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GENDER AND TOYS

Research has demonstrated that there are more similarities than differences between both sexes as far as the election of the toys is concerned. This contradicts some historical axioms in the area of child play: that males like more active and organized game and that the girls prefer those of passive character, of generally sedentary nature, and that these differences are more remarkable when children are 8-10 years old. Although it is certain that morphological differences exist between boys and girls, these are related to the interrelation type that is habitual in the game, and with the cultural patterns in certain educational communities.

EDUSUPERSKETCHER 3 years +

When boys and girls have the same access opportunities to different games and toys, and there are no approaches of the adult’s actions in their surroundings, prohibiting or allowing one or another type of games, it is observed that females and males generally select the same toys in the earliest ages, and that only starting at pre-school age, basically because of the educational and social reinforcement, will they begin to show bigger differences.

The experience of the early childhood center, when it comes to role plays, attests that in games typically considered feminine, as for example "families and houses", when there is no social pressure, boys and girls will participate in the game, assuming their respective roles, and manipulating dolls indistinctly, utensils of the kitchen, toys and play elements that reflect the diverse homemaking actions: cleaning, ironing, washing, among others. This doesn't cause, of course, problems in sexual identification.

In the same way, in a habitually considered game of "males", as that of construction workers, the girls also assume the roles of bricklayers, chauffeurs, the same as the boys. It is obvious that the election of the diverse toys will be then more related with their own interests than determined by their sex.

LIGHT AND SOUND HOUSE AND CAR 9 months +

The problems of sexual identification do not come about because the boy or the girl uses a specific type of toys, (this is an effect and not the cause of these problems) but from the particularities of the dynamics at home, usually very pathological in these cases.

Nevertheless, boys are usually more active and more dynamic than girls, and there are investigations that point out to the existence of differences that are consolidated during the pre-school years, and as a consequence, their games can be more active and less sedentary that those of the girls; this evident truth doesn't have anything to do with a sexual origin, but with educational and socialization patterns. This way, although boys and girls play the same game, and use the same object-toys, the game of the first ones will always be of a bigger corporal intensity and dynamism. The important thing then is not to define toys for boys and girls, but their relationship with the affective-motivational areas and physical particularities of our children.