Hmm, your little child has been learning how to write letters and numbers for many days. And you intend to make their learning easy with some educational toys or writing development toys. That’s great. Therefore, after profound research, I wrote today’s post about writing development toys that you can consider to assist your child learn how to write in your language. So in today’s post, you will learn about various kinds of writing development toys and relevant examples for your little child. In this way, you can decide which toy(s) would be great for the child based on their specific needs.
(Important Note:
At present, I’m not an Amazon affiliate. But I intend to become an affiliate for the company. After becoming their affiliate, any qualifying purchase resulting from the click on my affiliate link can make me earn a commission without any additional cost for the buyer.)
Types of Writing Development Toys:
The following are the types of writing development toys for little kids who are within the age range of 1-6 years:
Sensory Writing Toys:
The toys that assist kids in developing their fine motor muscles, hand-eye coordination, and mark-making passion are sensory writing toys. Such toys are reliable because the kids are engaged through their multiple senses. And this engagement makes the learning process highly enjoyable and memorable for them.
For example, a sand or salt tray is a sensory writing toy in which you have to place some sand or salt to educate your child regarding the letters and numbers of your language with your finger or stick. For example, suppose you have a sand tray, sand bag, small white papers, various markers, and small coloured papers. And you sit on a chair beside a table. Then, you add your sand on the tray after placing one coloured paper on the tray horizontally. Afterwards, you write a letter on a white paper with a marker whose colour must match the colour of the horizontally placed paper.
Now you have to make your child sit in front of you on a chair and show them how to make a letter on the sand tray. Suppose that you make a letter, A, by removing some sand from your moving finger’s path on the tray after some repeated efforts. The drawn letter’s colour matches the colour of the white paper’s letter because of the horizontally placed coloured paper. You can erase the letter too to form another one on the sand tray. So your child learns how to make the letter on the tray. And they would love to copy you because of the fun involved.
Another example is of finger paints. The finger paints are the toys that you can use to teach your child how to form letters and numbers with paints using their fingers. For example, suppose you have a box of finger paints and a collection of white papers. Then, you show your child how to form a digit with the items. Yes, you add some paint over your finger and apply that paint on a white paper to make the digit, 1. They get excited on seeing this entertaining task. And when they perform the task, they finally learn how to draw 1 correctly on the paper after many attempts. Yes, they would most probably learn to draw the digit correctly after many attempts because the kids are developing their hand muscles during their childhood through repeated movements, so they have to repeat the required finger movements to make their drawing precise.
Pre-Writing or Dexterity Toys:
Well, a pre-writing or dexterity toy is one that you can use to develop the pincer grasp in a child. They become able to stabilise their hand for holding a pencil or show controlled movements with their hand while holding a pencil through such toys. For example, if you provide your child with a pegboard, they can create various geometrical shapes or shapes of cartoons by placing pegs in the right holes of the board if guided properly. In the same way, if you get a building block set, then they can draw bridges, cats, and plazas using these blocks under some parental guidance. They have to place these blocks in the right positions of other blocks to form a single item.
Tracing and Stencil Toys:
A tracing or stencil toy is one that you can use to assist your child learn the forms of letters and numbers. These toys also assist in developing the muscle memory of little children.
Yes, for example, if you get a magnetic tracing alphabet toy for your kid, then, under your instruction, they would learn to draw the shapes of letters or numbers because of magnetism. They just have to place their magnetic pen near their magnetic board’s letter holes to attract the magnetic balls that are present inside the holes. In this way, they complete the letter form and learn how to draw that letter. So they can learn the letter forms of your language easily with a tracing alphabet toy.
Next, you can also have a stencil toy to educate your child regarding the letter forms or number shapes. Suppose that you provide a stencil to your child that has the shape of L on it. And you guide them on how to play with the stencil. What they have to do next is place a white paper under the stencil and draw the letter, L, with a pencil by following the lines of the stencil for the letter. In this way, they can learn all the letters of your language with repeated exercises.
Stamp & Spell Toys:
A stamp or spell toy is one that you can use to assist your child connect the meanings to letters and learn numbers in numerical and alphabetical forms. These toys assist children learn creativity, phonics, numbers, and words.
For example, an alphabet spell toy is one that you can use to form short words by arranging letter blocks on a hard surface for your kid’s language learning. Suppose that your child has such a toy. Then, under your guidance, they use it to form a word, cat, by adding the relevant letter blocks in the wooden board where the word has been carved. When they add the letter blocks, they not only learn the word made with those blocks but also memorise the meaning and sound of the word. And you can use a word card too where a cat is present with the word, cat, to avoid too much guidance during their play.
Next, you can also use a numerical stamp toy to assist your child learn the numbers of a language. Suppose your child has a numerical stamp toy. Then, you guide them for an activity in which they have to stamp a white paper in a certain order to form a high number. For example, you instruct them to stamp, 100, on some white paper with the numerical stamps. Then, they stamp the number, 100, on the paper with two stamps that were present among others in a box.
Technological Interactive Toys:
These technological interactive toys are those that a parent can use to educate their child regarding letters and numbers. For example, suppose you have educational apps in a tablet. Then, under your guidance, your child can trace letters and numbers on their wooden boards through fun-oriented animations and games that they can observe on their tablet. Then, if you purchase a talking and writing tablet, then you can guide your kid regarding how to form letters and numbers with some audio and visual cues provided by the tablet. However, bear in mind that you should set a limit for the screen time of your child as a high screen time is harmful for a young child.
You might be thinking:
How to Choose the Right Writing Toy for Your Child?
Hmm, there are some points that can assist you in choosing the right writing development toy for your child. These points are:
- The toy should be based on a child’s interest. For example, ask them which animal, plant, or supernatural figure toy they would like a lot for their playtime.
- Then, consider the child’s age for their play. So: For 1-2 year olds: Focus on sensory and pre-writing toys. For 3-4 year olds: Simple tracing and stamp toys would be great. For 5 and 5+ year olds: Focus on complex tracing, spelling, and technological interactive toys.
- Always look for durable and non-toxic toys for your child.
- Pick a reliable brand for the toy.
- Check whether there is a sufficient warranty period or not with the toy.
Conclusion:
Well, that’s all what I have to share with you regarding the kinds of writing development toys for your little kid. I hope you appreciate the efforts that I exerted for the content. And if you really regard the content useful, then share it with your connections. In this way, they can also know about the guide and get a reliable writing development toy for their child.
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