Toy Description Project

7/30/2019 Toy Description Project

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Toy Description Project

Laugh and Learn Stride-to-Ride PuppyMichelle Hart

Introduction

The Laugh and Learn Stride-to-Ride Puppy is marketed at children between nine to

thirty-six months of age. This toy is geared towards keeping a childs attention for a long

amount of time, and is incredibly interactive. It allows the child to sit, walk, play, ride, and learn

while exploring the world around them. The physical device itself has a sturdy, plastic seat that

rotates into a walking tool, to attend to children at different developmental stages. Directly

below the seat, there is a compartment for storage of various shaped objects. On the side of the

puppy, there are three holes of various shapes (i.e. triangle, circle, square) that the objects fit

through, when manipulated by the child. The puppy is very colorful and musical, painted in

vibrant colors and playing music when the child engages with buttons on the toy (Fisher-Price,

2012).

Aside from the physical aspects of the toy, it is geared towards assisting the child in

growing in two main areas. First, the toy assists in the gross-motor skill of learning to walk.

This toy provides great support, in the walking assistance handle (doubles as seat) provided.

Second, the child learns hand-eye coordination through handling the blocks provided and

attempting to place them into the particular openings. Also, by pushing buttons to engage the

music and sounds of the puppy, children are learning both hand-eye coordination and cause and

effect relationships. In addition, these blocks and buttons have bright colors, engaging the brain

in different ways to react to the sensory intake of shapes, colors, lights, and sounds. This

apparatus encompasses both fine and gross motor skills, working with the physical body, as well

as engaging cognition and developing the mind as a whole (Fisher-Price, 2012).


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Motor Development

A toddlers first years of life are filled with numerous milestones in learning how to use

their different appendages in the correct way. In the Laugh and Learn Stride-to-Ride Puppy, the

age range is 9 months to 36 months, where many of these motor milestones occur. One

milestone is the ability for children to walk on their own, which develops around 11 months, 3

weeks on average. This ability comes after a serious of milestones from first holding their head

up at 6 weeks until they complete the cephalocadual trend by walking on their own. Another

milestone that a young toddler achieves is the ability to intentionally reach towards and grasp

something. This ulnar grasp occurs around three to four months of age and is also the result of a

series of smaller milestones to this achievement. Prereaching for an infant is instinctive, but

he/she is not intentionally grasping for something, and this instinct drops out around 7 weeks

(Berk, 2012). Yet, actual reaching emerges around three to four months of age, and continues to

mature, beginning with the ulnar grasp, which is clumsy and consists of taking all fingers and

wrapping them around something, usually a caretakers palm. But it then extends further,

maturing into the pincer grasp, which resembles pinching with an index finger and thumb,

appearing around 12 months. By being able to reach intentionally, children can actively engage

in their world.

This toy is inappropriate for 9 month olds in terms of the gross-motor skill of walking.

As previously stated, children begin walking around 11 months and 3 weeks, thus the walking

apparatus provided would be unnecessary and unusable. However, the child will be able to ride

on the puppy and still enjoy the toy, yet simply cannot take full advantage of the assistance in

walking because he/she is still in the cruising stage of crawling at 9 months.


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However, the toy is incredibly appropriate for a 9 month old with regards to reaching and

grasping. At three to four months, a child has mastered the ulnar grasp, allowing him/her to take

all fingers and wrap them around an object. Thus, he/she will be able to pick up the shapes and

place them into the correct holes. Also, a child will be able to reach out, intentionally (again,

around three to four months) to be able to push the buttons to activate the music and learning

apparatuses on the puppy. Therefore, since this toy has been geared towards ages above 9

months, children will have the reaching and grasping abilities to fully engage with the Laugh and

Learn Stride-to-Ride Puppy.

Perceptual Development

Perceptual milestones are crucial to a babys development, and many of them occur

before a baby is even born or in the first few months of life. First, touch is incredibly important,

emerging prenatally around 7 or 8 weeks after conception. This is only initially around the lips,

but grows to the palm of hands around 12 weeks, and eventually every area of the body can

perceive touch, except the top of the head and middle back, by 14 or 15 months (Berk, 2012).

