Abstract:

Laura Reasoner Jones explains her toy policy for the developmentally challenged pre-schoolers she works with: No electronic voices, no commercial tie-in to a television show. "I find that I really have become a parenting instructor," Jones says of her job as a special-education teacher who does in-home visits.

Jones, L.R. (2004). Toy snob. Teacher Leaders Network diaries. Retrieved from the Teacher Leaders Network 11 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.teacherleaders.org/old_site/diaries04_05/LJ17_04_05.html 

Full Text:

Toy Snob

I am a toy-buying snob, and the older I get, the harder it is to keep my opinions inside.

I refuse to buy or use or bring into my preschool students' homes any toy or book that is associated with a TV show or makes battery-generated noise. Need I say that I take very good care of the old toys and books I own, as I can rarely find anything new to buy? I have all of the old Fisher-Price sets and just about every Playmobil toy known to mankind. I have the old version of Candy Land. I also have boxes of generic blocks and Duplos and specially-purchased extra girl figures, as these sets never have equal numbers of boys and girls. Every session, my parents get to see that a toy doesn't have to make noise to be fun.

My biggest 'hot button' is with toy catalogs that call an electronic toy that makes noises "interactive." Parents buy those kinds of toys thinking that they are helping to stimulate their child's delayed language, the most common problem of the children we see. I have a news flash! 'Interactive' is not a little two-year-old pushing a button and getting a noise. 'Interactive' is a parent sitting on the floor with a child and pushing a car around making silly noises. Or building block towers and letting your child knock them down, saying, "Fall down."

My second biggest thing is teaching parents to avoid being sucked into the TV trap. I find nothing educationally sound about Bob the Builder that can't be accomplished by using generic construction figures, trucks and toys. When I use generic toys, I can add extra girls to the toy mix and let my girl students feel like they can really play rather than be relegated to being 'Wendy' who runs the office. I can add extra princesses to the Playmobil castle and make it a matriarchal society, if that's what my kids want. Non-commercial tie-in toys allow children to make up their own stories and not feel compelled to retell what they saw in a TV show. Where will we get the writers, artists and inventors of the future if we limit children's imaginations now?

Being a toy snob makes shopping for holidays and birthdays at home interesting, however. My husband's grandsons have been in a (we won't name it here) little wooden train phase for years. When we shop for their presents, I stand in the toy aisle and fume while he buys the latest and greatest engine model. I think, "When the time comes, my grandchildren will get beautiful books and wooden blocks and lots and lots of art supplies. I will become a legend among present-givers."

You might think in reading this that my two children had the perfect childhood, but, believe me, they had their share of commercial items: Barbie dolls, Strawberry Shortcake, and My Little Pony — all the things that would bring a fortune on eBay today if we had only saved them! It is only now that my girls are almost grown that I have become such a purist.

As a home-based teacher, however, it can be tricky. When parents ask me for present ideas, I give them a list of suggestions tailored to their child's needs. I also tell them directly why I think they should buy non-electronic toys. But they feel a great deal of pressure from peers and TV.

Many parents these days have to learn how to play with their kids, and sometimes it is just beyond them. So, that is one of my jobs every session, in addition to working on IEP goals. I find that I really have become a parenting instructor. God knows I wasn't the best of parents, but I did do a few things right. I read to my kids, I monitored and limited their television time, and I helped them learn to play imaginatively and appropriately.

And while I'm in full rant, let me say that I am really disgusted by the use of DVD players in vans. When are these children going to learn to converse with others, to listen to music or books on tape, or just plain look out the window and think? How will they ever be able to be comfortable with themselves if they never have a chance to spend quiet time alone?

OK, enough steam. But as a self-confessed toy snob, I do my best to make my little corner of the universe a better, more creative place through the use of really good toys.

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