Stuffed toys as teaching aids

Jan 12
08:53

2012

Meng Lee

Meng Lee

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When we say “stuffed animal” the first thing comes to our mind is a lovely roasted turkey stuffed with our favorite filling but guess what that is not the case.

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Usage of stuffed Animal as teaching aid has been observed for a long time,Stuffed toys as teaching aids Articles as teaching aids a collection of twenty five stuffed animals came to Ledyard Junior High school along with their owner Sherban paradise. Sherban Paradise was a teacher at that school and he used the stuffed animal models to teach his student the Animal Kingdoms. The beauty of his collection was that they were made of real animal skin rather than fake, so they were as good as studying live animals if physiology was concerned. According to Paradise, the collection of the entire stuffed animal model was acquired over a stretch of twenty years and his main claim was that none of the animals were deliberately killed for this project. 

Another similar project was covered in Moscow where students were taught how to fleece lambs, deliver their babies, care for the weaker ones, perform surgeries and even insert catheter tubes down their throats. These were actually stimulated animals which were filled with Styrofoam. The amazing part is that this was done in the early 1980’s a good 30 years ago.

Stuffed animal models are used nowadays to teach kids how to take care of them by making teddy bears whose teeth can be brushed hair can be combed and dresses can be changed. Recently it was also experimented that children who are naturally afraid of pet animals like cats and dogs can be conditioned by making them interact with their stuffed version. The point is to make them realize that these animals are totally harmless in fact they are quite friendly to humans. Parents can also teach their kids that these harmless animals should be handled with care and should not be abused this can be done by making them look after and taking care of their stuffed animal like it is a real one.

Stuffed animals play an important role in the life of people at some point in their life usually it is childhood but so much sentimentally attached with their stuffed animal that they keep them even after they grow up. Collecting stuffed animal is also a very popular hobby and people even show off their collection in exhibitions. Some old stuffed toys become quite valuable with time and people don’t even realize that their childhood play toy and companions which are stashed away in the back of the closets are worth quite a fortune.