John and Elizabeth Newson were well known for their studies of
child rearing, which have combined a rigorous research methodology
with sympathetic insights into family life and a lively approach to
scientific reporting. 'Path-breaking', 'brilliant', 'seminal',
'outstanding', 'fascinating', 'enthralling' and 'enchanting' are
some of the adjectives used by critics to describe their previous
books. They now turn their attention to toys, the 'pegs on which
children hang their play', a study for which they are uniquely
qualified. Not only had they long experience in normal child
development: they had been actively involved for many years in
research and training in remedial play for disabled children, their
research unit was a major influence in the phenomenal development
of the toy libraries self-help movement, they designed for and
advised the toy industry, and they had their own family-run
specialist toyshop. With this background, it is not surprising that
their book on toys and playthings is both informative and
entertaining on many different fronts. Richly observant, it follows
the child's development in play from using the mother or father as
the 'first and best toy', through the exploratory and manipulative
sequences, to the use of toys in ritual, symbolic or contemplative
ways. Against this detailed understanding of 'ordinary' children's
growth points in play, the Newsons and their collaborators examine
the special needs of disabled children, with a firm emphasis on how
parents can help. What is more, in providing an intensely practical
guide for the parents and teachers of the disabled child, they draw
out comparative insights which are enlightening and absorbing for
those whose children do not have such urgent problems. Once again
the Newsons share with the reader the viewpoints and preoccupations
of research workers in the field. There is indeed a continual sense
of 'work in progress', and nowhere more than in the chapter on
using toys for developmental assessment, where the reader is given
a hot line to a laboratory (i.e. playroom) notes used in their own
research unit at the time in a welcome move away from the rigid
test-bound assessment of 'special' children. The book is enriched
by the authors' sharp awareness that the history of playthings has
a far longer perspective than the history of child psychology. They
are not basically interested in educational toys as such, but in
all the objects, made or found, on which the child hones his skill,
his reasoning powers, his imagination, his emotions or his sense of
humour. Fairground baubles, joke toys and poppy-head dolls are as
much a part of this book as bricks, sorting boxes and teddy bears.
In the Newsons' own words: 'We hope that people who simply like
toys as objects will find something in this book to interest them;
we suspect, indeed, that liking toys will be what all readers,
whatever their reason for opening the book, have in common'.
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