The benefits of wooden pull along toys for children and toddlers

Pull along toys play a vital role in children’s development as they can be used to model the skills needed as adults. Toys help develop a child’s physical, mental as well as their social skills through the act of play.

Pull along toys are an ideal starting point to facilitate this development-through-play. A traditional toy that is timeless, pull along toys come in many styles and designs. The most popular pull along toys are the ones in the design of animals such as; ducks, dogs, crocodiles but also cars or trains. Generally, traditional pull-along toys are crafted from wood. They have little wheels or movable feet and have a string attached to enable pulling. The child can pull the wooden toy by the string so that the toy will roll behind the child as she/he walks along.

The child might not be able to walk her/himself yet but still will love to pull the toy along or around them. The toddler will be self-encouraged to develop her/his physical abilities as that means more possibilities ranging with their little wooden toy that is happy to be at their side.

The wooden pull along toy might be played with in a variety of ways, not purely the intended action but actions that will evolve once the toddler is able to walk quite well.

The time will then come when the little one can be seen with her/his little friend (the pull along toy) coming along on the excursions through the house or garden, like a faithful companion. This is the time when the child develops their balance and coordination.

They will be looking at the pull along duck, not paying attention to what is happening in front of them as their confidence increases. During this development phase they may occasionally trip over things because they are focused on their pull along rabbit following them. This generally only occurs briefly as this is all part of a great natural learning curve.

The next phase in the development might be that the kids explore the little pull along duck as their close companion. They might want to cuddle it, show it their favourite book, have it sit with the family at the dinner table and immerse into their daily patterns of life. They might wonder why the rabbit doesn’t hop and try to get it to do so. They might want the real dog to come along with the pull along dog. Possibilities are endless and that’s great as this also teaches a variety of lessons. The older the child grows the more variation to the types of play with this kind of toy will occur.

The wooden pull along toy is a great choice of toy type and just yesterday my little one made me pull the little pull along duck whilst she was pulling the big duck. I had to run with her through the whole house and if the duck would tip over my little one was not so happy with me. I really had to concentrate to keep the duck moving properly as she wouldn’t accept anything else. My legs still hurt ?

Don’t forget to share your own experiences of you or your child’s experience with a wooden pull along toy with us on our AMouseWithAHouse Facebook page and tag us in using the hashtag #amousewithahouse

We have a range of gorgeous wooden pull along toys available on our AMouseWithAHouse online toy store for you to choose from to add to the toy repertoire for your own child. Explore our range of pull along wooden toys here.