帮助孩子管理情绪的冥想玩具。用于编码的乐高套件，侧重于解决问题的技能。还有一个亚马逊视频聊天门户，它使用全息图、游戏和谜题让孩子们保持通话。
最近在大流行期间推出的一系列玩具和产品旨在帮助幼儿重新适应日常生活，并在过去 21 个月的大部分时间呆在家里后重新培养他们的社交和情感技能。简而言之，这些产品可能旨在迎合“担心孩子是否会好起来的父母”，巴纳德学院幼儿发展中心主任托瓦克莱因说。
技术和传统玩具公司的混合体推出了带有技术花里胡哨的产品，以培养社交情感技能，这个术语指的是孩子如何与他人互动和管理他们的感受。克莱因表示，这些技能通常很早就开始发展，并且通常被认为是孩子在学校及以后取得成功的最大预测因素。
例如，亚马逊在 9 月推出了 Amazon Glow，这款设备有望为孩子们带来与家人和朋友的视频通话。 Glow 将一个 19 英寸的互动空间投射到屏幕前的表面上，孩子们可以在那里玩游戏、绘画，并与来自《冰雪奇缘》和《芝麻街》等特许经营权的故事书和角色互动。
使用 iOS 和 Android 上的免费 Glow 应用程序或亚马逊的 FireOS 的朋友或家人可以实时参与投影，让他们像在同一个房间一样进行实时游戏。它还具有物体扫描工具，因此孩子可以将玩具变成拼图游戏。 Glow 售价 249 美元，随附 Tangram Bits 拼图和为期一年的 Amazon Kids+ 订阅，这是一个拥有数千种书籍、节目和儿童教育应用程序的中心。
交互式视频聊天门户并不是全新的。 Facebook 门户具有动画、增强现实效果和音乐，可在通话或故事时间工具中使用，当用户从儿童图书数字图书馆阅读时，该工具将用户变成故事书角色。但是长期以来一直拥有一系列由 Alexa 控制的视频小工具的亚马逊表示，它对大流行期间技术如何将家庭联系起来越来越感兴趣，并希望改善年轻人的体验。
“孩子们很高兴能与祖父母或其他家庭成员进行 30 秒的视频通话，然后走开，”一位发言人在发布前告诉 CNN Business。 “我们想设计一些东西，消除身体分离的感觉，通过让孩子成为孩子并将成年人带入他们的世界来让家庭更加紧密，而不是我们过去所做的。我们认为这可能会产生积极的影响孩子们的终生成果。”
Busy Toddler 的创建者 Susie Allison 是一个受欢迎的父母在线社区，她说与家人或朋友的视频聊天“永远不会算”为屏幕时间，因为这对孩子们来说与远离我们的亲戚建立联系非常重要。 “当我们在看玩具时，我们想要一些主动的东西[像这样]，这样孩子就会参与其中并使用许多技能——而不是玩具引导他们玩耍和为他们做事的被动。”
长期以来，乐高积木一直被认为是促进社交情感发展的有用玩具，但该公司最近推出了一款名为 LEGO Education SPIKE Essential（275 美元）的套件，专为更好地发展这些技能而设计。该套件最初是为课堂制作但可供家庭购买，旨在通过讲故事和合作来帮助孩子们理解编码和其他科学、技术、工程、艺术和数学 (STEAM) 概念。它配备了一些电机和一个支持蓝牙的集线器，可将汽车或机器人等创作连接到相应的应用程序，使它们栩栩如生。
该套件还包含四个具有自己个性和学习风格的小人仔，使他们对年轻学习者来说平易近人，并与他们产生共鸣。当用户开始在应用程序上上课时，角色会引导他们解决每个问题并帮助他们找到解决方案。乐高表示，这旨在鼓励自我意识和社交情感发展所需的沟通技巧。
乐高教育总裁 Esben Staerk 告诉 CNN Business：“甚至在大流行之前，我们就考虑了孩子们未来所需的技能，而社交和情感学习是核心。” “很长一段时间以来，这一直是我们议程的一部分，但我们在大流行期间加速了它，并在学生返回学校时关注[对这样的工具包]的需求。”
其他产品，例如 Yoto Player，旨在帮助安抚年轻人的心灵。 Yoto Player（99 美元）是一款小型音乐播放器，鼓励孩子们花时间冥想或专注于正念。通过将实体卡片放入系统（有些单独出售），该设备可以解锁流行的有声读物、音乐和播客，包括由瑜伽老师和蒙台梭利老师开发的轻松睡前冥想，而不会受到智能手机屏幕的干扰。 （上周推出了一个更小、更便携的版本，称为 Yoto Play Mini（60 美元）。）
最近几个月流行的最热门的儿童产品之一是感官流行它！ fidgets - 彩色硅胶切口，提供与爆裂气泡包装相同的满足感和压力缓解。流行音乐的销售！行业贸易组织玩具协会告诉纽约时报，与去年相比增长了十倍，部分原因是它们在社交媒体上的受欢迎程度。有独角兽、米老鼠和小猪佩奇流行它！，以及钥匙扣流行它！和手镯流行它！。
一些玩具公司还制作了以流行病为主题的玩具，以帮助孩子们更好地适应 Covid-19 带来的变化。清单包括一套带玩具笔记本电脑、耳机和咖啡杯的 Fisher-Price My Home Office；带面具的娃娃；和一个抗病毒化学试剂盒，用来制作肥皂和做“打败病毒、细菌和真菌”的项目。
尽管融入科技的社交情感学习玩具有所增加，但艾莉森表示，关键是父母购买的物品可以让孩子长时间保持注意力。可动人偶、积木和洋娃娃等开放式玩具虽然技术含量低得令人难以置信，但仍然是鼓励创造力、假装和合作游戏的关键学习工具。
“我相当有信心，一百年后，孩子们仍然会玩一套木版，”她说。 “你家里可能有一只小机器狗，但木块可能也会在那里。”
These products aim to help kids rebuild social skills amid concerns about pandemic impact
New York (CNN Business)Meditation toys to help kids manage their feelings. A Lego kit for coding, with a focus on problem-solving skills. And an Amazon video chat portal that uses holograms, games and puzzles to keep little ones engaged on calls.
