NEWS COPY
Strictly Embargoed Until: Monday 21st December
It’s a Christmas tale many long-suffering parents of young children will be all too familiar with.
You traipse round the shops endlessly searching for this year’s eye-wateringly expensive ‘must-have’ toy, then head home to painstakingly wrap the gift.
And on the big day? It’s ripped open in a frenzy of excitement – and promptly discarded in favour of the box it came in.
Now new research confirms the packaging phenomenon – with 25 per cent of parents of young kids saying their offspring are likelier to spend more time playing with the box than the toy within.
A survey of 1,000 mums and dads of children aged 12 and under reveals that 36 per cent of presents are NEVER played with after Christmas Day.
The most common time for children to get bored of their gifts is 12.23pm on the 25th, just before the Christmas lunch is served.
The study into the amount of playtime children give to toys and games by Toca Boca, which has sold over 100 million children’s apps worldwide, found that few presents hit the mark over the Christmas season, with 45 per cent of parents saying their children complained of being bored over the holidays.
The average child dismisses four gifts within a day. Toys and games that can be completed fared the worst, with board games and puzzles also victims of the short attention span.
Toys and games with few or no rules or instructions have the most longevity, with dolls, arts and crafts, building blocks, tablets and iPads topping the ‘playability chart’ for UK kids.
It isn’t just kids who run out of patience, as almost eight out of 10 parents said they hate reading rules and instructions, with 46 per cent saying it takes the gloss off playtime.
Play without rules has been backed by experts and schools, with both stating that it is critical to a child’s development, helping to spark creativity and enhance imagination. Over 55 per cent of parents agree, but 40 per cent feel pressure to buy the latest toys and games.
Björn Jeffery, CEO and Co-Founder of Toca Boca, said: “Play is not only a way for kids to quite simply have fun, but it is also a crucial part of their growth and development.
“Toys and games have changed drastically over the years, yet the simple premise of what makes ‘play’ great remains the same – the ability to create your own story, spark imagination, and, of course, have lots of fun.
“At Toca Boca, we strongly believe in play for the sake of play. This is why we are big proponents of any toy or game that that sparks kids’ creativity and imaginations. It is also why all of our digital toys are open-ended and inspired by real-world play patterns that kids will enjoy for years.”
Professor Lydia Plowman from the University of Edinburgh, who has undertaken extensive research into young children, toys and technology, said: “Play has a vital role in the physical, emotional and social development of all children.
“Some toys have pages of instructions to go through before you can even start. Yet, toys without rules provide more scope for free play and allow children to exercise their imagination.
“Apps like Toca Boca have been clever to base their toys on play without rules. This is so important because when it comes to digital games the rules can be overly restrictive.
“Children are good at finding workarounds for real-world board games but there isn’t usually as much scope when a digital game has been programmed to limit the number of choices available.
“Play can then become scripted, and the child is playing by the rules of the game designer rather than their own which can restrict their creativity and curiosity.
“Free play is great for learning to understand the world by trying things out without needing to play by the rules. Anything goes – and that gives children the opportunity to explore and to be creative.
“Unleashing the imagination means that a child can be who they want to be, they can construct their own imaginary worlds, and they can play with one object believing it to be something quite different.
“This has more scope for magic and enchantment than rule-bound games. If you bear all of this in mind when selecting Christmas presents for your child then you can maximize the ‘play-value’ of their toys.”
Toca Boca has just launched a new app based on imaginative construction play, entitled Toca Blocks. The world-building app, invites kids to construct their own unique worlds by experimenting with the apps’ transformative blocks.
For more information on Toca Boca toys visit www.tocaboca.com.
ENDS
