What Are the “Right” Toys for Development?

Can you talk about baby toys and play? How important are the “right” toys and games for a baby’s development? What are the right toys? Will my baby be smarter if I play puzzles and shape sorters with him? Does he still have a chance if I let him play with cardboard boxes all day? Does any of it matter?
—Katelyn

Unsurprisingly, given our moment of high-intensity modern parenting, there is academic literature on what toys are the “best.” Like this paper, “Looking deeper into the toy box,” which discusses caregiver toy choice and reviews the literature on these topics. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a clinical report on the question of “selecting appropriate toys,” which addresses similar questions. As a first pass, these papers generally reject the idea that some toys are shown, “based on science,” to be more valuable. Similar to the videos that will “teach your baby to read,” there isn’t much evidence that you can make your toddler a genius by giving them the latest periodic table of the elements matching game, or ruin them by giving them a Baby Born Surprise Magic Potty Surprise (a doll that — I am not making this up — pees glitter and poops charms).

This isn’t to say there aren’t any underlying studies that look at links between development and toy choice. In reviewing the studies we do have, the discussion largely distinguishes between electronic toys and media and traditional toys (e.g. blocks, shape sorters, puzzles, dolls). This literature is a little down on electronic toys. I don’t find the results here especially compelling. It’s somewhat in line with the entire culture of screen-shaming. When there are studies with links between type of toys and developmental outcomes, their results are all heavily influenced by differences across parents in who chooses what toy.

What does come across, and is worth noting, is that to the extent that there are any differences between types of toys, they likely reflect differences in how caregivers interact around them. As that “Looking deeper” paper says, “on the whole, research has demonstrated the power of traditional toys to support critical caregiver-child interaction moments more successfully than electronic toys.” That is to say, adults are more likely to engage with a child playing with a shape sorter than one playing with a singing light-up ladybug. This seems to be a real effect of the toys, and not just different parents with different toys.

There are various reasons this might be. One is that the singing ladybug is so incredibly annoying that all adults in the vicinity run screaming the moment they hear it. It may also be that kids need more help understanding the shape sorter, and that encourages adults to interact. Or maybe another factor. These effects are all small, though, and in the scheme of things, the way you interact around some particular toys is unlikely to matter much at all.

To your specific question: there are no right toys. Cardboard boxes are probably a great toy. Especially if you spend time explaining how to use them.