Benefits of “Simple” Toys for Early Child Development

[Sophie Brickman]: Plush dolls. Plush Elmo is way better for young kids than Tickle Me Elmo. Why? Because it makes them- they have to make Elmo laugh. They use their fine and gross motor skills. They have to use their imagination. They have to be actively engaged and sort of have that “minds on” that Roberta was talking about when they’re doing that stuff with toys, this little blurb here, “Busy babies, passive toys”, came from a philosophy of parenting called RIE, which is Resources for Infant Educarers, that kind of became sexy in Hollywood because, I don’t know, Helen Hunt and various people were into it for a while. Their philosophy on toys is that the simpler the toy, the better it is for the baby. And that’s something that was reiterated to me time and time again. And it’s been shown to have really, really wonderful outcomes. You know, TV exposure goes down. Parents are happier overall. There’s better cognitive and language development. It all comes from playing with a very, very simple toy. You don’t need to be complicated. It can be bowls from your kitchen and like some hair rollers, it’s all you need.