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Toy Analysis

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Introduction

Children’s play is a vital component in the child's cognitive, physical, and socio-

emotional development. Children understand and learn better by exploring to develop the ability

to think and comprehend concepts. Even though nowadays choosing toys that children can use to

play is a simple matter, many factors should be considered before selecting a toy that is

educative and will help the physical, socio-emotional and cognitive development of the child.

During the developmental stage, children toys should help children evaluate the world better

through movement and sensation and build creativity (Zakaria, Yunus, & Mohamed, 2021). Jean

Piaget’s theory, the sensorimotor theory, says that children learn through grasping, looking,

listening and sucking. Eventually, as children grow up, they learn about things even if they

cannot physically see them. Therefore, this essay will discuss the game Sort it out, Junior. This

game is vital for children aged five years and above and belongs to both genders. The game helps

children to organize specific parameters enforcing the concrete operational stage. In the game,

the youngest player picks a card from the top of the table then reads to other children. All the

other children who are the players respond to questions on the topic card by placing different

coloured tiles in the order they believe is correct.

Cognitive Needs

Sort it Out, Jr. helps in the concrete operational stage of cognitive growth. Piaget refers to

children aged seven to eleven as being in the concrete active stage. In this stage, the child

comprehends how to reason logically and solve problems perfectly. The child also develops

inductive reasoning to use multiple conclusions to arrive at a specific outcome (Lally &

Valentine-French, 2017). The children learn the skills through sorting out the list on the topic

card placed by the youngest player and arranging the pegs on the pegboard in the correct order.
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Additionally, the child will learn how the count and identify colors through the fun game.

Concrete operational thoughts involve critical abilities like classification, identity, and seriation.

Sort it Out, Jr. allows the children to develop type and identity ability by giving them the time to

practice, make mistakes, and have fun. The child also learns from their peers how to organize the

list. Seriation is also evident as the child’s ability to arrange things based on height and weight is

sharpened through playing the game.

Physical Needs

Our motor skills sharpen the manipulation of objects and the movement of bodies. Fine

motor skills are acquired through the game, where the child can use the finger muscles, toes, and

eyes to coordinate movement. Playing the game helps the motor skills to grow when a child

moves the pegs on the pegboard and moves the game piece along with the board. The use of fine

motor skills in the Sort it Out game aids in the child's physical development. However, the

children should not play with objects that exceed their stubby fingers ability. The more they play

with the toy, the more they can manoeuvre easily using their hands.

Socio-Emotional Needs

There exist quite a several socio-emotional developmental aspects attributed to this toy.

Sort it out the game is played by several children. One child becomes the reader and draws a

topic card that they place on the table to sort and arrange the pegs on the pegboard. The children

can do this in turns. Once children can learn and retain what they know, they feel proud of

themselves and their self-confidence increases. According to Lally & Valentine-French (2017),

playing the Sort it out game makes learning easy and fun, thus creating a positive emotional

impact on the children.

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Theorists’ Views

Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory says that children can express their feelings and

help them have positive emotions hence ignoring negative emotions. When the child masters the

art of playing Sort it Out, they feel good about themselves thus gaining positive emotions. Daniel

Berlyne’s Arousal modulation theory teaches that children’s play is vital to regulate arousal in

the central nervous system. Through the Arousal modulation theory, arranging pegs in the pegs

board correctly helps in the children’s mental development. Cognitive theories of Jean Piaget and

Lev Vygotsky articulate that children can use their cognitive abilities to solve challenges that

they might be having through play. First Sort it out game helps to develop individual role play

and teamwork since many children play it. Role-play is evident when one child plays the reader's

role while the rest of the layers try to organize the pegs correctly. As a young child learns to

coordinate and relate with others, their social life becomes better, becoming more knowledgeable

and responsible. Therefore play is the fastest way for the child to learn new things. In gameplay

such as a Sort, children mainly learn with little supervision by the parents, but the children

become independent with time. Therefore I will strongly recommend this game for all children

from the age of 5 and above as it helps them cognitively, physically and socio-economically.
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Reference

https://www.firstdiscoverers.co.uk/child-development-theories-sigmund-freud/

https://www.psychologydiscussion.net/child-psychology/play-theories-types-and-educative-

value-psychology/2489

Lally, M., & Valentine-French, S. (2017). Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective\.

Martha Lally, Suzanne Valentine-French.

Polan, E. U., & Taylor, D. R. (2019). Journey across the life span: Human development and

health promotion. FA Davis.

Zakaria, M. Z., Yunus, F., & Mohamed, S. (2021). Drawing activities enhance preschoolers

socio emotional development. Southeast Asia Early Childhood Journal, 10(1), 18-27.

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