Playing with cars helps kids in their development. We have found this interesting article written by Rachel Trost. Rachel holds a master in occupational therapy and she highly recommends playing with cars :)
Pediatric therapy sessions typically involve a lot of play time! Why? Children learn about their world through play and imitation of adults, and play is much more motivating than sitting at a table completing worksheets. When a child plays with a car, here are a few of the skill areas that are targeted:
- Experiencing cause and effect relationships, such as when a car drops down a ramp
- Labeling basic parts of a car
- Strengthening hand-eye coordination skills and improving hand dexterity while building a toy car. Consider building a visual model for your child to copy
- Improving hand coordination and hand dexterity while repairing a car using toy tools. Facilitate this by placing your hand on the child’s and physically moving his hands if necessary
- Practice using both hands simultaneously while turning a steering wheel
- Improving strength and coordination while climbing in and out of child-sized car
- Vocabulary:
- go/stop
- fast/slow
- on/off
- up/down
- smooth/bumpy
Have fun playing with cars with your child, and know that they are really learning in the process!
read more on: http://nspt4kids.com/parenting/developmental-skills-while-playing-with-cars/
