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Child development, and indeed later life, can be fundamentally effected by early years creative play. Experts believe that children who engage in creative play, tend to do better in every aspect of their lives as they grow older.
 
The leading child development author Heidi Britz-Crecelius feel that children who have engaged in early creative play “excel not only academically but also socially, emotionally, and physically”. She even feels that these children demonstrate a “better understanding of other people."
 
Wooden toys have many applications in encouraging this beneficial form of creative play amongst many ages of young children.
 
Starting as babies, wood toys help encourage their sensory development by stimulating sight, touch and hearing. Multi sensory and brightly coloured wooden toys such as rattles, and toys with different textures, are ideal for babies to play with.
 
For infants wooden blocks help them distinguish between two objects, thus developing their sensory perception of sight. As months pass, they reach out and grasp objects that catch their eye. Therefore colourful, easy-to-grasp, smooth-edged wooden toys are ideal for children to play with at this stage.
 
As part of their sensory development infants and toddlers taste everything. Therefore non-toxic smooth and of course durable wooden toys are ideal for this purpose. Children at these stage also have limited attention spans, so providing a variety of wooden toys is important.
 
Simple wooden toys such as wooden farm animals, wooden blocks and wooden trains serve a number of purposes. They relate to the simple things that a child recognizes and thus encourage creative play. Differing developmental stages can be seen as the same wooden toy gets used differently by each child.
 
When choosing wood toys for children it is important to remember the particular play style that a child enjoys:
 

Physical play - involves wooden toys that encourage hand eye co-ordination and develop fine motor skills.
Logical Play - involves wooden toys that rely on reasoning and sequence, such as the use of wooden puzzles and problem solving activities
Musical Play - based on rhythm, such as using wooden musical instruments
Spatial Play - thinking in pictures to encourage a child's creative side through playing with wooden toys that stimulate observation skills
Intrapersonal Play - involving solitary play using wooden toys for children where they explore at their own time and pace
Interpersonal Play - encourages communication and teamwork through dealing with others such as role play toys

Toys that encourage creative play are essential for a child's balanced social and emotional development. Simple and good quality wooden toys are a lifelong investment, as they get used for several years by children.