I live in Melbourne, Australia. I'm interested in practically everything, though I'm currently studying science at uni.
Children Learn Quickly: a Short Lesson in Neuroplasticity
Children are extremely fast learners. For newborns, the world is a flood of information and they absorb it like a sponge. Connections between neurons in the brain called 'synapses' form, and because children have the ability to take in large amounts of information, the number of connections in a young child's brain (particularly babies and toddlers) are far greater than in an adult's. This is because, unlike adult brains which ignore irrelevant information, the developing brain takes in everything, and forms neural connections that are virtually useless. As the child develops, certain synapses which are used more and more are strengthened and become more efficient. This is due to a phenomenon called neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the brain to change: something which is particularly active during early years but still occurs well in to old age. Neural connections which are not used weaken and may eventually be discarded altogether in a process called 'synaptic pruning' which happens as children get older. Essentially, the brain is a "use it or lose it" system.
Children go through sensitive learning periods, or 'critical periods', in which they are particularly sensitive to certain information. For example, humans have a critical period for vision; during the first few months newborns take in a huge amount of visual information. This is essential for the development of an efficient visual system. Some infants born with cataracts receive corrective surgery far too late— years after their birth—and as a result never properly develop their visual system because the critical learning period has already ended. However, early corrective surgery can ensure normal development. In the same way, humans also have a critical period for language development, which stretches from birth to around the age of 12. This is why young children are so much better at learning languages and musical instruments than adults, and why it's a good idea to promote the development of language and musical skills early.
While some skills and systems require development in their respective critical learning period(s), others can be learned later in life. But generally speaking, it is far easier to do so at a young age.
Children Are Impressionable
Because of their heightened ability to take in information, children are also extremely impressionable. Their early experiences have a significant, lasting impact on their cognitive and social development. Thus, realising the potential of the sensitive learning period is important to maximise the development of children's cognitive skills. Increasing exposure to learning early in a child's life can be accomplished even through choosing toys which promote development of cognitive skills.
Children are not only able to learn skills early on, but they can recognise and internalise social cues from their environment. Adults therefore have a responsibility to ensure that children's potential to be influenced is used for good and not evil, and to prevent any internalising of harmful information like prejudices and oppressive stereotypes.
Toys and Stereotypes Influence Children's Development
Considering the amount of time children spend playing with toys, it seems strange that so little attention has been drawn to their contribution to development. It is even more surprising that the apparent disparity between girls’ and boys’ cognitive abilities in later years lasting into adulthood, especially concerning boys’ average higher aptitude for spatial and mathematical tasks or girls' talent for empathy and language, has not been linked to the dualistic, gendered-nature of children’s toys and the media.
Children Develop Their Gender Identities At Around Age Two
From the moment we’re born we’re inundated with social conditioning that teaches us that we live in a dualistic world; one with a ying and yang; a masculine and feminine; men and women. We paint bedroom walls pink for girls and blue for boys, we buy frilly dresses for girls and superhero t-shirts for boys. Girls are complimented on how pretty their hair is while boys are complimented for their bravery and confidence. But even if you can escape any social conditioning from these early influences of parents and family, there’s always the constant inundation of advertisements promoting dolls for girls and monster trucks for boys, and the gender stereotyping in TV shows, movies and games. Young children are impressionable, and they can take in social cues from parents, peers, teachers, and the media from a very young age. They learn that boys and girls are different, and that they wear different clothes and act differently and play with different toys. Children themselves are also able to reinforce these gender distinctions by teasing siblings and classmates who deviate from gender-specific boundaries. This is a defensive tactic children employ in order to identify with a group (i.e. their sex) which gives them an important sense of belonging and fulfills the human desire to fit in. These influences not only shape what children want but they also teach children what society expects them to want.
Toy Companies Exploit Gender Stereotypes
Toy companies want to make a profit. Sadly, the truth is that it is much more profitable for toy companies to create separate markets for boys and for girls, each requiring their own, separate products, rather than making products that appeal to boys and girls both.
By reinforcing the idea of gendered colours, personality traits, clothes, and even careers, toy companies create a pressure for children to 'fit in' with their genders, for fear of ridicule and social isolation if they do not. Suddenly, and unsurprisingly, children start to place an intense interest in defining and separating genders, and in conforming to these expectations.
Thus we see more and more extreme versions of masculine and feminine children’s toys being created and being accepted by children, who certainly don't have the power to properly consider these social pressures and/or resist them. We get those separate pink and blue isles in toy stores, separate clothing designs and different shoes, and suddenly even our doona covers become something that needs to be gendered.
Read More From Wehavekids
Scientific Studies on Children's Toys:
A recent study in 2005 by Blakemore & Centers involving using a number of undergraduates to provide ratings for certain children’s toys supports many of these findings.
