, a sense of discipline, and a development of skill. I can and do extoll the virtues of freeform imaginative play, but toy weapons – absent some informed understanding and appreciation of the real thing – tap into a different kind of destructive fantasy.
If your kid picks up an interest in guns, find a local gun club or shooting range and find out about their kids’ programs. If your kid is interested in swords or other weapons, find a martial arts program or a fencing school. If your kid is on a bows & arrows streak, look around for a nearby archery range. I think a fair rule of thumb here is that if you as a parent never intend to expose your kid to the proper way of using a real weapon, you probably shouldn’t give them a toy version of the same type of weapon.*
I feel, however, that I also ought to offer a more research-informed answer to this question. The obvious one there is any screen-based toy that is purely used for passive viewing of content by the child on their own. There’s plenty of material out there that you can read about the problems of American children spending far too much time passively watching screens. I’d be a mighty hypocrite as a parent (and as a professional), though, if I advised never using tablets and televisions. If I can buy myself 20 or 30 minutes to get a few household chores or work tasks done… or buy myself an hour or two of time to myself on a weekend morning, then I’m putting a kid-appropriate television show or movie on the living room TV and putting my four year old on the couch.
My single most practical and most realistic piece of advice there is to keep any screen engagement – whether with passive viewing or interactive gameplay – in public parts of the house. Don’t have your kids constantly retreat to their rooms with a tablet or laptop and do not put a television in your kids room. Beyond that, have a grasp on what they’re viewing/engaging with, try to watch/play with your kids when you can, and redirect them to read a book instead whenever possible.
*One more thing about toy weapons: under no circumstances should you give your kids a toy weapon that could be remotely misconstrued for the real thing. If they take their toy to school, that could lead to a serious phone-call-from-the-principal problem. If they're playing in the yard or at a park and a passing motorist doesn't know what they're seeing, that could lead to a serious phone-call-to-the-police problem. If a police officer shows up and perceives that your child might pose a threat… then that's an entirely different level of risk.
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