The crew at Click-A-Brick congratulate the winners in the Construction category of the Toy Shop UK Independent Toy Awards, saying all three Construction category winners have a unique take on building toys. Click Blocks from toymaker Bigjigs Toys won the Gold Medal in the Construction category while the Slot-together castle with an Usborne book from Usborne Publishing took the Silver Medal and Arckit building sets from Arckit received the Bronze Medal. The awards process for the 7th annual Independent Toy Awards asked more than 900 independent toy retailers listed with...

The team at learning toy company Click-A-Brick says the results of a new study done by researchers from Penn State University, Temple University and Delaware University are worrying. The study found that when parents play with their children using electronic toys that talk, parents are less responsive to children than when playing with traditional toys and let the talking toys take over important language rather than using it themselves. Researchers Jennifer Zosh, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff said in an article published on the Brookings Institution website that they...

Click-A-Brick has announced the release of its latest educational building toy set slated for launch later this month. The 112-piece Rainbowland set features bricks of pink, purple, yellow, blue, beige, red, green and orange, plus eyes, axles and wheels. With the set, children will be able to make a mermaid, a butterfly, puppies, a horse and carriage, a duck, a flamingo, flowers, a reindeer, a catapult and anything else they can imagine. At 112 pieces, this is the largest Click-A-Brick set to date. After launching a series of smaller 30-piece...

The new series of toys by companies Digital Dream Labs, Make Wonder and Sphero are designed to allow children to grasp the concepts of coding. The companies claim that coding skills can be made sufficiently simple for a child to master. Jason Smith, the Co-Founder of Click-A-Brick, endorses the direction of these new toys. “These are a new type of toy that aims to teach children the foundations of computer programming,” Smith said. “The process is so much fun it feels more akin to playing than to learning. The toys...

The team at educational toy company Click-A-Brick says the results of a recent survey done for the British Toy and Hobby Association’s Make Time 2 Play campaign are discouraging. The survey questioned 2,000 British parents about their perception of play and found that: one third say their children's idea of play is using recreational technology over traditional play;seven in ten parents admit to choosing to give their child a screen entertainment based activity over traditional play;20 percent believe too much traditional or outdoor play could impact their children’s behavior and...

A new survey that finds the top 10 earning degrees are all related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has gotten the nod of approval from, the team at building toy company Click-A-Brick, who says it nicely illustrates the importance of learning these skills. Compiled by compensation consulting company PayScale, the top 10 bachelor’s degrees for career earnings are: Petroleum EngineeringChemical EngineeringElectrical EngineeringMaterials Science and EngineeringAerospace EngineeringComputer EngineeringPhysicsApplied MathematicsComputer ScienceNuclear Engineering PayScale collected data from degreed workers in the United States (excluding advanced degrees) and analyzed both starting and...

The team at learning toy company Click-A-Brick have heaped praise on a Kickstarter initiative that is meant to introduce more diversity into the toy aisle by creating dolls of girls with different ethnic backgrounds. In addition to the dolls having varied backgrounds, they will be used to teach girls of color proper hair care, as there are few toys on the market that represent colored hair styles. Started by college student Yelitsa Jean-Charles, Healthy Roots aims to make and distribute dolls of four girls of color who have different backgrounds...

Corporate play-time encompasses play-based practices and attitudes in organizations. The implementation of these practices can create innovative and problem solving work teams. The benefits of corporate playtime are supported by The National Institute for Play, a nonprofit that focuses on expanding scientific knowledge of human play and the benefits of play to public life. Active play is integral in the accomplishments of successful individuals. Humans are uniquely designed by nature to enjoy and participate in play throughout their life. Play enables individuals and organizations to harness the power of play...

Educational toy company Click-A-Brick says the opening of the STEM3 Academy in Los Angeles last month fills a void in the education system by giving students with autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, ADHD, developmental delays, abuse and emotional problems a chance to study science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills in an environment that will cater to their unique ways of learning. According to the STEM3 Academy’s website, approximately 20 percent of the population has a social or learning difference such as dyslexia, ADHD or autism while as many as...

A movement in Australia to introduce science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills to students as early as kindergarten is the right way to get them interested in these subjects, the team at building set toy company Click-A-Brick says. In a column for the Canberra Times, school curriculum and technology integration specialist Dr. Jane Hunter of the School of Education at the University of Western Sydney wrote that if schools want children to become interested in the STEM fields as they grow, they’ll need to introduce these concepts in kindergarten....