Best laid plans sometimes come to naught.
And with babies, this is even more pronounced.
As parents, we want to provide the kid with the best, and this includes the toys that they play with. Or don’t.
As most of you may have experienced, kids like toys, but absolutely love boxes. Empty boxes. Wrappers, tissues and most seemingly useless, bordering on trash kind of objects.
Pushed to the side are those fancy “built for children to develop their brains” kind of toys, and in their stead, an empty yoghurt container occupies pride of place.
I used to wonder why this happens, and why toddlers have such a keen interest in toying around with these non-toys. So I decided to read more about it, and it seems that the boxes are better than the well-researched toys that are sold in stores nowadays.
This is due to the “sensory play” that empty boxes offer – toddlers throw them around, taste them, feel inside and drag them along until the go to the next step – and that is putting something inside. Which allows them to understand how objects relate to each other and the concept of cause and effect.
According to Lourdes Bernadette Lopez, CSP-PASP, a certified speech and language pathologist and co-owner of Jumpstart Therapy Center in Batangas, babies learn better not with words but through the sensory experiences that we provide their bodies.
Playing with boxes is a form of sensory play, which allows children to accomplish more complex learning tasks like gross and fine motor development, cognitive and language development, as well as social and emotional development.
Ahem – who knew one could make a toddler play for free, and leave him better at the end of it?? Life never ceases to surprise…sometimes pleasantly!
See you tomorrow.