Tech Gadgets Reviews

Parents often seek assistance in selecting the right toys at the most ideal stage of their child’s development. Many toys are designed for particular ages based on safety concerns; however, many others are designed to specifically encourage the development of certain abilities in a child.

In this article we will explore the fundamental skills developed by infants at varying ages, and the types of toys that can encourage children to reach their potential.

The Baby’s 1st Year

In the first year of a baby’s life, they begin exploring and experimenting with their most important senses:

Sound & Smell – In the first instance babies begin to match voices with certain faces and facial expressions, mainly from being held, fed and nurtured. Likewise, certain smells can be recognised and associations are gradually made. As they begin to establish these social attachments they become more receptive to different sounds and smells. Toys with sound and music that react to a child’s action are especially good at this stage, and simply letting your baby smell something and then see it can encourage development in this area.

Touch & Sight – As babies begin to take a little control of their hands; touching and feeling things become an important part of an infant’s development. Similarly, as sight becomes clearer, babies become more receptive to visual aids. Toys for this age are designed to enhance and encourage these traits. Toys should be for seeing, hearing and touching – this encourages the child to respond to the sights and sounds they see and hear. Picture books with sound, teddy bears with different textures and pulley toys that respond to a child’s movement are especially beneficial after 6 months old. Toys in bright, monochromic colours can also help to stimulate eyesight in the first year of a child’s life.

Ages 1 to 2

This stage is an important time for developing independence and important social skills that will never be lost. Between the ages of 1 and 2 it is surprising how rapidly a child develops from a tentative toddler saying only 1 or 2 words, to a confident child able to easily run and speak around 50 individual words.

From the age of 1, infants begin taking an interest in the effects of their manipulation, and it is very fun to sit back and watch children at this age. They particularly enjoy throwing toys and building things, so building blocks Duplo, and stickle bricks are fantastic toys at this age for encouraging hand and eye coordination, as well as a sense of balance.

From around 18 months, infants are able to walk very well and can run to an extent. When objects are in the way – running can prove difficult. However, with their newfound freedom, children love to explore and try everything out, without a sense of danger, so toys that encourage active play at this age are well received. Balls, Sit n’ Rides , Activity Stations, toys that speak or make noises and toys of characters they see on TV are advantageous additions to a toy box at this age – they will encourage children to play actively, and it will also help them sleep well at bed time (an added bonus!).

Language progression is also crucial at this age. Children will begin responding when spoken to and chattering away when playing. This makes it important for adults to talk to children in conversations, read stories and sing nursery rhymes whenever possible.

Ages 2 Years +

As a child turns two years old their abilities in counting and speaking becomes clearer, and bodily strength in running and climbing becomes more refined.

At the turn of two years old, toys that have movement and sound and allow the child to throw and drop are ideal, as they will help to refine their physical strengths. Toys that allow the children to push themselves along, such as sit ‘n’ ride toys that allow children to steer are very desirable.

As they approach 3 years old, outdoor toys such as climbing frames and garden swings are great. Children at this age have good spatial awareness, and refined bodily strength. They can move large toys easily, kick balls forcefully and they also have the ability to use pedals on a bike.

An infant’s imagination will develop greatly at this age as well, which is why dressing up and a fascination with make believe is noticeable. Doll sets, action figures, train sets and such toys are favourable at this age and help children express themselves and explore their independence. Children will also start to play with others and learn social skills through play. Cooperation and taking turns are examples of skills that will become extremely important both at a young age and throughout life.

Showing off new skills to family is also a very common trait for children around 3 years and upwards. Toys that mimic adult tasks, such as vacuum cleaners, cookers, shop tills and lawn mowers are especially good for engaging with a child.

While we have focussed on the initial, most advancing years of a child’s life in this article, toys have been proven to encourage creativity, self-confidence and academic skills throughout every stage of childhood.

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For those of us who can’t leave the office behind, the new range of smart phones for business are making it increasingly easy to be a workaholic.

For telecommunications the three models are fairly evenly matched, you can make and receive calls but with these multimedia devices you’ll want to be doing a lot more than that. All are capable of email, web browsing and of course text messaging. However the Blackberry’s original support of push email gets one up on the early iPhone, which didn’t employ an LED to notify the user he or she has a new message and requires that the owner actively check themselves. This is obviously time consuming and transpires into wasted battery life. However with the 3G version Jobs has rectified this issue. And of course Google’s G1 recently released in New York pushes emails for the owner.

