Innovation plays key role in developing toys

The experts at the Play Lab are on the cutting edge of early childhood development and learning, including play, educational, and parenting trends

Playing with toys is an essential and pivotal component of a child’s growth and development, with life-long impacts in many cases, says Lisa Lohiser, manager at Early Childhood Development Research.

This is why it is so important for companies to find ways in which they can keep innovating their classic toys through research and observation, she explained. “Play Lab is always looking at ways where we can expand and innovate within toys. We have innovations to help guide us, including technology and software that allows us to see a toy through the eyes of a child - literally! This is invaluable in helping our experts actually think like kids to deliver the best play possible.”

She added that the core values of the Fisher-Price Play Lab have fundamentally remained the same over the past 60 years, but have evolved with the influence of their company culture – follow the lead of kids to create the best toys and be sure to create play experiences that reflect the world they live in.

“Through our research in the Play Lab, we hear how important learning and educational toys are for both parents and little ones,” Lohiser noted. “Fisher-Price has offered learning based toys for years, many of which teach things like letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and more. Our Play Lab experts, who specialize in language development, causal learning, cognition, and education work closely with designers, engineers, musicians and content producers to develop these toys that cater to the learning and entertainment needs of the kids.”

When developing toys, experts at the Play Lab say that there are several factors that have to be taken into account, and it all starts with what would be “interesting” and what is the “fun factor” for kids. A toy must be engaging and keep a child’s interest. From there, the focus must be on what that interaction looks like, ensuring that the toy prompts actions such as hand eye coordination, sense of independence, confidence by experiencing success, imaginative play, teamwork and playing together, and gross motor skills.