Traditional Russian Nesting Dolls or matryoshka dolls have been a part of every household for many years. Although they look very pleasing, they aren’t always made for small hands and children often find it frustrating to play with them. However, Ariro’s nesting dolls are designed for little hands and have a smooth and safe finish. Apart from the child appropriate design, they are also open ended- without any specific character drawn out- giving a wider scope for the child’s imagination. Here are a few reasons why nesting dolls are a critical development aid for the young child.
- The nesting dolls may need to be held using different grasps based on their size and the way they are being used. This improves your child’s fine motor skills.
- Nesting dolls offer multiple opportunities and possibilities that can be adapted to support many play schemas like connecting, positioning, enveloping, enclosing, and rotating.
- The open-ended nature of the nesting dolls invites your child to use them along with other toys they may already have. They can be combined with animal figures, blocks or vehicle toys. This kindles your child’s creativity and imagination.
- Nesting involves understanding each piece’s size and dimensions, arranging them in the right order and changing the order or orientation if needed. All these processes require your child to focus and concentrate, building these skills in an indirect manner.
- No matter how your child decides to use the nesting dolls, they need to figure out which one goes into which one, how to make them fit and how to correct any mistakes and try again. This not only builds problem solving skills but also builds resilience.
- When your child plays with the nesting dolls, the need to visually grade them by size, colour or both, thereby refining their visual discrimination and spatial awareness.
- Playing with the nesting dolls offers many opportunities for crossing the midline. The midline is an imaginary line across the center of the body and crossing it involves reaching to the other side – using the right hand to take things on the left and left hand to take things on the right. Crossing the midline aids connections across the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
- The nesting dolls offer a great way to learn words with experience like inside and outside, within, big(er/est) and small(er/est). When words are learnt with movement, there is better comprehension and retention.