A recent crop of toys and products that launched during the pandemic aim to help young children reacclimate to everyday life and redevelop their social and emotional skills after spending much of the past 21 months stuck at home. Put simply, these products may be designed to cater to "parents who are worried about whether their children will be OK," said Tovah Klein, director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development.
A mix of technology and traditional toy companies have launched products with tech bells and whistles that foster social-emotional skills, a term which refers to how kids interact with others and manage their feelings. These skills typically begin to develop early and are often considered the biggest predictor of a child's success later in school and beyond, according to Klein.
In September, for example, Amazon introduced the Amazon Glow, a device that promises to bring video calls with family and friends to life for kids. Glow projects a 19-inch interactive space onto the surface in front of the screen where kids can play games, draw, and interact with storybooks and characters from franchises like "Frozen" and "Sesame Street."
Friends or family members using the free Glow app on iOS and Android or Amazon's FireOS can engage with the projections in real time, allowing real-time play as if they're in the same room. It also features an object scanning tool, so a child can turn a toy into a jigsaw puzzle. Glow costs $249 and comes with Tangram Bits puzzle pieces and a one-year subscription of Amazon Kids+, a hub with thousands of books, shows and educational apps for kids.
Interactive video chat portals aren't entirely new. The Facebook Portal features animation, augmented reality effects and music that can be used during calls or its Story Time tool, which turns users into storybook characters as they read from a digital library of children's books. But Amazon, which has long had a collection of Alexa-controlled video gadgets, said it became increasingly interested in how technology connects families during the pandemic and wanted to improve on the experience for young people.
"Kids are excited to be on video calls with grandparents or other family members for 30 seconds and then walk away," a spokesperson told CNN Business ahead of the launch. "We wanted to design something that erases the feeling of physical separation and brings families closer together by letting kids be the kids and bringing the grownups into their world, as opposed to what we've done in the past. We think this could positively impact lifetime outcomes for kids."
Susie Allison, the creator of Busy Toddler, a popular online community for parents, said a video chat with family members or friends "never counts" as screen time because it's so vital for kids to create connections with relatives that are away from us. "When we're looking at toys, we want something that is active [like this] so a child is engaged and using many skills -- not something passive where the toy is leading them through play and doing the work for them."
LEGO blocks have long been considered useful toys for social-emotional development, but the company recently launched a kit called LEGO Education SPIKE Essential ($275) specifically designed to better develop these skills. The kit, originally made for the classroom but available for home purchase, aims to help kids understand coding and other science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) concepts through storytelling and working together. It comes with a handful of motors and a Bluetooth-enabled hub that connects creations, such as cars or robots, to a corresponding app that brings them to life.
The kit also features four mini-figures with their own personalities and learning styles that make them approachable and relatable for young learners. When users start a lesson on the app, a character leads them through each problem and helps them find a solution. LEGO said this is designed to encourage self awareness and the communication skills necessary for social-emotional development.
"Even before the pandemic, we thought about the skills that kids need for the future, and social and emotional learning is right at the center," LEGO Education president Esben Staerk told CNN Business. "It's been part of our agenda for quite a while, but we accelerated it during the pandemic and focused on the need [for a kit like this] as students return to schools."
Other products, such as Yoto Player, intend to help calm young minds. Yoto Player ($99) is a small music player that encourages children to take time to meditate or engage in mindfulness. By putting physical cards into the system (some sold separately), the device unlocks popular audiobooks, music and podcasts, including a relaxing bedtime meditation developed by a yoga teacher and Montessori teacher, without the distraction of a smartphone screen. (An even smaller, more portable version called the Yoto Play Mini ($60) launched last week.)
One of the hottest kids products to gain popularity in recent months is sensory Pop It! fidgets -- colorful silicone cutouts that provide the same satisfaction and stress relief as popping bubble wrap. Sales for Pop Its! are up tenfold compared to last year, industry trade group The Toy Association told The New York Times, due in part to their popularity on social media. There are unicorns, Mickey Mouse and Peppa the Pig Pop Its!, as well as keychain Pop Its! and bracelet Pop Its!.
Some toy companies have also made pandemic-themed toys to help kids better adjust to the changes brought on by Covid-19. The list includes a Fisher-Price My Home Office set with a toy laptop, headset and coffee cup; dolls with masks; and an antivirus chemistry kit to create soap and do projects that "defeat virus, bacteria and fungus."
Although there's an uptick in tech-infused social-emotional learning toys, Allison said the key is for parents to buy items that can hold their kids' attention for a longer period of time. Open-ended toys such as action figures, blocks and dolls, while incredibly low tech, still remain key learning tools that encourage creativity, pretend and cooperative play.
"I am fairly confident that in a hundred years, kids will still be playing with a set of woodblocks," she said. "You might have a little robot dog in your house, but the wooden blocks will probably be there, too."
