From a developmental pediatric perspective, stacking towers are an excellent toy because they ideally support your child in several stages of his development.
1st stage of development: content-container principle (from approx. 12 months)
Around the first birthday, your child discovers that objects can have an inside . This new knowledge must be tested again and again. Your child develops a great interest in emptying containers and later filling them.
You can recognize this phase by the fact that your child begins to empty drawers and boxes.
During this time, a stacking tower is ideal for supporting your child in this developmental step.
The individual elements of the stacking tower have different sizes and colors and can be filled with water or sand and emptied again.
With this game, your child learns, practices and tests an important milestone in their development, which is why this phase should definitely be encouraged. Of course, boxes, baskets and drawers that are filled with different objects and that the child can empty and fill are also suitable.
Stacking towers made of non-toxic plastic or silicone are ideal in this phase because they can also get wet and dirty (water and sand) unlike many boxes or baskets at home.
2nd stage of development: Vertical building/stacking (at around 18 months)
At around 18 months, your child will recognize the vertical plane. They will begin to stack and place all kinds of objects on top of each other. This is where a stacking tower comes in handy.
Since the recognition of shapes is not yet present in this phase (round, square, etc.), a round stacking tower is ideal at around 18 months of age. Here the child can stack the individual elements in any orientation and does not have to pay attention to the shape, which he or she cannot do at this age.
Rectangular stacking towers are more suitable for older children who can already recognize shapes. Shape recognition develops at around two years of age. In this phase, shape games and puzzles are also highly recommended (👉 see blog post: Shape games and puzzles).
A stacking tower with a “holder” can help in the first phase of stacking so that the individual cups do not fall down again and again.
3. A sustainable toy for many years
Plastic stacking towers are very popular bath toys , especially when the containers have small openings for the water to flow through. Children can enjoy filling and emptying containers with water for many years.
Even after the vertical building/stacking phase, the stacking towers are still far from obsolete. The stacking tower cups can be used for many years as bowls and pans in the play kitchen , as garages for small vehicles or as molds in the sandpit .
Stacking towers are also a decorative way to style a child’s room .
We hope that this blog post has shown you how valuable stacking towers are for your child's development. It is a wonderful toy that not only supports children in their development, but can also be used for many years and is therefore sustainable for our environment.
Because the healthy development of our children is important to us. And a healthy future for our planet is also a healthy future for our children.
Image source: Mushie, Stapelstein