| This is often the battle-ground for parents and children. Kids love it, parents often don’t understand it, so how can you figure out if a high tech toy is good for a child or not? | The products here combine traditional play values (imagination, creativity, socializing) with technology to promote positive development rather than hinder it. |
Bells and whistles are great for entertaining very young children, but make sure they're given time to make their own fun too. Musical toys and those that introduce children to words and sounds, numbers, colours and shapes are all |
helping children make sense of their world, and children love it when they can control the play so the action-reaction that they get from these toys is motivating. |
Learning to use technology is exciting for many children and hi tech toys and games can teach children a range of skills, allowing them to engage with technology positively. |
Make sure that hi-tech toys are not the only things children play with, but logic, strategy and reaction speeds are all developed through computer games so don't demonise them either. |
Children's use of technology at this age often out-strips their parents. Having good hi-tech products that children will engage with will appeal to children's thirst for innovative products and help them master new technology safely. |
Make sure you set and maintain boundaries about the amount of time children can spend on the computer or in sedentary, solitary games, but many hi-tech games are both active and social. |
