It's play time

Playing with toys and swinging in playgrounds are all times favourite fun activities of children. Toys have fundamental role in fostering children's mental, physical and emotional development. An expert says "Toys are basic instruments for the development of children's fantasy, thoughts and creativity."
Today markets are loaded with different types of toys and computer games. Before deciding toy shopping, parents should know its educational and learning aspects. Using toys as tool for developing social skills of kids flourish positive traits of their personality. Toys like kitchen sets, doll house, medical kit, zoo sets are ideal for stimulating children's creativity and imagination. Child building blocks, jigsaw puzzles and construction toys are good to enhance hand-eye co-ordination and cognitive skills.
The BBC World News states that toys now form the biggest category of hazardous goods. Therefore, smart toy shopping demands accurate checking of any of its hidden faults and potential menace. The design and construction should be perfect and faultless. Children love to ride bike, tricycle and scooty; so make sure to check its wheels and screws.
Avoid buying toys from street sellers and hawkers because these toys have neither guaranty nor quality assurances. Often, parents ignore dangers posed by toys having imperfect finishing. For example, before buying toys like racing or model car, careful checking of any sharp or pointed edges can save the child from injuries. Pointed areas can pose threat to hands. Little babies have habits of tampering with their elder brother or sister's toys. Any loosely fitted part can be swallowed by little ones. So make sure that head lights and mirrors should be fixed firmly in their frames.
It is important for parents to know that what toys are safe for their children. Buying age inappropriate toys can be hazardous for them. Parents sometimes overlook age specification labels and safety information on the toy boxes and packaging. An expert says "Age recommendations are made by independent review panels that look at the size of the parts, strangulation and choking hazards as well as the ability of children to use the toys according to their motor skills".
Parents should also give awareness about the age specifications to their children. Few days back a boy was playing with 'yoyo'. His three-year-old brother was sitting with him. He offered the 'yoyo' to young brother. As the young brother was trying to play with the 'yoyo' its long stretchy strand had strangled around his neck. He was immediately taken to the hospital for severe neck injuries. This tragic incident happened because parents did not warn the elder brother about the safety label on the toy's box, which clearly stated that this toy was not for children less than four years of age.
Nothing is injurious for kids more than toy weapons such as toy guns, air guns and riffles. One of the reputable hospitals of Karachi reported that many small kids lost their eyesight because of injuries on eye ball and sensitive membrane from the arrows and pallets of toy guns. Experts say that playing with weapon toys can make your kid aggressive and violent.
Playthings related injuries are not confined to weapon toys; even harmless toys such as teddy bears and dolls can turn into hazards, if not taking care properly. Parents are advised not to leave any loosely fitted parts of soft toys unattended. Accessories of dolls such as jewellery, beads, comb and shoes are not recommended for children under the age of three. It is wise to discard broken toys for the sake of child's safety. Moister, and rain form rust on some toys while dust make them dirty; therefore train kids to keep their toys clean and dirt free. It is important to forbid them not to put playthings on stairs or passage ways to avoid accidental fall. Instead, after playing they should put back all stuff in the shelf or card box.
Toys making loud noises such as toy mobile, monkey drummer, piano, toy sirens and background music of videogames are matter of concern for many parents. Such toys are biggest risk for sensitive hearing system of children and can cause permanent hearing loss. According to a research, singing dolls, which children tend to hug close to their faces, could have potential danger for hearing system.
It is said that only constant thing is "Change". So is the choice of our new generation. Now-a-days children taking interest to play with the models of superman, spider man, batman, iron man, Ninja turtles and Barbie dolls. Toy companies are utilising multimedia to attract young minds. Gone are the days of home-made dolls and clay toys. "At our times, mothers used to make dolls from pieces of clothes but today neither parents nor grandparents have time to spare for making home-based toys," said a grandmother.
Swinging is an excellent physical activity for children. Unfortunately! Playground safety is a big cause of worry for parents because of low standard playground equipments. It is a sad fact that many children each year get severe injuries from the swing sets and playing equipments in well-known public parks. According to a study, falls from monkey bars and swings are common playground injuries in Pakistan. It is found that 34% of playing field injuries were related to climbers, 30% from slides, and 22% from swings.
An expert says "Before you visit a playground make sure that play areas are designed to allow an adult to clearly see kids while they're playing on all the equipment."
Playing with video games, computer games and play station are favourite pass time activities of young children and teenagers. Recent studies show that video games enhance sense of responsibility and sports man spirit. For example, playing with car racing game, the player has to be alert to avoid accident and breaking of traffic signal. More safely he drives more chances are to make points and win the game. Winning game is a joyous moment and it boosts child's confidence. But this is possible if he choose to play with sports and educational games.
Things go wrong when children make computer games big thing in their lives. Spending hours in playing computer games distract their attention from studies. They focus all their concentration on games, having violent and aggressive characters. They slowly learn to quarrel noisily, angrily, and disruptively. These children develop habit of making arguments with their teachers and parents. They get irritated instantly and unable to make long lasting friendship. Parents are advised to restrict playing video games time 2 to 4 hours / week. By taking into considerations few safety measures, parents can make the playing time enjoyable for their children.