Children toy with ideas as Christmas comes early

IT might be only 107 days to Christmas but some people are already toying with ideas for what to buy as presents for their children.

And Christmas did indeed come early for patients at Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin yesterday as they got to try out some of the predicted best-selling toys for the forthcoming festive season.

Brilliant sunshine was the bizarre backdrop for the first thoughts of Santa Claus, not that it bothered the young audience as they got their hands on some of the favourite playthings contained in the latest annual European Toy Survey by Duracell. It polled more than 1,000 children across Europe to find out their favourite toys and games.

The most popular toy by far was the Robosapien V2 — a super-intelligent robot which is the closest thing to a real-life companion and responds to a wide variety of commands.

Lee French, 10, from Swords was already a whiz with the large number of controls that operate the toy. “It’s brilliant because he can dance and talk back to you,” he smiled, adding that his expertise was due to the fact that he already had one of the 260 robots.

Lea Crowley, 10, from Sallins, Co Kildare, was happier with the more sedate Pixel Chix House Assortment — a hand-held computer-like game that allows the user to dress up an on-screen character in a variety of costumes. “It’s not as noisy,” she giggled.

Senior play specialist at Temple Street, Caroline Flynn, said toys and games play an important role in helping sick children recover, as well as taking their minds off their illnesses.

“They’re encouraged to get out of the wards as much as possible and play in the playroom because it’s a great distraction,” she explained.

She admitted that there was a high rate of “wear and tear” on the large number of toys in the hospital.

The claim was verified as several kids tried out Big Race Ducati Desmosedici, a toy motorbike so fast it kept smashing into furniture before they could alter its course.

Child psychologist Richard Woolfson said the popularity of futuristic toy weapons, miniature racing cars and make-believe sports games demonstrated the importance of imagination in child development.

“The survey reveals that children are highly influenced by what they see, hear and read. The hi-tech nature of their toy choices reflects this — our children are smart. Technology is a part of their world at home and at school and they expect it to be a part of their play too,” said Dr Woolfson.

But Duracell may have done parents a favour by omitting the best-selling computer game from the survey, as the new Sony PS3 won’t be released in Europe until next spring.