Play is the Language of Children

From the Discovery Toys home page comes a great summary of what the company is about.

Good toys, books, games and software, carefully selected, can enhance and direct a child's physical, social, emotional and intellectual growth. Our product team custom designs many of our products to enhance and reinforce specific areas of a child's development.

Our child development specialists also select the best products available internationally with vendors around the world to assure that we always offer you a wide variety of toys that are appropriate and fun for children at each stage of their lives.

If you would like to learn more or purchase Discovery Toys, you can do so via my website here.

UPDATE: The Literacy Trust website has a great article on the importance of play in children's development.

Playing is the most natural thing in the world, but there's much more to it than just having fun. Jeanie Hurley investigates the role of play in development from newborn baby to boisterous pre-schooler to see why playing is never a waste of time.

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Traditional building blocks and Play-Doh are far better for children's learning than high-tech educational toys and videos, experts have revealed. Psychologists are warning that many expensive games might actually restrict children's progress by stifling their creativity and hindering their social skills. American child development expert Professor Kathy Hirsh-Pasek believes youngsters spend too long in front of television and computer screens when they could be playing with basic toys. In a new book titled Einstein Never Used Flash Cards, she claims that so-called 'smart' toys fail to teach children to play imaginatively. In contrast, wooden blocks, crayons, costumes, paints and balls help them develop crucial lifelong skills such as problem-solving and perseverance. They also make it easier for parents to join in, which is vital for boosting children's learning.

Professor Hirsh-Pasek, of Temple University, Philadelphia, said: "Nowadays, toys we select for children have the hidden agenda of making them learn, but those toys do the opposite. They usually look for a single, correct answer to a problem because they are busy teaching skills. Today's kids don't need to be fed information through toys. They need to combine facts in innovative ways to become creative problem solvers. Well-meaning parents are simply being caught in an expensive trap. If parents really want to prepare their children for life in the next generation, they would be better looking in the least-travelled aisles in toy shops." Professor Hirsh-Pasek warned that parents are increasingly substituting activities such as reading, playing and singing rhymes for the easier option of placing them in front of computers or videos.

She added: "We learn best by having another person play with us. When parents have opportunities to play with children, they get more out of it. Children gain better reading, maths and social skills when adults play with them."

Her views are backed up by another expert, Matthew Melmed, who agreed that high-achieving parents who attempt to 'hothouse' their toddlers with educational software and toys could be doing more harm than good. Mr Melmed, executive director of the Zero to Three centre in Washington, which collates parenting research from across the U.S, said the trend was leaving children as young as three frustrated and prone to tantrums.