BENGALURU: It’s a bird, it's a plane...” Toys must trigger the imagination, not over-stimulate, as the modern gadgets available to today’s children do, believe people who subscribe to Waldorf education.
Contradictory to advertisements and other marketing material, new-age toys over-stimulate a child’s growth, hold both educators and parents.
“Modern toys have nothing positive for children. They offer unrealistic and unnecessary awakening in children which they are too young for,” says Pooja Marshall, a teacher at Inbloom who follows the Waldorf school.
Once these new-age gadgets break, they are useless, she adds. Natural objects, such as pebbles, sticks, wood, strings and boxes — referred to as unstructured toys in Waldorf education — make better playthings, she suggests.
Waldorf education, based on Rudolf Steiner’s ideas, has its origins in 1920s Germany. It propagates the integration of the intellectual, practical and artistic development of children, in which imagination plays a key role.
Latha Madhu of Prakriti, who also identifies with the school of thought, says, “It is important to nurture a child’s senses and this cannot be achieved with modern plastic toys.”
She thinks kitchen utensils make the best toys, giving children an opportunity to learn by imitating adults.
Unstructured toys eliminate the craving for materialistic entities, according to Divya B A, teacher and parent. “We do not have a TV at home, but my daughter, unlike her peers, keeps herself occupied all day playing with my bangles and bags,” she adds.
Outdoor play should not be restricted to riding a bicycle or playing on a swing, she says. Like Pooja, she believes, children are inclined to pick up stones and sticks.
“They should also be allowed to occupy themselves with these,” she recommends. “Their immunity grows when they are exposed to nature.”
Sowmya, a mother of two, has never bought any structured toys for her kids. She has been following Waldorf education for six years.
“My daughter turned a shoe box lying around the house into a doll house and then to an animal,” she says. “I encourage my children to create new objects from existing ones, and they take immense pride in what they make.”
Padma Priya, a parent, draws attention to the curiosity children possess.
“My son owns both structured and unstructured toys but I barely see him play with the former. Open-ended toys such as clay and boxes are his favourite play materials as they set the wheels of his imagination in motion,” she elaborates.
Clinical psychologist at Progressive Milestones Swati Sapkale recommends unstructured toys for a child’s overall development. Such toys also have great benefits for those diagnosed with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and receptive speech, she adds.
“There are children who are intellectually capable but possess abnormal behavioural tendencies due to lack of simulation,” she explains.
According to Sapkale, open-ended toys demand voluntary attention and do not provide immediate reward, leading to frustration in children.
“An error a child commits during a video game can be rectified on notification but this is not the case with Lego blocks,” she says, citing a scenario. “This is the reason they lean towards gadgets which hamper their creative skills.”