Sight develops in a similar way, but is the last sense to develop, beginning around 20 weeks after

conception when a baby opens his/her eyelids. Before this time the fetus was not ready to

observe light, since the eye structures were still developing. But the eyes continue to mature

afterbirth, because they are physiologically immature at birth. At two months, the babys lenses

mature and they can focus their eyes; at four months a baby can see color in his/her vision,

beginning with red followed by orange, green, yellow, and blue respectively. Finally at month 6,

the retina matures and transmission of images is improved. Additionally, depth perception is key


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to guiding motor activity and does not engage until 7 months, and only after significant crawling

experience.

This apparatus seems appropriate for a 9-month child, based on these three areas. With

respect to touch, this is mostly developed before the child is even born (completed by week

14/15 after conception), so the child will be able to interact and feel the puppy. Also, sight is

basically completed with children having 20/20 vision at 6 months, so they will be able to see the

buttons they are pushing, and will be able to receive the colors that are being displayed since

color is achieved after 4 months of life. Because both the retina (matures at 6 months) and lens

(matures at 2 months) have matured, the child will be able to fully view the apparatus. Finally, a

child will most likely be able to understand depth due to experience crawling. Since, at 9

months, a child is cruising, and has had significant experience with crawling, he/she will fully

understand depth. This will aid in allowing the child to be able to place the objects into the holes

and maneuver safely around the play area without hurting him/herself.

Cognitive Development

Piaget developed numerous stages of development to explain how a child grows and

matures through life. The sensorimotor stage best focuses on the age range of the Laugh and

Learn Stride-to-Ride Puppy. The sensorimotor period ranges from birth to 2 years of age and is

filled with new experiences and motor behaviors, which lead to schema creations for a child.

This period allows the child to succeed later in life, but does not achieve all tasks. For example,

problem solving and object permanence are achieved and utilized by a child in this stage, but

language achievements have not occurred yet. Problem solving is incredibly beneficial and aids

children in solving a problem on their own, strengthening their ability for intentional behavior.


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This is visible at the end of the sensorimotor period, so at least by age 2. Object permanence

means understanding that an object exists, even when one cannot see it. This does not form

completely until around 8 months of age. Lastly, language comprehension is not possible in this

stage. Children need to be able to understand the meaning of the words, otherwise they are

simply arbitrary sounds, and they cannot achieve this comprehension until the preoperational

period.

This Laugh and Learn Stride-to-Ride Puppy is not completely appropriate for the

sensorimotor period of life. With regards to problem solving and intentional actions, it will be

very appropriate because children will need to utilize problem solving when attempting to place

the shaped objects in the correct hole. For example, if a child attempts to place the circle object

in the triangle hole, it will not fit and they need to be able to know to try all the other holes until

it fits, thus requiring problem solving. Since problem solving is an achievement of birth to 2

years, this toy being aimed for 9 months is appropriate. It is also appropriate in terms of object

permanence. Once a child places the shaped objects into the correct hole, it will disappear.

But the child will be able to understand that the object is simply in the storage space below the

seat. Since the child can understand this concept, because it is mastered around 8 months, and

the child is 9 months of age, the child will simply be able to open the seat and collect his/her

objects to proceed with the activity.

However, a child cannot perceive language, so although the music and sounds will be

pleasant sounding, they will not be able to comprehend the words within the music. This ability

does not arise until the Preoperational Period, ages 2 to 7, so the child will simply be hearing

arbitrary sounds. The button that plays the ABCs for a child will not be helpful for a child,


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because he/she cannot fully comprehend what he/she is being taught, and cannot yet regurgitate

the information to serve as learning from this practice.

Language Development

During the age range of 9 months to 36 months, there are two major developments that

take place in a young childs language development. The first is a semantic development. At 12

months, a child expresses his/her first vocabulary word. This vocalization takes place roughly 6

months after they have their first receptive (understood) word. This expressive lag takes place

because we can understand language before we can speak it. Receiving language is a passive

task, but the active task of forming new words requires developed muscles and thinking not yet

available at 6 months. A second milestone, during the ages of 9 to 36 months, is a pragmatic

development entitled turnabout, which is established at two years of age (24 months). Turnabout

is when children learn to take turns in a conversation and they understand this dialogue as a

social rule.

