Designing Toys to Support Children's Development

Tom Page*, Gisli Thorsteinsson**
* Senior Lecturer, Loughborough Design School, United Kingdom.
** Professor, Department of Design and Craft Education, Iceland University of Education, Iceland
Periodicity:August - October'2017
DOI : https://doi.org/10.26634/jpsy.11.2.13776

Abstract

This article reports a study that aimed to contribute to the theory of good toy design in terms of the value of using toys for children development. Moreover, the study attempts to evaluate ways in which children play and study the toys they commonly use with respect to how it influence their adulthood. The authors firstly looked into the literature of toy design and children development and then they carried out an interview with an elder designer. The study underlines the importance of good toy design to support children's maturity and self-realisation. It, also, show the complex the role of a toy designer is in terms of design a valuable toy. Furthermore, the study demonstrates a subject to the demands of users as well as regulations. In addition to the interview a questionnaire was given to 28 partaker's ages 18-25 years; the subject was a retrospective view of toys and their influences on the partaker's existing lifestyle. The main conclusions draw from the study was that using toys in our childhood influence the development of key skills, but, also, shape our negative or positive view on our childhood. The conclusions demonstrate the importance that toy designers both draw upon academic research and carry out their own in order to create powerful toys of quality.

Keywords

Toy Design, Children, Development, Manufacturing, Play, Computer Technology.

How to Cite this Article?

Page, T., and Thorsteinsson, G. (2017). Designing Toys to Support Children's Development. i-manager’s Journal on Educational Psychology, 11(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.26634/jpsy.11.2.13776

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