Free shipping on all Posters or all orders over $99 in Australia.
The Importance of Manipulative Play for Kids: Benefits & Toy Guide
Manipulative play involves children using their hands and fingers to manipulate objects, and it is an essential aspect of their learning and development.
As parents, we are always looking for ways to promote our children's development and help them grow and learn. One of the most effective ways of doing this is through play, and particularly through manipulative play. Manipulative play involves children using their hands and fingers to manipulate objects, and it is an essential aspect of their learning and development. Manipulative play has a lot of benefits for kids and toddlers. Check our guide for the best toys and some examples of activities you can do to promote this type of play in your little ones.
Benefits of Manipulative Play for Toddlers:
Fine Motor Development:
Manipulative play is an excellent way to develop young children's fine motor skills, essential for so many of the activities they will perform in their lives. Fine motor skills involve the use of small muscles in the hands and fingers and are essential for tasks like writing, buttoning clothes, and using cutlery. Activities such as threading beads, drawing, and building with blocks or Legos can all promote fine motor skill development in toddlers.
Problem-Solving and Cognitive Development:
Manipulative play also helps in promoting problem-solving skills in toddlers, thereby boosting their cognitive development. When children play with manipulative toys like puzzles, they need to understand how the pieces fit together to form a whole. This process helps children understand spatial relationships and improves their problem-solving skills.
Hand-Eye Coordination:
Manipulative play also helps develop hand-eye coordination, an essential skill for tasks like playing sports, catching a ball, and driving a car. Throwing, catching, and ball play all require good hand-eye coordination, and manipulative play activities like building with blocks, or playing with small toys and puzzles, can help toddlers develop this skill early on.
Creative Development:
Manipulative play is also a great way to encourage creativity and imagination in young children. When children play with blocks, they can create different structures, buildings, and designs. By playing with dolls or action figures, children can create their imaginary worlds, stories, and scenarios. Painting and drawing are also examples of manipulative play that can help children express their creativity and showcase their innovative ideas.
Awesome Manipulative Toys for Kids, our Guide:
MEGAGONTILES
With colourful graphics and fun shapes, your toddler will get lost in their own little world as they build castles, skyscrapers, race tracks, or whatever else their creative minds can come up with! MEGAGONTILES are compatible with all other magnetic tile brands giving you even more design possibilities and encourage kids to explore math, engineering, science and creativity.
Grimm's
Perfect for any little one, this set of twelve arches includes brightly coloured pieces made from natural wood, which are sized perfectly for small hands. Not only do they look beautiful, they open up a world of imaginative play possibilities! Your toddler will build colourful towers, construct secret passageways or create all sorts of fun scenes - the possibilities are endless.
Fisher-Price
Mega Building is perfect for young children to get creative and learn through play. It's a great way to promote manipulative learning in your toddler by having them build their own masterpieces with the brightly-coloured blocks. Toddlers can have fun constructing towers and buildings, engaging in activities that help them learn about basic shapes. They can also explore counting and math concepts using numbers and pictograms. Let's get learning!
QZMTOY
A truly unique and creative way to help your toddler learn shapes, numbers, colours and more. Each piece is made from sustainably grown wood with non-toxic water-based paint that's kid-friendly. The bright cheerful colours will engage your little one early morning or at bedtime - so many possibilities!
Janod
Welcome your little one to a world of fun and learning with the Janod Cocoon Activity Table! This innovative, manipulative play table is designed specifically for toddlers – they will love exploring all its fun activities. Suitable for children ages from 12 months, the Activity Table encourages grasping, sorting, fitting, pushing and pulling - building essential motor skills along the way.
PicassoTiles
PicassoTiles Marble Run Race Track
Perfect for toddlers and older children alike, this super set provides hours of fun problem solving as they figure out how the pieces fit together, smiling all the while. It contains 200 pieces - enough for two or more children to build a marble maze at one time, encouraging collaboration as well as individual creativity. They also contain embedded magnets which allow for the passage of marbles through the maze while keeping them stable while playing.
Mocka
Combining an activity trolley and a kid’s walker in one, it’s an ideal way for your toddler to practise their balance, coordination, and gross motor skills. Its interactive design will keep them entertained as they explore all the moving parts. Built with beautiful eco-friendly materials that are safe for your child to use, the Activity Trolley will be sure to bring loads of creative fun into their day.
Lego
This fun set includes easy-to-build train tracks, a steam engine, coal tender, cargo wagon and building for your child to build and rebuild while developing their hand dexterity and creativity. The friendly conductor minifigure helps make the creative adventures even more engaging as your little one builds, develops pretend play scenarios and adds to their growing construction skills. A great way to keep curious minds entertained!
Melissa & Doug
Melissa & Doug Wooden Construction Building Set
Taking the classic building block toy to the next level, these wooden pieces allow for even more creative manipulative play and hands-on fun. With plenty of shapes included, your little one can build towers, castles, bridges - whatever they dream up! Durable construction means your child can play safely over and over again while developing creative thinking skills in a safe environment.
Manipulative play is an essential aspect of young children's development and can help promote fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills, and creativity. As parents, we can encourage manipulative play through various fun activities while also spending quality time with our little ones. So, go ahead, and try some of these activities, and you will soon notice your child's progress and development. Happy playing!
The links contained in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you click on them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. This in no way affects the price you pay, but for me it will be a signal that you value my recommendation :)
More posts
