Over-stimulation is a big problem."Gross motor skills - rolling, crawling and walking - are catered for in a range of baby walkers, electronic moving balls and the like, although babies learn these anyway, with or without toys. Some of their early toys, such as the excellent Octotunes, are scented too.Though few parents really do believe in hot-housing their child this early, too many toys don't help. "All the flashing lights and colours aid spatial awareness - we're not aiming to create Einsteins," says LeapFrog's Theresa Ceballos.Meanwhile, Lamaze, with their infant development system which aims to cover all stages of sensory and motor development, do an attractive range of bright, durable, mostly cloth toys aimed from birth upwards - their patterned double-sided cot bumper is a favourite. "But they have a place if they encourage the parent to play with the child." VTech even does a cuddly electronic phone, relaunched a year ago to suit even younger babies - from three months upwards.LeapFrog's Baby Counting Pal, also suitable from three months up, offers similar multi-sensory learning activities - although children don't generally understand numbers until around the age of three.
"Remember all high-tech toys are a parent substitute," warns Dr Nicholson. The cuddly "Little Singing Alfie", part of VTech's Smart Start Baby Series and suitable from three months, sits in the pram, speaks to your child and has an interactive tummy which lights up, sings tunes and even counts. Music soothes them.Bring on the host of musical products, from Baby Einstein - whose range includes rearrangements of classical music and strangely appealing visuals set to classics, through to singing pram companions. "Products like Baby Einstein are good for auditory and visual stimulation, show cause and effect, and develop concentration through repetition of a theme - although a young baby won't be held for the whole video," says Dr Sarah Nicholson, a child psychiatrist with an interest in neuro-development. "Visually most won't be interested until after six months."Although the music your baby hears doesn't have to be classical, many parents find it easier on the ears. Research sponsored by Fisher-Price found 97 per cent of parents said they played with their child to encourage them to learn.Very young babies respond to sound and smell - visually they can only really focus as far as the breast or bottle but they've already heard their mothers' voices in the womb Singing voices help babies learn language. "People are really getting into early learning for their children," says Katy Chan of electronic educational toy company VTech. And baby toys are a busy market - new parents with time on their hands love buying them.
That educational electronic toys were the fastest growing sector in the toy market last year, followed closely by infant toys, reflects the desire of parents to teach their children ever more, ever younger. Anyone who thinks toys don't have a place in the lives of the under-ones is wrong - even if their role is merely hygienic. They don't care if you are having a bad hair day - you can just be yourself.". Try this for educational play.