Educational Toys not High Tech Toys

Educational Toys are not High Tec Toys, say researchers

· Surge of electronic toy buying by anxious parents
· Parents are as good as gadgets for infant learning

High-tec educational toys such toy computers and other electronic games marketed as boosting learning for babies and pre-schoolers aren't as good as parents for helping children to learn.
Parents could save their money and rather than buying these high-tec 'educational toys' spend time helping children to learn themselves, new research has revealed.
The study also revealed that parents felt under pressure from manufacturers to buy their children high tech educational toys.
One of the fastest growing sectors of the toy market, technology toys, was investigated in a government-funded study created to examine the role of technology in the lives of three- and four-year-old children and their families.
The study uncovered that these high tech 'educational toys' - aimed at infants as young as nine months old - are no more effective than traditional ways of introducing basic literacy and number skills.
Researchers at the University of Stirling concluded after 15 months of research that electronic educational toys such as toy laptops and mobile phones were of greater value to young children as an aid to imaginative play such as pretending to make phone calls than in teaching specific skills.
It was also revealed by researchers that young children also gained an understanding of the social role of technology simply by watching their parents use computers, digital cameras and mobile phones for work and leisure - far outstripping the benefits of using computers for unrealistic exercises and game at nursery.
The study examined 24 families of varying social backgrounds in detail and analysed written responses from 346 families in total. It found that parents were universally keen to prepare their children not only for school but also for the world of work. But these parents were also unsure whether to buy them electronic toys marketed as supporting both play and learning.
Toy retailers heavily promote the educational benefits of toys for small children, with the expansion of the electronic learning market boosting sales for the birth-to-three age group by 9% over the last year to £666m - one of the biggest growth rates in the toy market.
Parents are being wooed by electronic toy manufacturer Vtech with the V.Smile Baby Infant Development System, an activity board which connects to the television and is intended to teach numbers, shapes, colours and baby sign language. The £29.99 device is aimed at youngsters aged nine months to three years.
A spokeswoman for Vtech said parents were very positive about the V.Smile range, which was designed to "give parents and children a magical learning experience together". She added: "Vtech appreciates that learning with a parent is an important component of infant development."
Lydia Plowman, professor of education at Stirling University, said parents interviewed experienced "a lot of anxiety" about the role of new technology, and felt under pressure from manufacturers to buy educational electronic toys such as Leappads and games consoles.
Professor Plowman said such toys were neither harmful nor "particularly beneficial".
She said: "I don't think there is any problem about children having these toys at home, but in terms of basic literacy and number skills I don't think they are more efficient than the more traditional approaches."
Parents who bought such toys often failed to replace the battery when it ran out after children lost interest, she added.
Almost all the families reported that their children listed going to the park as a favourite activity, while some did not list technology as a favourite at all.