For this Laugh and Learn Stride-to-Ride Puppy, language skills are not incredibly

important, as it is mostly a toy that children play with themselves. However, since it is

interactive, the child must understand these language skills to some degree. The alphabet can be

played, for a child to listen to, as well as other songs for the child to sing along to. For a child to

understand these songs, they must be able to receive words. Since this first reception begins at 6

months of age, the child will be able to receive at least some of the words/songs being presented.

Unfortunately, because the first expressive vocabulary word is not spoken until one year of age,

at nine months, a child will not be able to interact with the songs by singing along or practicing


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their abcs with the device. Children also cannot ask for help, because of this expressive lag and

may become frustrated with the toy easily.

In addition, since the child cannot understand turnabout until his/her second birthday,

even when he/she is able to ask for help from a parent, he/she will not understand to wait for a

response before asking another question. On the other hand, this toy is marketed that it works on

cause and effect development, with pushing a button and waiting for the response of the music,

so this is creating preliminary understanding of cause and effect and can help with the

development of turnabout soon after. Furthermore, since at nine months joint attention is

developed, a child will be able to understand and attend to an object that a caregiver points to.

Since a child at this age can attend to the same object that an adult is pointing at, a child can then

label that object with its correct name when it is verbalized. This will allow the caregiver to help

a child understand a square object, or the different parts of the puppy. Although they will have

to be careful of overextensions and underextensions (applying the incorrect title to an object by

over or undergeneralizing the title) it will help with caregiver/child bonding and with

jumpstarting the childs vocabulary skills. Therefore, although language is not the emphasis of

this toy, it can help children develop language skills, but mostly relies on concepts not

completely understood until an age beyond 9 months.

Summary

Overall, I believe that this toy is appropriate for the age range that it is marketed towards.

However, this comes with a caveat for the youngest age. Children at the youngest age will not

be able to take full advantage of the toy, yet I believe that they will have enough parts of the

Laugh and Learn Stride-to-Ride Puppy that they will still be able to enjoy the toy. One prime


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example of this is with the motor skills of a child at 9 months. Although he/she cannot walk

until 2 months and 3 weeks after this age, he/she will still be able to take advantage of the toy in

other capacities such as riding it or using the ulnar grasp to be able to place the objects into the

correct holes. One development that stood out as making this toy especially appropriate for this

age range was cognitive development. In Piogets sensorimotor period, from birth to age two,

children grasp the concepts of object permanence and problem solving. These are both

incredibly important milestones, but object permanence is incredibly important in this toy,

because children have to understand that when they place a shaped object into the puppy, it is not

gone completely. With this understanding, they will be able to open the compartment and pull

out the blocks, without becoming frustrated over losing their toys. Since object permanence

develops around 8 months, a 9 month child will have mastered this and be able to interact with

the toy successfully.

After assessing this toy, I would change two aspects of the toy to develop these four

domains even more. First, I would focus on the language development of the toy, as it is not a

focus currently. To do this, there would be lights inside different parts of the dog, such as the

nose and ears, that light up, and then the device says the object name. This could help with joint

attention, because the children are focusing on an object and labeling it. However, it could still

require the assistance of the caregiver at the beginning, to physically point at the object, but

eventually the children would learn many different labels for the different part of the toy. In

addition, I would like to see the pincer grasp focused on as well. Currently, the ulnar grasp

(develops at month 3 or 4) is worked, but the pincer grasp (develops at 12 months) is not being

developed at all. Therefore, if there were smaller objects and holes to place them in, other than

the largely shaped objects that already exist, children would be able to develop their pincer


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grasp, after they had mastered the ulnar grasp and became bored with this simple task. Overall, I

think that this toy is focused on the correct age group and is very helpful in pursing motor,

perceptive, cognitive, and language development. The Laugh and Learn Stride-to-Ride Puppy

would assist children ages 9 months to 36 months to further their skills and focus on milestones

occurring throughout their first three years of life.


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References

Berk, Laura E. (2012). Child Development(Second Custom Edition for Pennsylvania State

University). Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions.

Fisher-Price (2012). Laugh & Learn Stride-to-Ride Puppy. Retrieved March 20, 2013 from

http://www.fisher-price.com/en_US/brands/babytoys/products/67427

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