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Kick & Score Play Gym
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Kick & Score Play Gym

Developmental Benefits

Sensory Development
Sensory Development
Tactile Stimulation
Tactile Stimulation
Auditory Stimulation
Auditory Stimulation
Cognitive Development
Cognitive Development
Independent Play
Independent Play
Motor Skills
Motor Skills

Developmental Benefits

Kick & Score Play Gym

Sensory Development
  • A variety of textures, visuals and sounds stimulate sensory development.
  • Sensory development is intimately related to motor development. Babies are born into a world that stimulates their senses and to which they react. These reactions are bodily movements which create learning experiences. Sensory development in babies can be facilitated through toys that provide opportunities for them to experience sounds, visuals and textures. Young infants need to be presented with an adequate but not too great amount of sensory stimulation.
    From an early age babies use touch to investigate their world; as they learn to reach they begin to run their tongue and lips over toys and then look at them. Tactile stimulation is also combined with other sensory information. Babies can perceive input from different sensory systems in a unified way; for instance, vision and touch are closely coordinated when using a shape sorter. Babies who handle shapes and also fit them through a hole are learning to solve problems through touch and sight. Infants also learn about the links between sights, sounds and feel of toys when these are demonstrated by adults. They begin to associate the sight and sound of a rhythmically shaken rattle or the nursery rhyme played by a particular toy. During the first year of life infants’ visual development is rapid and they begin to identify objects through shape, colour and texture. They also develop the ability to visually track objects. Toys give babies and young children many opportunities to enhance their sensory development.
Tactile Stimulation
  • Mixture of different textures provide stimulation for baby.
  • Babies learn about the world through their senses. The sense of touch is intimately linked with other senses such as sound and vision. Babies are provided with stimulation from more than one sensory system at the same time; this is termed intermodal perception. They learn about the sounds that different objects make when they bang or touch them. Toys that are have different textures and shapes facilitate infants’ learning. Babies put toys and other objects in their mouths from an early age. They also begin to reach for and grasp objects and then move toys from one hand to another. Toys that are made of different materials and are different shapes stimulate young infants to grasp, mouth and shake them. Babies then gain greater motor control and begin to pick up small objects with their thumb and index finger. They also begin to bang objects together. This combines tactile and auditory stimulation; they feel the vibration and also hear the sound.
    Bath time play is an excellent opportunity for tactile stimulation. Bath toys that are small and lightweight so that young babies can grasp them are excellent stimulus materials. Babies and young children can learn from handling toys in the water; there are many opportunities for grasping, squeezing and squirting water from objects. Tactile stimulation and learning is also experienced when infants and young children feel the weight of a toy when they have filled it with water and then after they have poured the water away. These types of experiences help young children to learn about the shape, pattern, surface, texture and weight of objects through touching them.
Auditory Stimulation
  • Fun and interesting sound effects draw baby’s attention to play.
  • Even very early in life babies can hear a wide variety of sounds. Infants will turn towards the sound of a toy and begin to reach towards it. This ability to recognise the direction that a sound is coming from improves greatly during the first few years of life. Young infants listen longer to the sound of human voice and seem to prefer it to any other sound. They are especially aware of the sound of language and like to be spoken to slowly and with a high pitch. This is sometimes referred to as ‘infant directed speech’ or even ‘baby talk’. Young babies are quite sensitive in their auditory abilities and can perceive all the categorical sound distinctions in world languages. As babies develop their auditory abilities narrow so that eventually babies are only sensitive to those sound categories specific to their native language.
    As soon as babies are born they are influenced by what they hear around them and modify what they able to hear, accordingly. At the same time they become increasingly sensitive to music and musical patterns. Even in their first year babies are distinguishing between musical tunes on the basis of rhythmic patterns and later they begin to recognise the same melody played in a different key. Giving babies plenty of opportunities to hear music, singing, rhythm and talk enhances their learning and prepares them for the social world where they will talk, sing, play and listen to music.
Cognitive Development
  • Stimulates critical thinking through memory and logic games.