Undergraduates rated toys as to how ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ they were. They then rated each toy for a number of other characteristics. Blakemore & Centers found that more toys previously thought of as being ‘masculine’ were now rated closer towards neutral (like blocks and legos), however they conclude that toys for the most part are usually able to be classed as being associated with one gender or the other.
- Feminine toys were more likely to be associated with encouraging appearance and attractiveness than masculine toys, and were also rated as being more visually attractive.
- The more feminine a toy was rated, the higher it was also rated in encouraging nurturance and domestic skills.
- Masculine toys were rated as more aggressive, competitive, violent, sustaining of attention, exciting, fun, dangerous and risky, and in need of adult supervision, than feminine toys. The toys themselves were also more likely to move on their own than girls’ toys.
- Neutral and masculine toys tended to be more responsive to the child’s input, and were more likely to encourage the development of spatial, scientific and intellectual skills, than feminine toys.
It is important to note that these ratings were provided by undergraduate students, and does not necessarily reflect children’s actual behaviour.
Unfortunately, and surprisingly, little study has been done on children themselves, to determine to what extent toys can influence their behaviour and cognitive development. Most research on the effects of toys investigates the contribution of video games in promoting violence, and the effects of toys like guns and action figures that can lead to an increase in aggressive play (Goldstein (1995), Hellendoorn & Harinck (1997), Watson & Peng (1992)). However it has also been shown that video games can actually improve cognitive and spatial skills ((De Lisi & Wolford (2002), Green and Bavelier (2003), Greenfield, deWinstanley, Kilpatrick and Kaye (1996)).
Society's Impact on Children's Cognitive and Social Development
Feminine toys tend to encourage nurturing and domestic skills, and emphasise the importance of attractiveness and appearance. Disturbingly, feminine toys can over-emphasise the importance of attractiveness and can lead to the oppressive ideal that a woman's worth is appearance-based, particularly to a greater extent than men. It is unsurprising, then, that eating disorders are much more prevalent in women than in men.
If girls spend hours playing with toys like toy babies and barbies, they will undoubtedly begin to develop a sense of nurturing and empathy. Conversely, boys who avoid playing with dolls for fear of ridicule don't have as much of an opportunity to develop these traits. Similarly, when girls play with toy kitchens they can begin to develop skills in domestic duties, and to become more accepting towards them. Boys who are less likely to play with these sorts of toys will undeniably be less accepting and interested in these tasks. And thus, even in the eyes of young children, being nurturing, child-rearing, and completing domestic duties begin to become associated with girls; with being feminine; and in later life, with being a woman. And thus, these oppressive ideals of nurturing and domestic duties being associated with women is perpetuated.
In the same way, if boys spend hours upon hours playing with legos and blocks, they will obviously develop their spatial skills. The disparity between boy's and girl's cognitive abilities in schools is therefore very unsurprising. Furthermore, because of the idea that men are naturally better at spatial, mathematical and scientific tasks is so pervasive in society, teachers can subconsciously expect boys to be better at maths and not encourage girls to participate as much.
If female students themselves expect that they won't be as proficient as the boys and have less interest in scientific pursuit, it can create a self-fulfilling prophecy in that because they are less interested, they will practice these skills less. This lack of practice means that they will perform even worse, which will further decrease their interest and so on, and the disparity between boys and girls' scientific and mathematical abilities will widen.
Thus, the general higher aptitude for mathematical/scientific and spatial tasks in adult men compared to women can be explained with reasons other than there being an innate biological factor. Practice makes perfect, and the more experience people have in a particular area, the more proficient they become. If girls play with feminine toys more than boys, of course they will become more nurturing and empathetic. In the same way, if boys spend hours playing with blocks, of course they will be better at spatial skills.
Over-exposure to 'masculine' toys can encourage the development of spatial, scientific and intellectual skills, but hyper-masculine toys can promote violent, risky, and competitive behaviour. This may cause boys to place a subconscious importance in these traits, and for society to learn to accept and associate these traits with men. This may explain why men participate in more risk-taking behaviour than women and why it is more socially acceptable for boys and men to be dominant, aggressive and violent.
I want to note that these social influences do not rule out an inherent biological difference between genders. Such is still entirely possible, and it is unlikely that biological differences between sexes has no cognitive influence whatsoever. However, it is evident that these differences are influenced significantly by social factors, and that gendered toys contribute to these differences.
