Parent Opinions and Attitudes on Toys for Children with or Without Developmental Disabilities

Toys are needed paraphernalia for all children. This study employs a cross sectional purposive sample survey to target parents of 267 children (Mean Age: 3.99; SD: 1.39) below six years including 158 boys (Mean Age: 3.89; SD: 1.32) and 109 girls (Mean Age: 4.13; SD: 1.48) with and without developmental disabilities to elicit their opinions and attitudes on toys.  A 25-item open ended ‘Opinion Elicitation Probe on Toys’ and another 20-item Likert type ‘Toy Attitude Scale’ was exclusively developed for use in this study.  Results show that parents view their children as unable to make choices on procurement of toys and requiring guidance in their routine use. There have apprehension if toys, which involve money, would benefit their children. Parent attitudes reflect that toys are unaffordable or dispensable luxuries. They are aware that children love toys and that are different toys for various age groups. Dispensing toys to children with special needs is deemed risky or unsafe. They are undecided whether boys and girls require the same or different toys. It is felt that teaching children to read and write is better option than waste time on engagement with toys. Many parents are against technology driven digital toys.  It is concluded that there is need for prescriptions on just how many minimum number or variety of toys each child must be necessarily given or made available without amounting to infringement upon their basic rights to own toys.