| A parent's greatest contribution to a child's | | | | on the ways children construct their gender identities. |
| educational growth should come before the child ever | | | | Girls between the ages of five to eight who are |
| begins his formal education. Parents can leave it to | | | | exposed to Barbie dolls feel worse about their bodies |
| the schools to teach their child to read or count or | | | | than girls exposed to dolls with more realistic |
| write his name. But a child's best educational | | | | physiques. Female-stereotyped toys tend to promote |
| opportunities and future growth depend on the | | | | the most complex play in 18 to 47 month-olds. But as |
| combined effort of parent, teacher, and student. | | | | children grow older, their gendered stereotypes |
| There is a world of difference in the child whose | | | | about toys grow stronger. Boys, especially, become |
| parents are actively involved in his learning, and the | | | | increasingly likely to avoid playing with "girl toys," |
| child who is totally left on his own. It's a difference | | | | possibly for fear of social repercussions from their |
| not only in ability, in quality of work, but also in | | | | peers. Thus, those fashion dolls that were created |
| attitude and self-image. A child's first school is the | | | | towards the teens and pre-teens segment to |
| home, so the toys that his parents select for him | | | | supposedly stimulate creativity and encourage |
| should not only keep him amused and occupied, but | | | | imagination, may not really be the best educational |
| also develop his physical, mental and emotional | | | | toys because they encourage gender marginalization |
| well-being. The market for educational toys has thus | | | | and desensitization. Both strongly feminine and |
| been opened. | | | | strongly masculine toys seem to be associated with |
| Mainly addressing the clamor for toys accepted by | | | | the worst aspects of gender roles: i.e., a focus on |
| child psychologists, toy manufacturers have come up | | | | appearance in girls and violence in boys. |
| with a wide array of toys that promise hours of fun | | | | Toy companies, like all other businesses, aim towards |
| and excitement to the child, and at the same time, | | | | making money. But unlike many other businesses, the |
| meet the requirements set by these experts. | | | | target market of the toy industry is children who are |
| If it is true that no one ever steps into the same | | | | not amply fortified with the capacity to dispute these |
| river twice, it is also true that no child ever plays with | | | | companies' claims or question the significance of their |
| the same toy twice. As the child enters each stage | | | | offers. The fact that the toy manufacturers sell |
| of growth, his play changes; and as his play changes, | | | | directly to a key market that depends on middlemen |
| the toy is also transformed. Psychologists have | | | | - their parents - to purchase the products, is in itself |
| studied the evolution and development of a child's | | | | a remarkable curiosity. |
| intellect, as pioneered by Swiss psychologist Jean | | | | The result is an abstruse circumstance wherein toy |
| Piaget, by closely observing children. They have come | | | | companies contend that they are protecting the |
| out with a trove of realities on how toys, educational | | | | children's purchasing rights through straightforward |
| or otherwise, affect the child's multiple intelligences. | | | | advertising, whereas critics argue that these |
| An interesting sidebar to these findings is the fact | | | | companies are exploiting a defenseless population. |
| that toys and toy advertising have powerful effects | | | | |