Educational toys carry no long-term benefits

Parents who spend large amounts of money on stimulating toys, books and other development tools for their children may be surprised to know that these do not have long-term effects on their child's development. A government-backed study in the UK has just concluded that one-to-one interaction and outings to the shops or parks have a greater and long-term impact on development of a child than educational objects.

Researchers from the Institute of Education in London studied the various approaches of how parents cared for their children and analysed their effect on the way youngsters grow up. In their report, academics said a home full of toys, books and other educational or recreational objects stimulated children when they were very young but the effects did not last. According to the London institute the most important factor, especially for mothers with little education, is playing with and talking to their children.

Educational tools such as pre-school computers and electronic activity boards, which connect to a television and teach toddlers numbers, shapes, colours and language are top of the list when it comes to children's toys. However, from the research conducted, it resulted that that such tools are highly unnecessary and all children crave is personal attention.

Leslie Gutman, the report's lead author, said: "Toys and books have their place and do help children develop but what is important is having the parents interact with the child. To have parents read to their children is much more important than having a hundred books - that's great, but if you are not reading to your child, that is not engaging with the child."

The research was conducted over a lengthy period and formed part of a study into the development of 12,500 children born between 1991 and 1992. Both the child's and the parent's behaviour was studied at different ages, that is when the child was aged six months, 18 months, 30 months and 42 months.

It was found that children whose mothers took them on outings had significantly better social skills and were better at coordination activities such as using a pencil, a knife and fork or tying shoe-laces.

Furthermore, in line with other research, the study found that mothers with higher education and family incomes reported more interactions with their children.

The study showed that middle-class mothers sought more to integrate outings and activities into the life of their child and "more stimulation and teaching in the home environment".

However, on the whole the effect of income levels was small and diminished as babies got older. The study recommended mothers without a proper education should be given assistance in order to aid them in the development of their child. In fact according to the report, which was done for the Department for Education and Skills, "a good level of education is therefore not only important for the individual, but also for their family and may have effects across generations". It continued by saying that "policymakers, targeting mothers on the basis of their educational attainment, rather than merely income or work status, might be most effective".

Dr Gutman said that if one looked at the figures for mother-child interaction, the difference according to education is really greatest at six months. "Probably the higher educated mothers are the ones that are reading books to their children at six months, playing with their children at six months. The early experiences are very important."