Resources

In-Class Activities

Child Development: Toys and Games

Author: Sara Lindey, Ph.D.

Related Videos:
Doreen Boyce:  Modern Toys and Games (PDF Transcript)
Dorothy Singer: Play and Imagination (PDF Transcript)

Set the class up for a debate by showing the video clip, “Doreen Boyce: Modern Toys and Games,” from the Fred Rogers Oral History Project interviews wherein Doreen Boyce, former president of the Buhl Foundation and retired professor of economics as well as provost at Chatham College (Pittsburgh), voices concerns about the skills and values computer games teach children.  Next, divide the class in to two teams who create arguments on the values or vices of computer games for children’s development and health. 

Show the following games in class and have students discuss their explicit and implicit skills and values:

PBS Kids’ Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: Games: Among the many games here, some teach cognitive skills while others foster imaginative thinking.

PBS Kids’ Sesame Street: Color Me Hungry: Among many games, in “Color Me Hungry” Grover and Cookie Monster teach children about eating a variety of fruits and vegetables in this color-matching game.

PBS Kids’ Sid the Science Kid: “I Sense”: This Sid the Science Kid game tests children’s observational skills and knowledge of the five senses by clicking on the appropriate item described through sensory clues.

Mariyoku Yummy: Yummy Melody Match: Among other games, in “Yummy Melody Match” players are asked to click on the musical “wishes” in the same sequence played on screen, testing children’s memory and musical skills.

Contrast play with games to play with simple toys or props.  To start discussion use this video clip, “Dorothy Singer: Play and Imagination,” from the Fred Rogers Oral History Project interviews wherein Dorothy Singer, faculty of Yale University in the Yale Child Study Program, discusses children’s imaginative play with simple props and how that play contributes to their emotional, social, and cognitive development.

Complementary Materials:
Hogle, Jan G. (1996). Considering games as cognitive tools: In search of effective “edutainment.” Athens, GA: University of Georgia. Retrieved from ERIC database (ED425737).

No Comments

Return to the In-Class Activities page.