‘Educational’ has been a buzz word for some time and it is all too easy for a manufacturer to add the word to any toy. But there are some very specific requirements for toys for educational establishments. One point which needs to be considered is the alphabet. As adults we are used to seeing a variety of fonts – the different shapes of the letters, but this can be confusing for a child. For example the first letter of the alphabet can be written as A or a or a. Think of different ways one can write the number 4. In the UK, the educational establishment uses a certain set of characters and all toys using the alphabet should use these. More problems appear when using the sounds of letters. English is a very difficult language. Different letters make different sounds depending on…. Well there are no rules! So things have to be kept simple for a child. So whilst a is for apple is fine, using i is for ice-cream is not because the standard is the sound of the i as in igloo.

Music is another important are of learning and as a musician I am often appalled at the so-called music that some activity centres produce. Much of this can be simply laid at the door of poor quality reproduction. Some toys produce a note when a certain area is struck. When there is a series, it is very important that these are according to the accepted Doh Re Me scale although there is room perhaps for toys giving the sounds found in eastern music! What is not acceptable is the out of tune noise often found on things like toy xylophones! Learning the different intervals in music is an important part of learning and one that is best done at a very young age. I am unaware of any research in this field but introducing a child to music (classical, heavy metal, mum singing, it doesn’t matter) from a very early age cannot but be a help in any later musical endeavours.