found this on the web it is part of a guardian article
Claire Lerner, a child-development worker, carried out a US government-funded study into the effect of inundating children with toys. She found that too many playthings can restrict development and may harm children.
"They get overwhelmed and over-stimulated and cannot concentrate on any one thing long enough to learn from it so they just shut down. Too many toys means they are not learning to play imaginatively either," she says.
A study by the University of Stirling recently concluded that expensive, hi-tech toys are a waste of money - children learn just as much from playing with an old mobile phone.
So should parents chuck the lot? Perhaps. In Germany, two public health workers, Rainer Strick and Elke Schubert, persuaded a Munich nursery to pack away all playthings for three months out of every year, leaving the children with nothing but tables, chairs, blankets and their initiative. Then they watched what happened.
Initially, the children were bored but by day two they had turned tables and blankets into dens and were absorbed in make-believe games. They became more imaginative and contented, and in the process learned to concentrate, communicate better and integrate more in groups.
Steiner Waldorf educationalists have long recognised the positive effects of taking away excess toys from children and replacing them with simpler, more natural playthings such as conkers, shells and lengths of fabric to stimulate creative play.
Veronica Moen, director of Myriad Natural Toys, which sells Steiner-influenced playthings, thinks we should radically edit the toy cupboard: "Simpler toys mean imagination has to do all the work. Minimal facial expressions on dolls, for example, make children bestow them with emotions and act out scenarios. Natural materials, like wood, stimulate their senses."
According to Dr John Richer, consultant clinical paediatric psychologist at John Radcliffe hospital, Oxford, "The mistake that many parents make when they buy a toy, especially for very young children, is they get toys that can do a lot, instead of getting toys a child can do a lot with." He says studies show that when a child is confronted with a new object they go through two stages: exploration then play.
In exploration, children ask: "What does this object do?" In play it is "What can I do with this?" When a child is confronted with too many new toys they spend too long exploring and not enough time playing. "The theory is that children who play more tend to become more creative, imaginati ve and emotionally secure.
"The impression is they are better at taking initiative and are more adaptable, which is what one wants in a fast-changing world," says Dr Richer.
Less, it seems, is more when it comes to boosting a child's development. Bernadette Duffy, head of Thomas Coram Early Childhood Centre, in London, advises that parents avoid electronic toys and buy ones that need imaginative input from the child: Lego, bricks, farm animals, simple dolls, good books.
And playing simple games with Mum or Dad is worth more than the best-stocked toy cupboard. "Spending time with your child is the best present you can give them," says Duffy.
But what to do with all the tat that your children have already accumulated? Boxing up old toys and bringing them out several months later helps reduce over-stimulation and boredom. Or divide the kids' toys into five bags. Give them a bag for a day or so, then store it away again.
So, box up all the gizmos. Pack away the surfeit of cuddly toys and dolls. Bin the broken bits of plastic and leave out just a few of the classic favourites, such as trains, books, cars, Lego and simple dolls that make children do all the creative work. Stand well back and watch them flourish.