The iPhone is probably more fashionable than its Blackberry competitor but in a corporate sense which is the superior piece of kit? The touch screen capabilities of Apples multimedia phone does indeed make it a joy to use but it has been agued that Blackberry’s physical keyboard is more user friendly regarding typing text messages and email, compared to the iPhone’s virtual on screen keyboard. The G1, under the working title of Android has stirred up a lot of interest in online with devlopers exctied about its opensource platform and Google fans are bound to support the new smartphone through loyalty if nothing else.

It has been regularly reported that the Internet loading time on the Blackberry can be slow and frustrating but once it’s connected to a wireless network online navigation is pretty smooth.

Due to the touch screen interface of the iPhone browsing the internet is a more enjoyable and profitable experience. Dragging your finger down the screen to scroll through a page is more intuitive than the buttons on the Blackberry, as is the pinch and reverse pinch motion to zoom in and out. For these reasons extracting information from web pages is often easier on the iPhone. With the new Blackberry Bold which boasts a 624MHz processor you can now download email attachments faster than before which is a significant improvement. But in early July Apple’s reaction to this was to announce the iPhone on the 3G network advancing the smart phone’s connectivity and it also includes satellite navigation. Similarly the Blackberry Bold incorporates GPS as standard. The G1 also has touch screen capabilities as well as a flip down Qwerty keyboard, providing a promising equilibrium.

With the iPhone you obviously get 8G or 16G (depending on which model you choose) worth of memory on which to download music from iTunes, but that’s not going to help you get those reports done by Monday morning. It is going to lighten the load in your pockets though as you won’t need to carry your iPod around with you as well. Since Steve Jobs has released the SDK (iPhone software developer kit) and Microsoft Exchange support for the iPhone he has covered two major areas that required development and therefore as a corporate utility the iPhone is vastly improved.

At the end of the fruit salad, Apple users are a loyal folk and will probably continue to invest in the Apple family. Equally, those that are now familiar with the Blackberry will most likely stick by Research In Motion. It is very much down to personal preference and the specific requirements of the user, but now that the new G1 has just been launched the tables have again been turned.

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Small telecommunications businesses face many hurdles in trying to compete in the marketplace with the big telecom giants. While your small telecom company can offer your local customers better and more personalized services than the big telecom companies can, there are many barriers to getting your message out there and growing your market share. Just as the old adage about getting a job without experience goes, it is hard to grow your business when you need all of your working capital just to run your business day to day. While the telecom giants can call up their banker and get a loan, it isn’t as easy for your small business to do.

For hundreds of years companies have been utilizing the value of their assets as collateral for borrowing money. Your distant relative who owned a small grocery store may have used his inventory and property value as collateral for borrowing money to add onto his building or replace his antiquated refrigerators. As a small telecommunications business you may want to take a similar action in order to grow your business and service offerings.

As you may have experienced, most of the major financing companies out there just plain do not understand how telecommunications businesses work. Unless you are AT&T, or another large telecommunications company, with a monthly billings total of over 5 million dollars, most typical business finance resources are not that interested in talking to you. It isn’t that they are not interested in your business and its success; they just simply do not understand how telecom billings work.

As a small business owner, a potential lender may ask you to make a personal guarantee or sign a recourse agreement in order to obtain funding. This can be a scary proposition and place you personally at a risk level you may not be comfortable with. If you come to this point with a lender then it is time to move on and look for a better alternative.

One alternative available in telecom financing is factoring. Factoring is the process whereby your company can borrow money against its receivables. Traditional factor rates however can be high, because lenders balk at the way telecommunication company’s bill, and the relatively small amounts of each individual billing. If you are able to locate a lender who will give you a discount, because they understand the uniqueness of telecom financing, factoring can be a good option to explore.

Another alternative you might consider for your telecom funding needs is an asset based solution. By securing your funding with your contracts, equipment or other assets, you can borrow against them and use the additional capital to expand your business. Asset based solutions can be a bit easier to find, and cheaper than trying to do a receivables factor.

A third alternative to explore is the idea of an investment capital cash infusion. If you are open to using investment capital this can be a wonderful way to grow your business.

While telecom funding can be hard to find, there are options open to small telecom businesses. By considering all of your options and selecting the one which fits your business the best, you can be well on your way to growing and expanding your business.

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