Parents, get away from the toy hall.
It turns out that your little child does not need a Mountain of Plushies, plastic cars and magnetic chaos – According to experts, little Tots only need four toys. Yes, four.
According to Dr. Alexia Metz, occupational therapist and mother of twins, Young children prosper When there is lesson To play, no more.
“We keep home more and more toys, thinking that this is the toy that will take my son to Harvard,” Metz Says Today.com.
“But then we do not see the value in their game because they cannot organize them enough to play.”
Metz directed a widely coded 2017 study at the University of Toledo, watching Tots between 18 and 30 months in rooms equipped with different toys numbers.
When the children released in a space with 16 options, it was toy chaos – They ran from one article to another like overestimulated Beees in a Probles garden.
“That exploration is so fast that they don’t have time to sit and explore all the things a toy can do before they need to move to the next,” says Metz.
But dropping that number only four toys, something magical happened: the children slowed down, they were more committed and played more.
“They get used to and looked at them all, but then they had time to return to each toy,” he explains.
Instead of bouncing a brilliant object to the next, children stack blocks, push buttons and even immerse themselves in the pretending game, of the type that child development experts are directed.
“There was not that incentive of something else to go to see. The children knew that they would not miss anything if they were there for another minute to play with the toy and see what you can do,” says Withz.
Less toys = less distress.
Young children focus better and Use your imagination more When they do not drown in options.
It is something that metz also saw play at home too.
While creating her twins in a 1,000 square -feet Chicago apartment, she forced her to be demanding.
“There was simply no space,” he recalls. “My children had everything they could because either the need, and many of these are really great, toys approved by the therapist, but it is too much. They cannot establish themselves and play.”
Now, to be clear: Metz does not count to set your toy containers on fire.
You don’t have to Marie Kondo your whole living room. But you shoulder Be strategic.
“You can have your hundreds of toys if you have a place to store them, so when a child has time to play, there is only one narrower number at this time,” she says.
That means rotating toys: keep some and then change them later. Maintains Thens Fresh, but manageable.