How to Optimise Your Child's Development
The point is not that one barbie doll will turn your daughter into a 50’s-style housewife and one toy truck will turn your son into an aggressive criminal, it is that cumulatively, over years of being exposed to media and socially generated gender-stereotypes, girls and boys can develop one-sidedly. By which I mean; children may miss out on the advantages offered by their opposite-gender toys, if they grow up only playing with toys appealing to their biological sex. Furthermore, hyper-masculine and hyper-feminine toys tend to lead to disadvantages like promoting an importance in image for women and promoting aggression in men. More neutral, less gendered toys like blocks and musical instruments tend to promote artistic, creative, social, educational and scientific development to a greater extent than hyper-feminine and hyper-masculine toys.
Here are some tips for creating a less stereotyped environment and for expanding your child’s potential for cognitive development:
- Encourage your child to use a range of toys. Gender-specific toys offer different advantages so it’s important that they use a range of toys to get a well-rounded experience and development.
- Communicate! It is indubitable that children will take in stereotypes – there is nothing you can do to outright prevent it. Therefore it is important that you keep communicating with them and challenging these concepts, and ensuring that they are not internalising harmful stereotypes.
- Include ‘neutral’ toys. The most benefits seem to come from playing with moderately gendered and neutral toys, which rate highest in encouraging development of cognitive, scientific, musical and artistic skills. Some ‘neutral’ toys include play-doh, legos and other building blocks, puzzles and musical instruments like xylophones.
- Limit exposure to stereotype-reinforcing media. Try taping shows and fast-forwarding through the commercials.
- Watch your language around your children. We often don't realise how our language can often contain subtle conditioning. For example, praising girls for looking pretty while never doing so for boys can reinforce the idea that a girl's/woman's worth is appearance-based. Offer praise, but make sure it’s fair and that it encourages all virtues and not just the ones stereotyped for one gender.
- Try to include TV shows, movies and games that are less likely to reinforce gender stereotypes. This requires a very critical eye and it’s pretty unlikely that you’re going to find things with no inherent conditioning, but it’s important to give your child a range of choices. Make sure you include movies with strong female roles and which allow don’t just outright punish male femininity. Furthermore, try to reduce exposure to violent or aggressive media.
no on March 24, 2020:
nobody cares about politically correct gender neutral BS. boys naturally gravitate towards toy guns, dinosaurs, and GI joes, girls natrually gravitite towards barbies, etc.
na on February 16, 2020:
please do not feed people this lie of gender neutral toys, this could result in our children being in the lgbt stuff
grace on May 01, 2019:
this website is good because they don't like having gender specific things.
dank memer on October 29, 2018:
What is a Hot Yeet
Mememaster on October 08, 2018:
As I was doing some hot yeets I saw this and I’m like I better come over and do some dank yeets
Alasia on October 08, 2018:
Sapna on August 02, 2018:
Sophia on February 20, 2018:
I love this website thumbs up, now I have gotten what I need .
Jeff Jeffresen on April 12, 2017:
Don't you love this website my son just named all his toys
sundulbet on February 14, 2014:
Michaela (author) from Australia on February 13, 2014:
@DreamerMeg: yup, lego is THE BEST!
@cfin: good to hear! an interesting take on the toy companies, and while i think consumers control demand to some degree, i also believe that it's a cyclical system influenced by both parties (ie. toy companies market dolls which make us want dolls which encourages toy companies to market dolls which make us want more dolls etc... it becomes a bit of a chicken-or-egg scenario!)
@rabia kamran & jainismus: thanks :)!
@retief2000: haha i hope you're joking...
@2besure: that's very interesting! yep, kids take in information from EVERYTHING, they are very impressionable!
@jenny30 & rebeccamealey & gypsumgirl: thank you very much!!
@gmagoldie: Yes, I agree, the family environment probably leaves the largest impression on a child's development! Again, I agree - the media has such a large impact on everyone, and i don't think it's power is wholly realised in society. Thanks!!
@Tolovaj: Yes, it's always difficult when your family have different values - it was the same with my extended family growing up :/
Tolovaj on February 12, 2014:
Great overview on impact of toys on child's development. Unfortunately too many parents don't really care about the quality of toy or differences between specific toys. I hope the results of the study will find a way to them...
Another thing about toys I have noticed is quantity. It seems there is some kind of critical number of toys for each child. If a kid has too many is as bad as not having enough or not of appropriate quality.
This is also important thing to consider especially knowing how many conflicts can cause a toy coming from, let's say, grandfather, without consensus of the parents, or even one parent having too different view on toys than the other.
Kelly Kline Burnett from Madison, Wisconsin on February 11, 2014:
Fascinating information but I believe the family has more to do with development and beliefs than toys. Our family dynamics will set the foundation for the future not the toys. Yes, you are correct, how we react and speak around our children and what we encourage and promote. And then there is the media that will change everything. I like your encouragement to discourage commercials.
Recently the media has entered into some of the triple bottom line promotions of peace and ecology. I am hopeful that the media also seeks to change the stereotypes and benefit plans of the mega nationals.
