'This comprehensive book leaves the reader informed, satisfied and keen for more.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

Anything to do with children's entertainment is a source of controversy: children's television programmes, musical preferences, and leisure activities are frequent sources of debate. Toys and play are often singled out for attention, particularly war toys, sex-typed toys, and video games with aggressive themes. Are these harmful to children? Are they addictive? Alternatively, can parents facilitate children's learning with educational toys? Toys, Play, and Child Development explores these and other questions. Parental attitudes and reactions towards war toys are described, as are the children's views themselves. Toys and play are shown to contribute to the development of language, imagination, and intellectual achievement and to be effective in child psychotherapy.

1. Introduction
2. Imaginative play and adaptive development
3. Play, toys, and language
4. Educational toys, creative toys
5. The war play debate: current issues
6. War toys and aggressive play scenes: balanced aggression
7. Sex differences in toy play and use of videogames
8. Does play prepare the future?
9. Play as healing.

Subject Areas: Child & developmental psychology [JMC]