Educational toys have different functional requirements for different age groups. 

There are different theories about the age of the child and their required play. These theories tell us about what any child would need at an age to develop in the best possible manner. 

For every age, there is a certain requirement for toys. A baby’s toys for learning would need to have simple functional requirements.  The learning toys for older-age children need to have complex functions.

Cognitive Development Requirements at Different Ages

Toys for 0 to 2-Year-Old

The play requirements from an educational toy for a baby are simple, anything that would allow movement. Toys at this age should be something to hold and move. Toys for learning for your baby should let them move. This would help the development of gross motor skills. Learning toys are not required to do complex functions at this point. 

The contrasting color and noises of the toys would allow their senses to develop. The simpler the toys are, the easier it would be to help your child learn new words with them. Toy sets and books with simple images help.

Our baby toy set includes rattles in different shades and shapes. This set was made to help your baby with their physical and sensory development. Our contrasting baby set includes a soft book, dangling toys, and a mirror, this set helps with visual senses.

For 1- 2 years old, our shape sorting toy provides the best stimulus. Their muscles are at work in the repetitive task and they are learning different colors too. These toys for learning may not look like they’re doing much, but research states that this is exactly what their mind and body need.  

Toys for 2-3-Year-Old

This is when you start introducing building blocks and different building toy sets. Your kid will appreciate the learning toys by building new things from their imagination.  

Gili Toys’ Flower Garden building set fulfills the same function for this age group. Children are learning gross and fine motor control as well as learning space relative skills along with hand-eye coordination. Gili Toys’ Flower Garden Toy will be perfect for bringing about these growth achievements. As far as building toys for kids of this age go, this building set is great.

At this age, your little one would be easily able to differentiate between shapes and colors. Gili Toys’ Shape Sorter toy will be a great treat for your little one for this reason. This shape sorter toy will also help your little one learn how to solve problems at a basic level. They learn how to keep on trying to get the desired solution with this learning toy.

Gili Pop Beads toy is another great toy set to bring out your child’s creativity. Gili Pop Beads will also help with fine motor functions. 

We would recommend that you keep an eye on your child when they play with smaller toys (choking hazard).

Toys for 3-7-Year-Old 

Congratulations! You’ve reached the age where your child will be interested in ‘Pretend Play’. Pretend play will include your child running around in a make-believe world. Your child can pretend to be someone and they would use different objects and toys to make their imagination come to life. 

Your child would be interested in copying the surrounding adults. They can even pretend play by trying to be someone they saw outside. Children try to best make their view of others clear at this age.

Gili Toys has a variety of cars that your little one can play with, to pretend to be someone else.  We offer remote control excavators and remote control cars. At this age, you can leave your child alone with such toys for hours of fun.

You should also introduce toys that would encourage physical activity. This physical movement would help them feel confident with the use of their bodies. It could be a simple ball or a tricycle/bicycle; to keep children on the move. 

Toys for 7 Years and Above

When children reach this age, they’re more open to learning games that are guided by rules. After your child has reached 7 years of age you can start introducing them to advanced building toys for kids. These toy sets will help their minds as building toys for kids would require following instructions. 

You can check out the toy building sets available on Gili Toys! Gili Toys has different toy sets where your little one can make airplanes, trucks, bulldozers, and tanks, and pull back cranes.

These toy sets will help your child gain confidence in their skills. As they continue to grow older, their toy choices will get more complex. The functional requirements of educational toys will grow along with the child.

Understanding and Buying the Right Toys

Children require different ‌stimulus and physical activity at different ages. No one can expect a 10-year-old child to play with the toys for a toddler and learn something. We hope that this article has helped you in learning the needs of children of different ages. Toys for learning will continue to evolve with the passage of time but the requirements for these learning toys will not change.