PANAJI
Almost everyone has a smart-phone these days, which means unlimited access to video games, and a lot of them are even free of cost, which has led sceptics to believe that in days to come there will be no traditional toys like ‘Beyblade', ‘Lego' and ‘Barbie'.
But, John Baby, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Funskool India, thinks that traditional toys are here to stay because such toys help in social and interpersonal development of a child.
Baby explained, "A traditional toy helps a kid in playing with another kid. Due to this, kids learn to be with each other. Moreover, playing together allows kids to learn how to deal with failure at a very young stage."
He further said, "In Tamil Nadu, very often, suicides cases are reported after 12th standard results. This is because children don't know how to accept failure. But, when you play with traditional toys, you know that failure is a part of every game."
The number of nuclear families in metros is growing at a very high rate. Such families mostly consist of a husband, a wife and a kid. Moreover, both parents work in most cases. In a situation like this, when a kid doesn't have a sibling to play with, it is extremely important that he or she plays with other kids in the neighbourhood. This is where traditional toys play a big role.
At the same time, the growth in video games is tremendous with the rise of mobile-phones, tablets and laptops. Really young kids (less than 3 years of age) get attracted towards a device like a mobile-phone, which has a screen.
Kids can also play video games in groups. But, playing in a group with traditional toys involves a lot of physical activity, which is mostly absent from video games.
