I have spent the past few month deconstructing the cognitive, emotional and social attributes of children under the age of two. I have been particularly interested in understanding why children are more responsive to some toys, then they are for others. What makes a successful toy, and why? What strategies could be used in the development of a toy to foster learning opportunities, along with several other question regarding this ripe age and this medium.
This age is quite interesting since you are not only designing for the child, but also for the parent, who acts as the gatekeeper. This adds an additional level of complexity, and understanding that needs to be understood. So the first question I asked myself was, “What does a parent look for in a toy?”
According to the book, “The Blockbuster Toys”, parents look for toys that;
- Child’s Safety
- Child’s Continued Enjoyment (play value)
- Child’s Creativity
- Child’s Mental & Physical Development
- Child’s Success
- Child’s Health
- Child’s Love
I added some additional bullets that I’ve noticed parents, including myself look into when purchasing a toy:
- Brand Loyalty: Parent could be very loyal to brand names. There is a strong element of trust when a parent purchases a toy for their child. Parent trust that Fisher-Price would not put a toy on the shelf that would be dangerous. Others may trust that Leap Frog toys will help their children become smarter. Your options here are either try to license your toy with a company that has the brand recognition that could help proppel your toy, or make sure to market your company in a way that best reflects the goals of your merchandise.
- Cleaning: How easy is it to clean this toy? At this age kids put toys in their mouths, and parents are sometimes extra cautious constantly cleaning their toys.
- Durability: Will this toy sustain all the punishment that a young child puts on the toy?
- Cost: This one really depends, but is a factor. I some condition where other bullets such as “Child’s Continued Enjoyment” are high, parent’s may make addition investment. Your goal as a designer, should be to keep the cost as low as possible. I’ve hear that you should imagine all the parts of a toy in a bag and then multiply the cost by 4. That should give you an idea of what the on the shelf cost would be.
What is going on in their little heads?
Although each child is unique, there are some common developmental characteristics that we could use to help and identify common attributes. Through these attribute I’ve been hopping to uncover some rough guidelines to follow when creating toys for this age group.
Albeit, many toys on the market rely on gimmicks or piggy back on the shoulders of licensed characters to attract a child’s curiosity. However, all children have emotional needs that they expect to get fulfilled during play. According to the book The Blockbuster Toy, “The fulfillment of these deep emotional needs is the fun that creates a smile” , and this results in a child’s consistent play interactions with the toy.
So what are some child’s emotional needs that anyone designing interaction for children in this age group should look into?
- Pride
- Self-Esteem
- Appreciation/Attention
- Accomplishment/Mastery
- Power/Empowerment
- Control
- Silliness
- Independence/Freedom (harmless rebellion)
- Belonging
- Love Nurturing
- Security
- Fear Reduction/Bravery
- Sensory Gratification
- Mental and Physical Development
I narrowed down this list of bullets that fall inline with the child’s development at this point. As they get older, things like fantasy and role playing also start to appear.
What do children know at this age?
The first place to look, is at the child’s stage of development. Jean Piaget, a Swiss epistemologist that focused his research around the development of children of this age to be in their Sensory Motor Stage of development:
Sensorimotor stage: from birth to age 2. Children experience the world through movement and senses (use five senses to explore the world). During the sensorimotor stage children are extremely egocentric, meaning they cannot perceive the world from others’ viewpoints. The sensorimotor stage is divided into six substages: “(1) simple reflexes; (2) first habits and primary circular reactions; (3) secondary circular reactions; (4) coordination of secondary circular reactions; (5) tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity; and (6) internalization of schemes.”
Love and Security
Children at this stage of development need to feel safe and loved. Many of the children in the lower part of this demographic still rely solely on their mother for nourishment. This bonding along with all the hugs and kisses they get from their parents, help a child feel the security they need to find their place in this world, and with their family. Children will sometimes show their love and nurturing to a toy doll by snuggling up with it.
Language
Children at this age recognize voices and the emotions that they convey. Although a child at this age is just beginning to create a vocabulary, they do understand much of what you are saying to them. Like little sponges they start to develop a schema for spoken words and actions and objects. Eventually, towards the child starts to experiment with their own voice to mimic sounds.
Babies of this age could also identify familiar voices. If you put mommy on speaker phone they may start looking around the room to see where mommy is.
This is a perfect time to give a child an opportunity to make connection and experiment with language to help with their development. The more a toy allows a child to be vocal, the quicker they will learn how to control their vocal instrument.
People and Objects
Children at this age are good with faces. Babies could recognize face structures and they use physical characteristics, characteristic expressions, postures and movements to identify specific individuals to create mental models of people. Many times, when a baby sees a photo of mommy, they could easily make the correlation between mommy and the photo, and results in a smile and excitement. This same process happens with objects that they discover and interact with, however these mental models are very generalized. Although they may know what a doggie is, they may also think a cow is doggie, or any other animal that has 4 legs.
How do children play at this age?
Children at this preliminary stage of development are self-centered. They don’t do well in collaborative play since their social development has not ripened. Concepts like “sharing” do not come naturally till later in this stage, or possibly well into the following stage, depending on how quickly their socialization skills develop. Through these formative years, you will see more “parallel play”. Typically, children are in their own little world playing, even if there is another child playing right next to them. Creating a toy that requires collaboration or cooperation would probably be too advanced for this age group.
Structure is a “no go” with young children. They are more interested in “free play”. These children lack the cognitive ability to play a game with rules or activities that require advanced forms of interaction. Keeping it simple with clear feedback is the way to go. Simple switches with blinking lights and audio work well, but don’t feel as though that is all you could do. You could get creative and create some interesting simple interaction from a ball with an embedded tilt sensor. As with any design limitation, it could usually be solved with creativity.
This age group is packed with little explorers, constantly scanning the room and objects for something to interact with. They enjoy to the feeling of empowerment when their actions result in sort of feedback (lights, audio, parent’s laughter). Once they discover a “cause and effect” interaction, they will sometimes continue testing their hypothesis over and over. If you have ever seen a child that discovers how to open a kitchen cabinet, you will know what i mean. Open, close, open, close … parent buys a cabinet lock.
Conclusion
After following all these guidelines the truth of the matter is that the toy industry is a tough to break into. There are only a handful of successful toys that make it big each year, while thousands of others collect dust on shelves, if they get on the shelves at all. The one piece of advice that I read though my research which really made sense is, “Do it for the smiles, not the money”. That is the essence of toy building, before companies like Mattel and Hasbro came along, parent would create toys simply for getting the satisfaction of watching the smiles on their children’s faces. The other piece of advice is don’t get married to any idea. If you get too emotionally invested in an idea, it will not allow you to see it’s flaws. Unless you are making the toy for yourself, then you need to step back and see what of your audience’s goals you have accomplished.
References
What Kids Buy and Why: The Psychology of Marketing to Kids
Blockbuster Toy!, The: How to Invent the Next BIG Thing
Marketing to the New Super Consumer: Mom & Kid