  • An infant’s thinking skills are influenced by physical activity. Cognitive development is the change in abilities such as attention, memory, problem solving and language. Research has shown that infants’ thinking skills develop as they act on the world with their eyes, ears, hands, feet and mouth. Babies learn about the world when they reach, crawl, put objects in their mouths, and drop or bang toys to make a noise. These interactions with the physical world enable babies to begin to understand their surroundings. For example, placing an interesting toy just out of reach of babies stimulate their interest and encourages them to move.
    As the child grows and develops the brain changes in response to the child’s interaction with the world. Learning about the world through play strengthens connections in the brain; this enables infants and children to attain a greater understanding of their surroundings. Cognitive development can be a social activity; adults help infants and children to understand more about their world by presenting them with games and problems that stimulate their thinking and expand their knowledge base. An infant’s and child’s interactions with objects and people, and the consequent changes in the brain, are the building blocks of development.
Independent Play
  • Games and voice prompts allow children to control the pace.
  • Early play in infants tends to be solitary or takes place alongside other children. Young children learn how to interact with other children through play but they can also explore and learn independently. The initial play experience for infants is when they begin to explore through moving and acting upon the world. Many toys offer infants the opportunity to learn more about their world. Young children will sometimes act out some aspect of their lives e.g. going to the shops and then they involve their toys in these activities. These young children are playing independently but they are also reinforcing their understanding of the social world by acting out scenarios.
    Young children can consolidate their existing skills by repeating actions whilst playing a game. Learning to play independently has its benefits, for instance, children using an educational game can control their own pace. Children sometimes choose to work independently in order to build up their confidence. Toys and computer games that facilitate independent activity at the right level for the child enhance problem solving skills and increase hand and eye coordination. Although cooperative play increases during childhood, children still spend the equivalent amount of time in solitary or independent play.
Motor Skills
  • Encourages fine motor skill development.
  • An infant’s growth and development in the first year of life is rapid. Many movements that young babies make are in preparation for the next stage of their development. When young babies watch a mobile they are constantly moving their head, arms, legs and even their mouths in response to the movement of the toy. Sound and movement attract a baby’s attention; if a toy is placed almost within reach of babies their movements become more animated. Bath toys provide opportunities to develop and use motor skills to great effect. For example, a young baby has greater control over their leg movements than their arms. You will often see young babies in a bath reaching with their legs towards a floating toy and kicking. All these movements strengthen muscles in readiness for the next stage - walking.
    As babies develop they become more adept at grasping objects. Young infants learn to grasp an object, for instance a cube. The grasping, at first, is quite clumsy but through repetition, and across time, infants become adept at grasping and develop fine motor skills. Infants first use the ulnar grasp where their fingers close against the palm when trying to hold an object. Within another month they are able to move the object from hand to hand. After the first year, infants adopt the ‘pincer grasp’ where they use their thumb and index finger to grasp even very tiny objects. Shape sorters help infants to fine tune their visual perception and hand coordination. Soon infants are building towers with two cubes; this also requires fine coordination skills. As the child grows computer games have been shown to help with hand and eye coordination. Spatial skills can also be enhanced when playing games that require concentration, quick responses and finely tuned motor skills.
Best for ages:
Birth+
Highlights
Kick up those little feet and get active with the Kick & Score Play Gym!
Description
Kick up those little feet and get active with the Kick & Score Play Gym! Watch your baby achieve motor-skill milestones with this multi-stage play mat and accessories. Start with lay-down play, kicking at the ball and patting at the giraffe mobile with dangling shapes. Ready for tummy time? Enjoy the colourful characters and the dumbbell rattle, twist-and-click kettle bell, red & yellow cards and more while helping your little one strengthen core muscles. Interactive learning panel teaches colours, shapes & animals and reinforces language skills. Take the detachable panel along for on-the-go play and exploration. Remove the fabric football and give your toddler an extra goal-scoring challenge!

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