Pop-up Toys

Pop-up toys can look simplistic but they have many valuable lessons for your child to learn. This ends the stage of most toys going into your child’s mouth and moves them into true toy play. There are many fun and interactive things you can do with a pop-up toy that aren’t readily apparent in the flipping up of the doors. This is a great cause and effect toy teaching your child that his actions can have an effect on what he is playing with. While cause and effect develops a little earlier (5-7 months) this will be one of your child’s first times to see his ability to act on something in the environment.  Here are some ways to use them.

Toy Play:

• Sitting next to your child, place the pop-up toy so that you can see both the toy and your child. Demonstrate how the toy is used. As the characters pop up, act surprised. Allow your child time to explore the toy.
• If you see your child struggle with getting the knobs to work, help him. Your child may need some physical assistance to push, pull and turn the different levers (wrist rotation, eye-hand coordination). Decrease the physical assistance you give to your child as they learn to use the toy, allowing them to become more independent.
• As you child gets ready to open the doors, use words like “ready set…go” or “1, 2, 3…up” to help your child understand that something is about to happen (anticipation of events). Act surprised and excited as the characters pop-up. Model sounds or words to describe the characters or the actions as you play. This will vary depending on the level of your child’s communication skills (imitation of sounds).

Other Play Ideas:

1. Ask “where is….?” Questions. Or give instructions like “find the ….” (building vocabulary).
2. You can also work on sharing by getting your child’s attention and saying “my turn”, take a turn then allowing your child to resume playing (simple turn taking).
3. You may find that in the early stages your child will be unable to manipulate all of the levers but can participate by closing the doors. This can develop into a nice interaction for you and your child, taking turns to play with the toy.