TOYS AND GAMES FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Toys and games are associated with psychological development, as they contribute to participation in challenging and stimulating learning and leisure activities.

Play is a natural stage in the total development of the child, and is mingled in all child’s activity. Thus, toys and games are indeed associated with diverse aspects of psychological development and well-being, including family closeness, school engagement, positive mental health or activity involvement.

In early years, children cannot walk or to understand a language; their understanding and learning processes are through experience, signs and body language. In this stage of development, it is interesting to involve children in gaming and playing.

For children, games and toys are more about experiencing and exploring their surroundings, rather that winning or losing. They learn by their senses and movements, and playing and participating in gaming activities have a considerable effect on vital aspects of their development, contributing to sense of self, and establishing connections between different realities around them.

At the beginning, games are purely functional. Nevertheless, as children grow older, their natural responses to games and toys also change. Thus, their growing knowledge of reality, the progressive development of ideas, and the consequent capability to establish a relationship between means and ends lead to other more complicated activities demanding higher practical skills, such as games of make-believe.

Some studies demonstrate that playing, for example, make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function, whose central element is the ability to self-regulate, and which plays and essential role by providing them with the capability to exert and effective self-control over their behaviour, emotions and impulses.

Some studies demonstrate that playing, for example, make-believe provides the appropriate scenario to try out theories and problem-solving skills, helping children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function, which central element is the ability to self-regulate. Children and kids with good self-regulation are able to exert self-control over their behaviour, emotions and impulses. They are also more capable of exercising self-confidence, learning and acquiring new skills and abilities, concentrating and getting on with others in their social environment.

MCT - Meb Johnsons Jatto is a company fully dedicated to the design, manufacture and commercialization of, among others, innovative games and toys for psychological development, offering a selection of products to customers from all around the world.

Creativity is a challenge and a necessity in this dynamic industrial sector, if we are to satisfy the growing demand for new and more sophisticated toys and games, which lead us to incorporate new cultural and commercial elements that appeal potential buyers in this market: children and parents.