We have allot of work yet to do in our world and all these tiny steps of recognition of what really is important is critical to our development.
Very well done and great suggestions. Thank you!
gypsumgirl from Vail Valley, Colorado on February 11, 2014:
Thank you for a wonderful article! Children are most certainly impressionable. All little kids want to be big kids. All big kids want to be adults.
Rebecca Mealey from Northeastern Georgia, USA on February 11, 2014:
Very interesting article, and I was engaged throughout. Impact of toys on child development is really an interesting topic, and you did the topic a great justice. Thanks!
Jennifer from Canada on February 11, 2014:
Pamela Lipscomb from Charlotte, North Carolina on February 11, 2014:
You give us a lot to think about. I never allowed my son to have toy guns. He however, would dress up in his days Army boots and hat. He ended up playing with guns anyway. He joined the army and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Children are impressionable and influenced by verbal and non-verbal information!
retief2000 on February 11, 2014:
Where can I buy that sweet tank toy for my grandson?
Mahaveer Sanglikar from Pune, India on February 11, 2014:
Thank your for sharing this detailed information...
Share with mu hub followers.
rabia kamran from pakistan on February 11, 2014:
very informative hub....thanks
cfin from The World we live in on February 11, 2014:
I find it creepy that so many people force the "princess" life on their kids not to mention the play kitchens and falseness. My child has toys story, princesses, monsters and fairytales. She does not favor one over the other. The in laws are constantly trying to force princess on her, because her cousins think they are princesses and scream and cry about everything. "I want, I want". "Want is a bad word in my house.
I really don't blame the toy companies though. They sell what the people ask for. It's all about the parents, and relatives and how much the parents let there kids obsess over one toy. Too much of anything is bad for us. Too much princesses, with their lack of work, everything handed to them on a plate and their unrealistic expectations of men can't be good for a little girl.
The huge irony is, that I noticed so many republicans in the US forcing princesses on their kids. But.....but.....self reliance......working for what we have......not living off the state.....
DreamerMeg from Northern Ireland on February 11, 2014:
I let my children play with whatever they want, when they were little. But I see some different things in my granddaughters, with one of them playing too much (in my opinion) with Barbies. Playdoh and duplo / lego is great stuff.
Rasimo on February 11, 2014:
“Toys have taken over my family room. I watch Mary Poppins, and no matter how many spoonfuls of sugar I eat, action figures won’t march into a bin with the snap of my fingers.”
― Barbara Brooke
Michaela (author) from Australia on January 27, 2014:
@Christy Kirwan: Absolutely! I hate being in supermarkets listening to parents tell their kid, "No, you can't play with that, it's for girls!"
@spartucusjones: Thank you! I agree; by imposing gender-specific boxes on people, it can prevent them from developing skills they might otherwise have developed which is just, well, sad.
CJ Baker from Parts Unknown on January 27, 2014:
Very informative hub! Your points were well developed and thought out! I absolutely agree about how toys can play a role in promoting certain preconceived stereotypes. This is good info in trying to help breakdown those stereotypes. It is a shame that we try to put everyone in boxes from a very young age. Congrats on another well deserved rising star nom!
Christy Kirwan from San Francisco on January 21, 2014:
What an excellent Hub! Personally, I think kids should be able to play with whatever toys appeal to them without gender coming into it. It's sad to see children boxed in by expectations at such a young age.
Michaela (author) from Australia on January 08, 2014:
@Miss-Megan & Cristale: Thank you, I agree! The impact of toys is a very underrated topic that I'm surprised more people aren't talking about.
Cristale Adams from Florida on January 08, 2014:
This hub provided useful information that I was unaware of. What children play with does have an important effect on their development and personality.
Miss Megan from Indianapolis, IN on January 05, 2014:
Very important information :) the science of child development is not discussed often enough. Thank you for sharing and reminding parents of these important tips!
Michaela (author) from Australia on December 29, 2013:
@ Natasha Peters: I too am very surprised by society's ignorance of the media's influence! It seems quite obvious when you think about it but I think because the effect is gradual people don't really notice it.
@ peachpurple: It's good to hear that you're letting your child play with such a wide range of toys. Wow, I remember when I was little I used to play with toilet paper roll binoculars too! The simplest things can make the funnest toys...
peachy from Home Sweet Home on December 29, 2013:
great hub. I let my boy play dolly, kitchen set, trucks, lego and pegs. Now he likes toilet paper roll binoculars
Natasha Peters on December 23, 2013:
Awesome stuff. I'm reminded of the Sims, where if you give your toddler a musical toy, it develops musical skills later in life. The same with blocks for intelligence. It's such a simple, logical idea, yet a lot of us seem to have trouble comprehending the impact of things like toys and the media, especially when the effects aren't immediately visible.