Mister Potato Head: A Toy For Child Development
Who knows Mr. Potato Head or Mr. Potato Head not? In addition to being one of the best characters in the Toy Story movie, this well-known toy with removable parts and the shape of a potato can have hours of fun, in addition to creating new combinations with his face.
Moreover, it is not only a fun toy, it is also a perfect tool to stimulate various skills and skills that promote the healthy development of children. But what are we actually talking about here? We will explain it below.
Mr. Potato Head: Toys That Promote Children’s Development
Mr. Potato Head is a beautiful toy that is also an educational tool for working on different skills and abilities of children:
- Psychomotor skills: When manipulating and fitting together the toy parts (nose, mustache, eyes, hat, etc.), children develop their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination. In addition, in order to form different faces, children must be able to dominate the body scheme. In other words, they must have a clear mental representation of the human body.
- Attention and Concentration: In order to properly form different face combinations, children need to spend time focusing and concentrating on the activity.
- Creativity: Interchangeable parts and accessories allow children to stimulate their imagination and create creations. Mr. Potato Head isn’t just a toy that’s made to change faces, though. Kids can even make up stories and adventures for this amazing character.
- Language and communication: By playing with Mr. Potato Head, children can learn vocabulary related to body parts and clothing. In addition, when making up stories, children work on expression, language comprehension and communication skills.
The remarkable story of Mister Potato Head
Nowadays everyone knows Mister Potato Head. However, most people don’t know that George Lerner invented it more than 70 years ago. Actually, it was made in 1949 and launched in 1952.
In the beginning, it was not a potato-shaped toy with removable parts. The toys then consisted of various plastic accessories that you could add to real potatoes and vegetables.
In 1965, the company released the body of the toy. In 1995, when the movie Toy Story came out, Mr. Potato Head really popular.
In recent years, the toys have evolved, including more accessories and releasing different versions of them, such as Star Wars, Spider-Man, Indiana Jones, Iron Man and, of course, Mrs. Potato Head.
By playing with these toys, children learn new things without even realizing it
Mr. Potato Head is the kind of toy that kids, parents and professionals love. Even though children only see it as a fun toy, they don’t realize that it is also very educational for them. In fact, it stimulates their motor, cognitive and social communication skills.
In addition, professionals can use these toys to work on children with neurodevelopmental disabilities or learning disabilities.
As we mentioned before, while playing with Mr. Potato Head, children learn new things without even realizing it. Finally, they get pretty frantic when they realize they have the exact toys they can see in the Toy Story movie.
