Why we love toy kitchens!
Play kitchens are such a fun way to encourage language development at any age! At each stage of development, there are many different ways to use a toy kitchen. Before the first words, little ones can explore the kitchen items and practice motor skills necessary for those early speech skills. Read below for our favorite toy kitchens and how play kitchens can help with overall development.
5 ways toy kitchens are helpful for development:
Imaginative skills: play kitchens offer many opportunities to be creative! Children can create menus and recipes and decide what they want to order from the waiter or waitress. Pretend play is so important for speech and language development!
Fine motor skills: cooking up delicious meals involves microwaving, chopping, frying, and more! These skills help encourage fine motor skills (using the small muscles in your hands and wrists) necessary for everyday skills like writing, drawing, and getting dressed!
Cognitive skills: children use problem-solving, planning skills, and speech/language concepts when playing with toy kitchens.
Social skills: Little ones can role-play different scenarios and take turns being the waiter, waitress, server, cook, restaurant patron.
Speech and language skills: as little ones play in the toy kitchen, new vocabulary and language emerges naturally as little ones play!
