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In a recent interview with Bored Panda, the psychologist and Playful Parenting author Lawrence Cohen suggested that even though less significant than the people in children’s lives, toys, too, can play an important role in the little one’s development.
“Children need objects to manipulate, to apply their minds to, and to help them discover the world,” he said, adding that in the old days, this was done through everyday objects—natural and man-made—such as water, sand, cups, sticks, rocks, trees, cooking items, and dress-up clothes. Though, according to the expert, to be a great toy, it must be as good or better than these things—safer, more durable, more appealing to the child.
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Coming back to the importance of other people’s involvement in playtime—be it the kid’s parents, teachers, or nannies—Dr. Cohen suggested that children benefit from both, playing together and on their own.
“Children need both. The most important role for adults is to make sure children have lots of time for free play, a safe place to play, freedom to create and determine their own play, and interesting creative open-ended materials.”
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As a matter of fact, according to the psychologist, toys aren’t even always necessary for a child to engage in playtime. “Babies love to use a grown-up’s face as a toy. Toddlers and preschoolers love to walk and run and climb and make noises and see all the things their bodies can do,” he pointed out.
However, the expert suggested that, when children do use toys, they need to be more interesting than the box they came in. “Most are not,” he told Bored Panda.
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The point that a toy should be more interesting than the packaging it came in is especially relevant nowadays, when a box is more than a way to transport the toy from point a to point b.
According to Design Force, one of the main roles of toy packaging in mass retail is to make it stand out from a sea of all kinds of items in a matter of seconds. Unless people come to the toy store looking for something specific, it’s very likely that the decision to pick up one item instead of another is purely an impulsive one. And that’s when appealing packaging comes in handy, as it can help catch the buyer’s eye and boost the sales. However, the toy itself shouldn’t be outshined by its box.
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Design Force pointed out that during the pandemic, consumers showed great interest in the toys and games category while shopping online, likely because with people all over the world spending days on end in their homes, they had to keep their little ones—arguably themselves, too—occupied. Between 2019 and 2020, the category reportedly saw an increase in page views by a whopping 135%.
According to data presented by the NPD Group, despite the slight—and by slight, I mean roughly 0.2%—decrease in sales in 2022 (compared to sales in 2021), for the three years leading up to it, the toy industry in the US had experienced rather strong growth, going from $22 billion in 2019 to $25.7 billion in 2020, and $29.2 billion in 2021.
Outdoor and sports toys seem to be the main driving force of the toy industry, as they accounted for roughly $5.2 billion in sales in 2022, Statista reports. As for its biggest players, the Danish company LEGO, the Japanese toy manufacturer Bandai Namco, and the US companies Hasbro and Mattel seem to top the list.
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A ten-year-long empirical study of Toys that Inspire Mindful Play And Nurture Imagination (TIMPANI), carried out by the Center for Early Childhood Education at Eastern Connecticut State University, found that some toys are more likely to inspire quality play than others. The ones that do the most reportedly have to meet one of the three criteria of being simple, open-ended, or non-realistic.
The first point emphasizes that in order for a child to immerse themselves in rich play, the simpler the toy, the better, as with them, kids are more likely to use their imagination while playing. A toy with lots of sounds, buttons, and other pieces works more like entertainment rather than means for mindful play.