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Baby Peek & Play Phone

3-24

MONTHS

Peek & Play Phone

Developmental Benefits

Role Play

Imaginitive Play

Language Development

Discovery Exploration

Imitative Play

Developmental Benefits

Peek & Play Phone

Develops imagination and encourages cooperation, listening and turn-taking.
Role play is a form of social pretend play. Children benefit from social pretend play because it can help them to revisit events that may have provoked some anxiety in the past. For instance, after a visit to the doctors children often play at being doctors and nurses. Role play not only reflects but also contributes to children’s cognitive and social skills. Playing out an experience enables children to understand more about it.
Research has shown that during social pretend play, young children’s interactions last longer, are more engaging and also more cooperative. Nursery school children who spend more time in socio-dramatic role playing are also perceived as more socially competent by their teachers. Role play enhances many cognitive abilities such as sustained attention, memory, language and literacy skills, and helps children to understand and manage their emotions. Role play is generally a social activity but some children can engage in solitary role play where they create imaginary companions. Games where children can create worlds and populate them with their own characters can be beneficial.

Imagination and exploration through interaction with characters.
Children’s imagination is active from an early age. Imaginative play has links to what psychologists call ‘social pretend play’. Young children pretend or imagine that, for instance a wooden block is a cake and they carefully ‘cut’ it. A large proportion of pretend play tends to be social. Imaginative play begins when infants play and pretend with adults. As young children develop they begin to try to engage other children in social pretend play. Young children in nursery benefit from engaging in imaginative play. It helps them to begin to understand that other children think differently to them and have different ideas.
Children can engage in imaginative play with other children where they have agreed on a story or scenario that they want to act out. Young children playing with toys use their imagination to invent scenarios and play out the consequences. They can use characters to explore scenarios and act out scripts such as going shopping or bedtime. Imaginative and social pretend play is beneficial for children as it allows them to explore different ways of viewing the world. Children who use their imagination when playing with other children are increasing their social competence and their understanding of other people. In a study where we observed children playing in a nursery we found that young children engaged in imaginative play, often using the toys in unexpected ways. Children’s imagination benefits from the opportunity to play with all types of toys.

Introduces the alphabet, letter sounds and vocabulary.
Babies start to babble at an early age and this can be seen as the first signs of language. They are predisposed to pick up the sounds of the language that they hear around them. Adults can facilitate babies’ language development by playing with them, focussing on particular toys, reading books and naming everyday objects. The more babies are exposed to language the faster they will begin to pick up it up. There are social skills involved in language acquisition such as realising that it is necessary to wait until the other person has finished speaking. Babies begin to learn about conversational turn-taking from an early age; if a baby is babbling the adult waits for a pause and then talks to the baby. Babies learn to take turns even before they are using words. Social interaction is important for language development and turn-taking games are a fun and educational way for babies and young children to learn.
Young children also need to practice their language skills. Toys that name alphabet letters and everyday words satisfy young children’s need for repetition and rehearsal when practicing words and sounds. For instance, young children can press a button repetitively to hear the same sound or word again. Babies and children learn a lot through repetition and pick up words rapidly in this way. Once children begin to read their vocabulary expands enormously.

Heightens curiosity and encourages exploration.
Even young babies love to learn about the world through exploration. Kicking and waving their arms while lying in their cot can lead them to discover that a kick can make a banging sound. Exploration and play are closely linked in infants where, for example, discovering that a toy makes a noise leads to infants repeating the action that made the noise. Babies learn a great deal through repetition. Once babies are either crawling or walking their mobility gives them more opportunities to explore their world.
Babies need to satisfy their curiosity about an object or toy by approaching and handling it. Adults can influence an infant’s confidence about the world by encouraging and smiling at them when they approach an unfamiliar object or toy. Babies can show uncertainty about a new toy and in order for them to confidently explore and discover it they need the emotional reassurance from their parent or caregiver. The confidence to explore and discover new things develops during infancy and creates a healthy curiousity about the world throughout childhood.

Copying observed action encourages social and emotional skills.
Imitation begins very early in an infant’s life. Young children learn socially from older children and adults by copying them. Imitative play is a fundamental part of learning; young children watch adults and then copy them extensively. Throughout their early years children are learning to adapt to the cultural world into which they have been born. Imitative play allows children to experiment with the cultural tools and behaviour that they have observed. Children try to use laptops, phones and any other electronic device available to them because they have seen adults using and interacting with these devices. Young children’s manual dexterity and hand and eye coordination is well adapted for using mobile phones and other devices. Children can benefit from having replica items available, such as an infant laptop or an imitation mobile phone. These electronic items can enhance manual skills, hand and eye coordination and spatial skills.
Imitative play requires children to observe and copy other’s behaviour. Sometimes children watch another child performing an action but don’t copy the action immediately. Lots of imitative play occurred in our nursery school study where we observed children playing with VTech toys. Children learn through observing and copying others. Young children watch other children and observe the consequences of actions without having to perform the actions themselves. This can help with social and also motor skills. A young child in our nursery study watched another child press a button on a toy to play some music and then jig up and down. After wandering off the young child who had observed the jigging returned to the toy pressed the button and began to jig up and down to the music. Children learn from each other as they play. Imitative play allows for lots of repetition which is also a valuable learning activity.

Best for ages:

3 to 24 Months

Highlights

Colourful phone features 4 press buttons introducing feelings, numbers, colours and first words. Includes 3 happy songs and 15 melodies.

Description

Ring! Ring! Hello, who’s calling? The Peek & Play Phone is a fun and exciting way for little ones to use their imaginations and encourages pretend play. This brightly coloured phone has 4 light up press buttons packed with fun phrases introducing feelings, numbers, colours, first words and includes lots of realistic phone sounds to encourage exploration. Turn the bear’s head to reveal a hidden mirror for self-discovery and play a fun game of playing peek-a-boo! Featuring 3 happy songs and 15 melodies baby can play happily all day. Includes an attachment strap so baby can travel anywhere with their phone!

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Peek & Play Phone

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