| Are wooden toys going to disappear from the toy | | | | learning experiences and sometimes it can suppress |
| shelves soon? Are wooden building blocks and | | | | them." |
| wooden trucks soon to become something you can | | | | Some experts say that children are becoming so |
| only find in an antique shop or your grandmother's | | | | accustomed to electronics in their toys that they now |
| attic? It happened to Erector Sets, one of the most | | | | just push a button and expect the toy to perform. |
| classic toys you could ever hope to find. Many people | | | | Toys like talking dolls each have their own |
| who are engineers today developed that interest | | | | pre-programmed personality and can prevent children |
| when they got their first Erector Set. But they're gone | | | | from developing their language skills their creativity and |
| now, victims of the electronic revolution that seems to | | | | imagination. When children play with these talking toys |
| be sweeping the toy department. If it doesn't walk by | | | | all they're doing is repeating back what the toy says to |
| itself, talk by itself and let you chat with someone on | | | | them. They're not using their imagination to create a |
| the other side of the world it's outta here. Will wooden | | | | dialogue because they're waiting for the doll to tell |
| toys suffer the same fate? | | | | them what to say next. |
| As children become technologically savvy at younger | | | | In essence, we aren't teaching our children how to play |
| and younger ages classic wooden toys that operate | | | | games anymore, we're simply entertaining them to |
| on imagination alone are being discarded in favor of | | | | keep them quiet. But in the process we're stifling |
| electronic and interactive toys. But experts are | | | | imagination and creativity. Children are being given |
| beginning to see that, while these electronic toys are | | | | electronic toys at such an early age that when they |
| more attractive to kids, much of the technology that's | | | | get to elementary school they don't even know what |
| added to the toys is actually altering the fundamental | | | | Play-Doh is because they've never seen it. It doesn't |
| ways the children play. These new toys are actually | | | | talk, it doesn't walk and it doesn't show movies. |
| limiting your child's creativity and imagination processes. | | | | Experts recommend that we get our children back to |
| Children now expect the toys to entertain them when | | | | the basics so they develop the creative skills they'll |
| they used to expect to entertain themselves with the | | | | need later in life. Electronic toys are fine within reason. |
| toys. | | | | But if your child doesn't develop the basic cognitive |
| While toy makers argue that they need to add | | | | skills he needs before he starts playing with these |
| electronics to their toys to keep up with technological | | | | electronic toys, then he may be in serious trouble when |
| changes and the demands of the consumer, Mitchel | | | | he enters school. Classic wooden toys like building |
| Resnick, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of | | | | blocks and wooden cars and trucks and wooden pull |
| Technology Media Lab, says, "Technology can be | | | | and push toys help your child develop his imagination |
| used in many ways. Sometimes it can support new | | | | and creativity in a way that no electronic toy ever will. |