— BERNARD DEKOVEN
www.aplayfulpath.com
Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys is a very comprehensive book, easy to read for parents and very useful for professionals. Beyond the use of toys and play I would celebrate the attention Dr. Toy gives to family relationships of children’s quality of life turning parents into “Play Guides” — the play guardians of their children. Juego Inteligente/Juguete Apropiado es un libro muy completo de fácil lectura para los padres y muy útil para los profesionales. Más allá del uso de juguetes y juegos, me gustaría celebrar la atención que la Dr. Toy da a las relaciones familiares en la calidad de vida de los niños que convierte a los padres en tutores de juego. Los tutores de juego de sus hijos
— NILDA G. COSCO
Director, Lekotek Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Department of Landscape Architecture North Carolina State University
Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys helps parents choose the right toy for the right child at the right time. What’s more, she inspires readers to remember play time happens outside of a child’s toy box. I highly recommend this book.
— SHARON DIMINICO
CEO, Learning Express
Stevanne Auerbach has done it again! She has taken 50 years of research on play, child development, and educational psychology and condensed it into an easy-to-follow guide for parents. Using toys as the focus, “Dr. Toy” takes parents through the reasons why play is essential for their children, how to play with children at different ages, and developmental milestones for each age. Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys is the perfect book parents can keep handy as a reference as their children grow and develop. It includes play for children with special needs. This book is a great gift for new parents or parents-to-be, it is accurate, timely, and extremely readable.
— SANDRA WAITE-STUPIANSKY, PHD
Professor, Edinboro University of PA
A child’s road to adulthood is a journey where many factors determine the direction and the final outcome. Parents, educators, other children, movies, news, pets, and the overall environment form a child’s perception of his or her world. All these factors are integrated by the child into the play experience which, in turn, has an enormously important role in how the child sees the world and his or her role in it. The importance of toys in this is often misunderstood. Toys are not a substitute for play, they are a link albeit an important one — in the overall process. Also, toys can be a positive or a negative factor in the direction of this process, and that is why the choice of a toy needs to be made with great care. Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys helps in making the right choices. She is the only author that gives solid and hands-on advice, and her book is a vital resource to give children a happy and positive play experience.
— LUTZ MULLER, CEO
Klosters Trading, www.klostertrading.com
Play is important for growth in all areas, body, mind and social and emotional development. Stevanne Auerbach, PhD understands this well in her lively book Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys written for parents and all who are interested in play.
— DOROTHY SINGER, EDD
Author, Research Scientist
Dept. of Psychology Yale University
Toys are children’s tools and without them they can’t grow and develop. Finding the appropriate toy for your child can be perplexing and is even more difficult when you have a child with a physical disability. Dr. Toy makes finding the appropriate toy an easy process. I highly recommend Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys to parents and professionals alike.
— STEVEN E. KANOR, PHD
President, Toys for Special Childrenwww.toysforspecialchildren.com
Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys is a comprehensive guide regarding toys and play and is a book filled with lots of insightful information.
— KATHLEEN ALFANO
Director, Fisher Price Laboratory, Aurora, NY www.fisher-price.com
In Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys, Dr. Auerbach shows how critical is the time spent playing with children and finding the right toys to stimulate each child’s full development. This is the right book for parents, grandparents and others who work with children to more fully understand and appreciate the value and importance of play. For it is through play that we learn life’s precious lessons. If you only find one book on play, make this it.
— SUZANNE ARMS
Author,
IMMACULATE DECEPTION
www.birthingthefuture.org
The website www.Drtoy.com is a great guide. Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys is a great gift for all parents. I love how the book is organized, toy guidance, milestones, and all the tips. It stimulates ideas for educating and entertaining children for many years.
— SARA DANZELAUD,
President, Tot Talk, www.tottalk.com
Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys is an ideal gift for any parent who’s interested in expanding their child’s interests and play opportunities. What Dr. Toy has created is a simple, easy-to-follow guide for selecting age-appropriate toys or play opportunities for your child or grandchild that addresses specific needs of children at different stages of their development. Dr. Toy is experienced, practical, down-to-earth, and seasoned mother and grandmother. She explains the role of play in developing a well rounded, resilient child. She helps parents understand a child’s developmental stages; how to direct play into new areas; how to use products wisely; how to purchase smartly; and why playing together strengthens relationships. I loved this book and highly recommend it for all parents.
— RANNY LEVY
Founder & President, Coalition for Quality Children’s Media KIDS FIRST!
www.kidsfirst.org
Dr. Toy’s Smart Play/Smart Toys is a great book for parents. It gives parents a guide to what are age appropriate toys for every age group with clear descriptions of the developmental reasons that make it suitable for any particular stage, and is very helpful breaking play activities and playthings into their value for physical intellectual, social/emotional development. Dr. Toy gives recipes for making play materials and suggestions for how parents can have fun with their children without being intrusive. A book all parents should have on their parenting bookshelf.
— DAVID ELKIND, PHD
Professor Emeritus of Child Development, Tufts University, Author, POWER OF PLAY, AND THE HURRIED CHILD
“To stimulate creativity one must develop childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition.”
— ALBERT EINSTEIN
