Hide Article Text (OCR)
ToysAre MadeFor FunBy PATRICIA McCORMACKNEW YORK UPI - The cave man’s youngsters made toys ofanything they could pound, build with, manipulate. They liked to push things, blow into them. Next best, they loved things that made noiseToday's tots and toddlers warm up to toys put bo identical uses. They can play for hours with a cardboard box, old wooden spools or the battery of pots and pans in the kitchen.Or-4hey can get the same pleasure from manufactured toys that ape the primitive ones. The points about toys and their play value were made during an interview with Wesley Sharer,father of four, and an executiveof a boy firm.Sharer makes his living researching and developing new toys-work tools, as he calls them. Play, you see, is a child’s work-Test Of Time“The toys that stand the test of time,’’ Sharer said, “are the ones that fi'J a baste oeed in a child’s development. They’ve got to have multiple play value or the children will tire of them.They’ve got to spark and satisfy multiple curiosities, hi addition, they’ve got to be fun-even the locational ones '1Sharer said the pushing, pounding, noise-making and manipulative toys succeed so well because they help the child to learn to use his muscles. The noise-making toys help him to identify sounds.“A child’s first educational toy,” he said, “is a teethingring. ” aThere’s manipulation involved. There’s also pain and pleasure.’ Sharer, now head of research and development for Playskool in Chicago, has been in toys since 1999. He studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago.His firm does more than play-test new toys, giving youngstersa chance to put them to a trial use.Tough T««tToys for toddlers also always are rolled down three flights of stairs to see if they can take the punishment to which a typical youngster will put them during several years of play-Sharer said many boys of tlie educational variety are based on ideas submitted by school teachers. The firm get* from 200 to 300 unsolicited ideas for new toys a year.Those that are accepted earn 5 per cent of the wholesale price for the inventor.“The rejected ideas,” he said, “include plans for toys full of fun for adults. Most would-be inventors don’t understand playneeds. The biggest mistake: Failing to understand that toysmust have multiple play value.’’vSharer said his firm has been tempted by the suggestion of building a huge toy that could do many things at once.‘‘It we had such a toy,” he said, “you could buy one toyand junior could be happy withIt for along time. But so far, the idee doesn't seem practical.’’
Newspaper Details
Bradenton Manatee County Call
Bradenton, Florida, US
Fri, Oct 18, 1963
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 09 Mar 2023
Other Publications Near Bradenton, Florida
Bradenton Herald
Bradenton Evening Journal
Bradenton Evening Herald
Bradenton Manatee County Call
Bradenton Sunday Call
