Fewer Toys Gives Kids a Better Quality of Playtime, Study Claims (nypost.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from New York Post: Toddlers with just a few toys were more creative and focused than tots with more choices, according to the study, published in an upcoming edition of the journal Infant Behavior and Development. For the study, University of Toledo researchers gave kids under age 3 either four toys or 16 toys and recorded their playing habits, according to the report. "When provided with fewer toys in the environment, toddlers engage in longer periods of play with a single toy, allowing better focus to explore and play more creatively," researchers said. Fewer toys "promotes development and healthy play," they concluded. The bah humbug-boosting findings may be one reason to skimp on the stocking stuffers -- but parents have another option. Simply keep more toys in storage also helps rein in the attention of scatterbrained toddlers, researchers said.

Comments

Toys?

[msauve]

For the most part, our kids had more fun with the cardboard boxes the toys came in than the toys themselves.

Playing with a box encourages imagination. Playing with some intricate, structured toy just indoctrinates kids to fit in with societal expectations.

Re: Toys?

[eddeye]

Your heroes like Elon Musk certainly didn't die on the cross or rise from the dead, so ignore them and follow Jesus Christ.

Give Elon time, he's just getting started. I'm sure that's on his supervillain todo list.

Also, to be fair, Christ never built a bitching hot rod.

Re: Toys?

[alexo]

read the Bible, and live in the real world rather than the fantasy one you are creating.

The irony is strong with this one.

New Toys

[Arzaboa]

When you have a never ending stream of new toys, the game is, "What's new."

When you have a couple of toys, the game is "Let's play with this and try not to break it."

--
Transformers, more than meets the eyes"

Re:Sounds obvious to me

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Studies about conventional wisdom are good because sometime conventional wisdom is wrong (e.g. geocentric universe models).

This is the same problem I have at work...

[Lodragandraoidh]

I'm forced more and more to multi-task, and have a wider range of choices to make in any given day on the job. This has increased the overall output only slightly - primarily because my work requires research to get to the bottom of many questions - and has certainly eroded the quality of that output immensely - forcing 2nd passes across some items that are in error.

I think sensory overload in all forms is a bad thing for human beings - regardless of their age.