Are Duplos Good For Toddlers?

Duplos have been around for over 40 years but many people are still confused about what ages they are best for. So in this article I will do my best to help you determine if Duplos are good for your toddler or other young children or not. Duplos are specifically made for children aged 18 months to 5 years old. They are designed to help these younger children express their creativity while also being large enough that they are safe for them as well. Duplos are actually designed in such a way that they are compliant with all child safety standards especially in regards to not being a choking hazard as that could be a serious issue with younger children. The Duplo blocks themselves are designed to be twice as large as a traditional Lego brick to prevent them from being a choking hazard for children and to make them easier for smaller children to handle as well. The bricks and corresponding kits help children to interact and are useful for helping children to develop a number of skills at a young age. As with any product that is designed for children, it is important that children be supervised during use to prevent unintended accidents or injury but Duplos are designed to be one of the safest toys on the market. To see the best Duplo sets that are available you can click here. Duplos Help Keep Toddlers Occupied One of the benefits of Duplo bricks for toddlers is that it keeps them occupied, often for long periods of time. Not in the sense of giving them something to do, such as a phone or tablet device, but in a tactile way. These toddlers are allowed to use their imagination to build and tear apart creations while engaging in natural play. This allows these children to focus on the task in front of them and not constantly seek something new or become easily distracted. This is great for young children who have trouble paying attention to one thing for very long and are always getting up and moving once they have started something. This is beneficial for group play as well. Children can play together in a non competitive manner and work together using cooperation to complete a kit or comparing each other’s constructions. This fosters positive social behavior and the forming of friendships at an early age as well. Duplos Help With Early Motor Skills Young children also benefit from the act of playing with the blocks themselves. They will often learn how to disassemble blocks before they even know how to put them together. This helps to develop the motor skills necessary to manipulate small objects and to purposely try to take them apart. Once they learn how to take blocks apart, a child will begin to learn how to put them back together again. This is a key motor function as well. Just like with disassembly, putting blocks together takes hand-eye coordination to figure out how the blocks go together and how to put them together so that they stack or fit properly. These are key skills in early childhood development Cognitive Development in Toddlers Apart from the development of fine motor skills from manipulating the Duplos, children also develop mentally from playing with the blocks. Learning the process of disassembly and assembly causes children to think in an active way about what they are doing. Children will then develop a number of cognitive skills throughout the process of learning how to use the blocks. These include mathematics and critical thinking, and the ability to think beyond the particular action they are taking. Once they begin placing blocks together, they are able to then consider what blocks to place next and where to place them. These skills also go alongside increased attention to detail and pattern recognition. Both of which are key critical thinking skills in early childhood development. Duplo Building Kits Further Enhances Learning As children progress from simply playing with blocks to being able to assemble them into designs, they develop the ability to follow instructions. Having young children play with and try to replicate block sets is a good way to further enhance the learning process. Many of the block sets that Duplo makes are designed around themes that help with early childhood development and learning. For instance, the farm kit can help children not only with the assembly of the kit itself, but also in identifying animals on a farm. Helping children to learn by using real world objects and animals is one of the major benefits of Duplos for toddlers and young children. Many of the Duplo sets feature similar themes geared towards helping children through real world objects and characters that are appropriate for a younger age range. Duplo Has Kid Friendly Licenses Duplo has licensed a number of product lines around kid themed shows that allow them to play and interact with their favorite characters from other media such as movies or TV shows. For example, there are many Duplo sets that are centered around Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, the Little Mermaid, and more. They have also expanded the range of products to include things like train sets and tracks. The number of options of child friendly characters also makes Duplos good for toddlers as it allows them to associate fun and learning with some of their favorite characters. Not only that, they are able to assemble objects and scenes from their favorite shows and movies which further helps with cognitive development. Transitioning From Duplos to Legos Duplo blocks are also designed to be used in conjunction with Lego blocks. This allows children to put together a mix of both blocks to play and make unique designs. It also allows children who grow too old for Duplos to move on to the more complex and sometimes more mature Lego building kits and themed sets. This improves versatility of Duplos beyond the suggested age range and gives parents more options as their children grow. Duplos Are A Quality Product The last major benefit of buying Duplos for toddlers is that they are of the same standard of quality as that of the parent brand Lego blocks. This means that one set of Duplo blocks is likely to last for many years and can be handed down from one child to another and even from one generation to the next as well! For example, I have Duplos in my house that I played with as a child and now all of my children have played with them as well! This increases the value of the Duplos because it allows parents to buy sets that can be used with multiple generations of children without worrying about quality or them breaking. The longer the blocks last, the more value parents can get out of them. These aren’t the type of toys that will be needing to be replaced every few weeks or months, they will literally last decades! Conclusion Duplos are specifically designed for use by toddlers to help them grow and learn. The number of options available gives children a wide variety of play types and themes that they can choose from. The Duplos themselves help children develop fine motor skills and critical thinking skills that will help them during their early childhood development. Duplos also allow toddlers to transition to more age appropriate toy sets once they age out of the Duplos themselves since Legos and Duplos will fit together.