Professor Blakemore: For parents, it’s the same message as for teachers: Strongly gender-typed toys might encourage attributes that aren’t ones you actually want to foster. What message about toys do you think families of young children could take from your research? Professor Blakemore: If you want to develop children's physical, cognitive, academic, musical, and artistic skills, toys that are not strongly gender-typed are more likely to do this. What message do you think early childhood teachers and other educators could take from your research?

We concluded that strongly gender-typed toys appear to be less supportive of optimal development than neutral or moderately gender-typed toys. The toys rated as most likely to be educational and to develop children’s physical, cognitive, artistic, and other skills were typically categorized as neutral or moderately masculine. We found that girls’ toys were associated with physical attractiveness, nurturing, and domestic skill, whereas boys’ toys were rated as violent, competitive, exciting, and somewhat dangerous. Toys were then rated according to their characteristics, such as able to be manipulated, exciting, educational, aggressive, musical, etc. We then divided the toys into six categories, based on these ratings: (1) strongly feminine, (2) moderately feminine, (3) neutral, (5) moderately masculine, and (6) strongly masculine. In general the toys most associated with boys were related to fighting or aggression (wrestlers, soldiers, guns, etc.), and the toys most associated with girls were related to appearance (Barbie dolls and accessories, ballerina costumes, makeup, jewelry, etc.).

Professor Blakemore: We identified more than 100 toys and classified them to indicate how much each toy was associated with boys, girls, or neither. We also spoke to Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, professor at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Connecticut, about the impact of specific toys on play. Her primary research interest is the development of gender roles. Judith Elaine Blakemore is professor of psychology and associate dean of Arts and Sciences for Faculty Development at Indiana University−Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. What makes a good toy for a young child? NAEYC asked two researchers about what their work tells us about toys, children, and play.

Girls toys