The Perfect Toy? 90% Kid and 10% Toy

Wisdom from play researchers

Photo by Mink Mingle on Unsplash

I got such a great response from a guest post on AI toys earlier this week, that I invited Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek back, along with her colleague Dr. Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, to tell us more about gifts to look for and those to put back on the shelf. I hope this helps with your last minute shopping and wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

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The Perfect Toy? 90% Kid and 10% Toy

By Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D. and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D.

It’s the holiday season and the kids are already feeling the excitement. Chestnuts are roasting on an open fire. Dreidels are spinning. Socks are hanging above the fireplace, and well wrapped gifts are carefully placed beneath the Christmas tree. The excitement is contagious and our kids cannot wait to open their presents to see whether their wishes were fulfilled.

This year, there’s no shortage of hot ticket items. There are playphones and Pokémon, toy action Minecraft, and Labubu which is still hot. We will find AI so called “companions” and Squishmallows sitting alongside the oldies like puzzles, train sets, art supplies and blocks – LEGO blocks, magnetic blocks, and wooden blocks. How is a parent to decide which toys will put a smile on a child’s face on the holiday and which might have the sticking power to still be fun in a week or even 6 months?

As scientists who study play and the way play sparks learning, we have a little motto we use to help parents pick the gift that lasts. Find a toy that is 90% kid and 10% toy. What do we mean by this? If a child can put blocks together in multiple ways and get new outcomes each time – a fort, a barn, an airport, it passes the test. Art supplies that enable kids to continually create – pass the test. The key is that the toy should prompt imaginative play and exercise the creativity muscles in the brain. Toys that talk at your or only allow for one build – once and done – fail the test.

Looking over the popular items this year, a few pieces fit the bill. The Ultimate Fort Builder allows 3- to 5-year-olds to build a lot of different designs as they become fort architects. Doctor pretend playkits? They can be used again and again, but might get boring after a few doctor exams. And “AirToobz” that allow kids to build a structure that blows balls into the air is a clear example of physics in the work – enabling a kid to create, recreate and test the results. We were thrilled to see the old favorites of trains, puzzles, beads and blocks as top ten items. We were saddened to see AI Companions that are not really companions at all and that the Public Interest Group Network US (U.S.PIRG) called dangerous. The marketing just does not match the product.

It is difficult each year to figure out just what toys will be the hot items, the new twist and the commercial favorites. But for our take – 90% kid, 10% toy, adding the toys with buzz to a few of the good old faves to the mix will be a winning equation.

There is a reason why, each year, the toys have to compete with the good old cardboard box that they came in. Think of it. Cardboard boxes have versatility. They can be boats and taxis, blocks and towers, hats and shields. That good old fashioned cardboard box is not trash to be put aside, it is as much a 10% toy as the best of them. And it still delights children who become the creators of their own magical worlds.

So, this season, remember the equation as you do your last-minute shopping. 90% kid, 10% toy. If the toy does not have as many possibilities as the box it came in – leave it behind.