Before charging ahead to a world of AI babysitters and teacher or companion robots, we should consider this technology carefully to assess its appropriateness in children’s lives.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Toys
Displaying 1 - 20 of 56 articles
Children benefit enormously from regular, cognitively stimulating interactions with their caregivers.
A new study shows how front yards can serve as windows into the inner lives of their residents – and their feelings about their home, neighborhood and city.
Until the age of nine, children struggle to distinguish adverts from TV shows.
Corporate supply chains are riddled with high, uncounted emissions, as Lego discovered. New regulations mean more companies will face tough, sometimes surprising, choices.
A concerning range of digital games played by children are still failing to build in progressive representations of disability and diverse bodies.
Barbie has long functioned as a proxy onto which cultural aspirations and anxieties about womanhood are projected.
Toys are the most plastic-intensive consumer goods in the world. So how can we avoid movie tie-in fads adding to the surging plastic waste problem?
An expert in high-end collectibles explains why certain items can become valuable – and also how they can lose worth.
While some children can be convinced to send their old toys to the op shop, or give clothes to younger friends to wear, other kids really struggle. Here’s why – and how parents and guardians can help.
Two experts on children’s play explain why you should be skeptical of toys that are advertised as being educational, and what to look for instead.
How should we understand what toys or ‘loose part’ materials support children’s play, and what’s the relationship of parents’ education and income to this? A study aims to find out.
Even fake guns can be dangerous if they are mistaken for real ones by the police or other armed adults.
A branding expert explains how this iconic but controversial doll has gone from teenage reject to movie star in 64 years.
Childhood wasn’t more ‘innocent’ or ‘natural’ before digital technologies or the pandemic.
Some finds toys for toddlers based on digital devices a bit confronting. But really they’re just updated versions of traditional toys for make-believe play such as doctor and tradie tool sets.
Black children are prone to internalize messages of anti-Blackness. Can a Black doll that honors one of America’s most noteworthy Black women do anything to reverse the trend?
Is a science kit, some Lego, or building blocks best for fostering kids’ STEM skills and creativity? Fear not – it’s not what’s in the box, but what happens after you open it, that’s most important.
Ultimately, screens are a part of modern life – children need to learn how to navigate them.
Here are some ideas for dealing with existing toys, as well as the upcoming influx of new ones.
Top contributors
-
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Marketing, University of Tasmania
-
Louise Grimmer is a Friend of The Conversation.
Senior Lecturer in Retail Marketing, University of Tasmania
-
Associate Professor in Education, Concordia University
-
Professor, Curtin University
-
Senior Lecturer School of Architecture & Urban Design, RMIT University
-
Reader in Intellectual Property Law, City, University of London
-
Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society & School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University
-
Professor of Marketing, University of Birmingham
-
Professor of Psychology, University of Cambridge
-
Associate professor, The University of Melbourne
-
Associate Professor of Sociology, Deakin University
-
Professor Emeritus of Cognitive NeuroImaging, Aston University
-
Associate professor, Architecture and Design, Swinburne University of Technology
-
Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware
-
Lecturer, School of Psychology, Deakin University
