Priya
Did you know that soft toys are one of the most loved toys by the kids? Let us look into what makes them so adorable while also briefly touching upon why should you give soft toys for babies.
All of us must have had a teddy bear or a favourite stuffed toy while growing up. Some of these toys must have stayed with us for years. They would have been our first best friend. It is only natural to want our babies to also have such a friend as they grow up. Even today, with all the numerous toys available in the market, shops all over the world are full of soft toys.
Choosing a toy involves a lot of thought and consideration. We’ve made a brief list of the things to consider before buying toys to help you choose the safest toys for your kids.
What are Soft toys?
Soft toys are basically stuffed animal shaped toys that are filled with flexible materials. Back when I was a kid, the only popular and easily available soft toys were the furry teddy bears and dogs. But these days there are a number of soft toys in different animal shapes and even cartoon characters.
Soft toys have a lot of names like plushies, stuffed toys, stuffed animals and such. There are a lot of studies that have proved that soft toys for babies play an important role in the development of their brains. Let us look at the importance of soft toys for babies to understand in depth about the significance of these beautiful toys.
To know more about soft toys, it’s types and how to choose the safest soft toy, check out our detailed article on Soft toys vs plastic toys.
Importance of soft toys for babies
Oftentimes, the importance of soft toys are over looked. They are considered as some toy that the kid’s play with. Even a friend of mine asked me why I encourage my kids to play with soft toys compared to other toys. When I tell you that there are a lot of benefits of playing with soft toys, you might find it hard to believe. So, I’ll list down the basic five benefits of soft toys for babies below.
Apart from being cuddly and soft, soft toys also have the following benefits.
- Improves communication and social skills.
- Provides a sense of comfort.
- Develops empathy and compassion.
- Improves language and vocabulary.
- Useful for teaching values/ habits.
Let’s look at each of these qualities briefly.
Babies love toys that are brightly coloured, soft textured, and makes sweet sounds. All of these qualities are present only in musical soft toys. We have curated a list of the best musical soft toys with the utmost care to help you pick one for your li’l munchkins.
Improves Communication and Social Skills
Soft toys for babies play an important part in the development of their social and communication skills. Pretension is an essential part of children’s cognitive development. It is when a baby imitates whatever they see in their surroundings. Having a soft toy can help your baby to form friendships through pretensions. My first daughter has a soft toy named ‘Dolly’. She basically learnt to talk by having incomprehensible conversations with Dolly.
Your child like mine will also get to repeat the words they hear around them while they are playing with their soft toys. This will then help them further to start communicating and playing with their peers at ease. Thus, soft toys for babies make an excellent tool that teaches them important social skills.
Provides a sense of comfort
Babies just like adults are almost always anxious about something or the other. Soft toys for babies help feel them safe. It gives them a sense of comfort to know that they have someone who is always with them. A soft toy is a friend who’ll be there with them whenever they need some support. To this day, my daughter has dolly as her emotional support toy.
The soft and furry textures of the soft toys will give the baby a sense of warmth. The different smooth textures will also help them to improve their sensory development. Soft toys for babies thereby aids in decreasing their anxiety while also developing their skills.
Develops empathy and compassion
Soft toys for babies are an excellent tool to bring out the empathy and compassion in them. It also brings out their sense of loving and caring. The babies try to take care of their soft toys just like how we as mothers take care of them. This will teach them to understand the needs of a person and act towards fulfilling those needs.
The attachment they develop with their soft toys will be translated to human beings too. It will intrigue them to seek out connections with those around them. This in turn will help them to know about the human values of empathy and compassion. I made sure to teach my kids about these with the help of their favourite soft toy as soon as they turned two.
Improves language and vocabulary
Babies are very curious to learn and understand everything. They do this by imitation. In fact, there are studies that suggest that babies start to imitate at around 8 months of age. Thus, they easily pick up the language and vocabulary that are used by their parents and others around them. With my first daughter, I was quite taken by surprise when she started using the words I used frequently without even knowing the meaning.
Soft toys for babies, as mentioned above will help them with learning and practicing the language through pretend plays/ pretension. You as a parent can also help make this easier by narrating stories using the soft toys. Hence, soft toys play a vital role in helping the babies improve their language and vocabulary skills.
Useful for teaching skills
Soft toys for babies can help your little ones to learn and develop a lot of necessary habits. For instance, you can teach them how to brush their teeth, give a bath and much more. You can do this by modelling it on their soft toys.
Since the babies are emotionally attached to the toys, they will also want to try brushing and bathing on the toy and subsequently on themselves. It’s such a warm sight to see your kids take care of themselves and start doing things on their own. Soft toys thus act as a great educational tool while also being a great companion.
Conclusion
The world is a pretty interesting and scary place for a baby and soft toys for babies help them to navigate the world easily. It teaches them a lot of skills apart from being a reliable friend. I hope that this article on why you should give soft toys for babies has helped you to understand more about soft toys.
Why delay anymore? Gift your little bundle of joy a furry toy and cherish them grow and learn with it!
There are a number of varities of soft toys but the safest among them crochet toys and organic soft toys. Check out our detailed articles on crochet toys and organic soft toys to know more about them.
