Toys That Stress Mind Over the Material

Just because they build it doesn’t mean you have to buy it. With the tidal wave of marketing propelling a flood of holiday toys, it can be hard sometimes to figure out what toys are worth stuffing in the kids’ stockings.

At least one expert offers a general guideline: Pick gifts that stress creativity, from building blocks to nonviolent computer games. And try to ignore the marketing juggernaut.

“Kids see toys like Furby advertised on television so it builds the ‘Buy it for me, Mommy!’ syndrome,” says Stevann Auerbach, director of the nonprofit Institute of Childhood Resources in San Francisco. “The problem with a lot of these products is that once you get them home the child either gets bored quickly or they don’t work right or they don’t do what they think they’re going to do.”

Auerbach, who markets books, a syndicated column and online resources under the name Dr. Toy, has built a career around screening toys for children. On her Web site (https://www.drtoy.com), she rates the best toys of the year in various categories, including educational, software and high-tech, socially responsible, creative and audio and video. The lists also are available by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Dr. Toy, Institute for Child Development, 268 Bush St., San Francisco, CA 94104-3524.

The basics are the best, she says.

“A set of blocks has endless potential development as an imagination station,” Auerbach says. Toys can form more than a childhood diversion. Auerbach says she recently asked attendees at the National Assn. for the Education of Young Children in Toronto to recall favorite toys from their youth.

“They remembered the classics,” Auerbach says. “One remembered Chatty Cathy. Another one remembered a yo-yo that he played with. Somebody else remembered paper dolls. . . . Very classic things. It was also a connection with someone they played with, a friend or a brother or a sister or a parent. It was an emotional connection, not just with the toy but with the whole experience.”