More Than Play
CHASE ME CRITTER
Say hello to CHASE ME CRITTER—the cutest crawler in town. This Critter will help get your little one on the move! Just give its smiley blue head a push and let the delightful crawling and ball-popping action begin. Want to change directions? Just turn the Critter’s head to send it off on a whole new path!
When your little one is young, he’ll love sitting and watching the ball-popping action, and putting the balls back in after they pop out of the Critter’s back. As baby grows, switch to active-mode and CHASE ME CRITTER moves across the floor, popping balls out while playing spirited songs and making silly sound effects. All this action will encourage little ones to get crawling after this active Critter to chase down the fun!
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It’s More Than Play... This Toy Also Teaches:
Crawling
Fundamental Movement Skills
Eye Tracking
Pincer Grip
Hand-Eye Coordination
Gross Motor Skills
Language
Problem Solving
Spatial Awareness
Temporal Awareness
Crawling
When he’s learning to crawl, he’s learning to understand that his body has two sides, and that each side can move independently. When he coordinates opposite arm/opposite leg movements, this in turn, helps develop important pathways between the left and right hemispheres (sides) of the brain. Putting the CHASE ME CRITTER into active mode encourages babies to get moving to chase it down! Crawling after the Critter can help babies build muscles, aid in the development of gross motor skills, and start the development of spatial awareness.
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Fundamental Movement Skills
Every time your child crawls across the room or around a table in hot pursuit of CHASE ME CRITTER, he’s practicing basic movement skills. These skills help a child’s body to move from one place to another. When the CHASE ME CRITTER is in motion, gliding across the floor, young children may be enticed to crawl after it to catch up.
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Eye Tracking
Keep your eye on the ball! It’s great advice, especially for young children. Tracking moving objects can often be tricky for young eyes, as eye fitness develops over time. By watching the bright and eye-catching CHASE ME CRITTER circle around while the colorful balls pop and drop, his eyes are getting practice making slow fluid movements. Smooth eye movements are a foundation skill for advanced learning, especially reading and writing.
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Pincer Grip
For a child, picking up objects and learning to release them can be a tricky task. When children are young, they often try to grab or rake at small objects with their entire hand. With practice, they start to learn that it’s easier to pick things up with the first finger and thumb, or what experts call a “pincer grip.” As your child grabs at the colorful balls as they drop from CHASE ME CRITTER, he’s starting to develop his pincer grip. It’s an important fine motor skill and milestone, and is a foundation skill for many other precise skills, such as picking up and manipulating his cars on a toy race track.
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Hand-Eye Coordination
Coordinating the hands and eyes to work together and accomplish a task is a skill that takes a lot of practice and refinement. The ball-popping action of this little creature provides a perfect opportunity for little hands to practice hand-eye coordination. As the balls pop in the air, little ones will want to grab the balls that spill over, so they can start the action all over again.
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Gross Motor Skills
Activities that encourage the use of large muscle groups help develop a child’s gross motor skills. When he’s crawling around the floor picking up the balls from the CHASE ME CRITTER, he’s using the muscles in his upper body. Gross motor skills prepare his hands for more intricate movements he’ll need in his hands and fingers later.
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Language
Language is a complex skill that is learned and refined in many stages. When babies are very young, they need to hear lots of sounds so they can learn to differentiate between various tones. The ability to hear different tones is important—it’s the same skill that they will use later as they learn to hear the difference between the sounds of letters. Listening to the merry melodies and silly sound effects that this cute little creature creates may help babies by exposing them to these different noises, and encouraging them to babble and coo along with the music!
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Problem Solving
Problem solving begins when playing. By allowing your baby to make decisions while playing, he begins to develop independent thinking and problem-solving skills. It’s important for him to learn to think for himself, and you can let him “solve the problems”—getting balls back into place, making the CHASE ME CRITTER move in circles and starting the music.
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Spatial Awareness
Ready for a race around the room? Where can you put the colorful balls? What happens if you place them back into this cute, crawly creature? Do they stay put or spin off again? As your child chases the CHASE ME CRITTER, picking up the colorful balls and putting them other places, he’s learning about how his body and other things fit into and around spaces. Children need to learn about space so they can understand how to move around the room like pros. Spatial awareness is the same skill that children use when they figure out whether their favorite stuffed animal will fit into their backpack or when they try to estimate how many apples will fit in their lunchbox!
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Temporal Awareness
Judging distance and time, what experts call “temporal awareness,” is a complex skill that takes a long time to develop and perfect. A good grasp of temporal awareness helps children learn to estimate how fast objects travel—“How far and how fast do I have to crawl to catch up with the Critter?”—and coordinate their movements with the speed of an object. Temporal awareness is the skill they’ll use later when they are running to catch a bouncing ball or a falling leaf!
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Learn more—together!
Want to join the fun? Playing with your child can boost his learning, and it gives him more time to bond with you! Try these simple tips to enhance your child’s play experience:
- Help your little one learn his numbers by counting the balls as they spin around and pop out.
- Demonstrate pushing and twisting the Critter’s head and describe what happens next. “Push….uh oh, there go the balls!” “Twist….he’s moving round and round!” You’ll be reinforcing language development skills as your child learns different sounds through play.
- Help your little one learn his colors by naming them as the balls pop out. Then ask your child to hand you specific colored balls to reinforce his understanding.
