II. Child Development: For this project, you get to play with toys! Many toy companies claim that their toys help children develop certain skills… but do they really?
Here’s an example: Research shows that children under the age of about 2 do not learn word/object associations from disembodied voices (they need a human component- specifically a face- to learn). So consider toys where you press the ‘red star’ and a disembodied voice says “star.� Based on the research, it doesn’t seem likely that, at least for very young children, this toy is actually helping development.
Focus on toys that are targeted at children between ages 3 and 11. Find two toys (either in your own house or at a toy store) that claim to have some educational/developmental value and then, based on what you have learned this week, critique whether or not the toys have actual developmental/educational value.
You should consider all aspects of development (physical, cognitive, language, information processing, socioemotional development, etc.).
Things to be sure to address:
1. What does the toy do and what does it claim to help with developmentally (cognition, attention, etc)?
2. Research! What I’m looking for in this project is your ability to take the things you’ve learned from class and apply it to real life situations. Any claims or conclusions you make about the toy should be backed up by research. Use your textbook and supplementary materials as sources.
3. Try to find a toys for different aspects of development. Many toys claim to help cognition develop but what about emotional development? (maybe a toy that teaches about emotions?)
4. Be creative and have fun with it! Play with the toy yourself (you don’t necessarily have to buy it, just find a quiet corner in the store and pretend to be a kid) or find a kid (preferably not a stranger!) who is in the appropriate age range and ask them to play with it while you observe.
5. Make sure you have good essay structure (intro, body, conclusion) and grammar. Proofread!
6. Reference List: Cite your textbook and any additional references on a reference page at the end of your paper. For this one you may include product websites among your references, so long as you have additional scholarly evidence. For example, a product website is good to cite/quote to note the claims a product makes related to development
Final notes for all prompts: Follow APA style (with a title page)
Your paper should be 7-8 pages long (including title page and reference page- so at least 5 full pages of content). Please submit work as a MS Word Document uploaded to Blackboard using the correct assignment portal. Use Times New Roman, 12 point font with 1� side margins. Submissions not following these guidelines may be rejected and re-submission (with late penalty) required.
Deadline March 17, 2023 by 11:59 pm