
Ask HN: Appropriate toy for a 1-year old girl that may lead to programming - swombat
I&#x27;m going to the 1st birthday party of the daughter of one of my friends. We&#x27;re not required to bring presents, but in view of all the talk about how turning girls (and later women) away from computers and startups is something that happens when they&#x27;re still children, I wonder - is there a toy that I could buy her at this very early age that would have the slightest influence on that?<p>If she was 8, or even 6, perhaps 5, some sort of computing device (perhaps a Raspberry Pi) would be suitable... at one, though?<p>Any ideas?<p>PS: I think it should be something that is fun and useable immediately, not &quot;buy her this so she&#x27;ll be able to use it in 3 years&quot;...
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normloman
She's 1 year old. Way to early to push her into a career. She's got more
important things to worry about, like learning to walk, speak, and use the
toilet.

~~~
swombat
"Push her into a career"?? Who said anything about that?

I'm just trying to counter the natural tendency the world will have to push
her _away_ from that career through millions of little cues like toy
selection, teacher and peer attitudes, etc.

~~~
dismiss21x
You insinuated that by wanting to buy her a toy "that may lead to
programming". Just buy her toys that make her think and encourage her to do
what she is good at.

------
kohanz
This a nice, but misguided thought, IMHO. The closest you can get to
"programming" at that age is general problem solving. 1-year olds are already
_constantly_ learning and problem-solving as it is. Basic problems of hand-eye
coordination, identifying things and people. Any generic toy you give them is
a problem waiting to be solved. Shapes, colours, moving parts can add to the
learning experience.

This is just IMHO, because the above being said, you see 2-year olds with
their own personal iPads these days, so perhaps I'm just old-fashioned.

------
azurelogic
I bought some of these books for my daughter who is 8 months. Obviously she's
not going to crank out the next big startup by the time she's 3 with these,
but I hoped that they would expose her to what her father does for a living
and to not be intimidated later in life by math and programming.

Web Design For Babies 2.0:
[http://amzn.com/0988472600](http://amzn.com/0988472600) A Is For Array:
[http://amzn.com/1489522212](http://amzn.com/1489522212) Introductory Calculus
For Infants: [http://amzn.com/0987823914](http://amzn.com/0987823914)

This is more general learning, but we got one of these, and my daughter loves
it. She's still learning the different things it has to play with.
[http://www.target.com/p/b-zany-zoo-wooden-activity-
cube/-/A-...](http://www.target.com/p/b-zany-zoo-wooden-activity-
cube/-/A-12025312)

~~~
jason_slack
Wow, those are super cool books. I may just buy them to read them, LOL.

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thaumaturgy
Something like a simple wooden train set ([http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-
Wooden-Farm-Train/dp/B004...](http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Wooden-Farm-
Train/dp/B0043RSSHS/)) or a balls-and-chutes toy
([http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/edushape/rollipop_...](http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/edushape/rollipop_advanced.cfm)).
All you'd be looking for at that age is things that help develop their spatial
reasoning.

Alternatively, find out what the kid's currently into and just get her that. 1
is a great age for being happy.

~~~
joveian
For me I think it was trains->legos (the small kind)->lots of books (not
actually programming related)->brief personal instruction->intro programing
books

I'm not sure if I started with trains quite at 1, but at least before 2. The
thing about trains or blocks is that it is really expensive to get a useful
set and really frustrating to have a less than useful set. For trains, the set
being able to go around you allows much more immersion in imagination than
just a few pieces. With legos, it isn't much fun if you can't build a few
buildings and vehicles. Neither are likely to be an issue right at 1, but are
likely to be before 2. I'd suggest carefully considering you connection with
the kid and what the parent's are likely to do, but while trains and building
blocks can be great gifts, they are not good casual gifts IMO. Wooden blocks
might be better, and can go with the trains or legos later, but might still be
expensive.

If she doesn't have sidewalk chalk, that would be a good easy gift.

------
cfeduke
I am a software engineer and I have a 16 month old daughter. For now she plays
a lot with MegaBlocks (and off-brand Duplo that's safe for <1 year) and
colorful building blocks.

Her favorite toy is a cardboard box my wife brought home from her store. No
joke, she loves that thing.

For the future I nabbed her a copy of Robot Turtles. (My wife and I play a lot
of board games - my wife owns a brick and mortar hobby store.) I have a few of
the neat things off of Kickstarter, like 3D printers and some other oddball
contraptions, but I think my childhood collection of Legos will go a long way
towards helping her build skills necessary to be creative and imaginative.

Stay away from electronic toys - overloading, no creativity - and screen
devices - degrades eye contact, hurts imagination. This is just my observation
based on seeing my friends perform how _not_ to raise a child, and its an
American pastime to critique others on how they raise their children so take
my advice with a grain of salt.

------
steven2012
I didn't start programming until after college, where I got a non-CS degree.
I've created multi-decade career in programming, having moved to the Bay Area
during the dot-com bubble. In fact, I didn't even like computers except to
play games, until I forced myself to learn how to program to get a job during
the early-90's recession.

There is no need to worry about exposing children to programming concepts at
age 1. They have enough trouble just learning how to be a proper human. Let
her be a kid. If you want, buy her 1 share in a stock like Facebook or
Twitter.

------
dictum
Here's a reply that won't help you. 1 year old is quite early to really push
her in any direction, but when she's around 2, you could introduce building
blocks (building and rebuilding as a metaphor for creation) and jigsaw puzzles
(pattern recognition).

I'm conflicted about this. I don't feel happy about nudging a girl or a boy to
learn a skill that's professional in its nature.

I still believe it's delusional to see programming as just an interest and
something people need even if they're not programmers. We'll do to programming
the same we did to math: people spend years being taught math but come out
unable to do basic algebra, and forever scared of it.

Children turn into rebellious teenagers. I wasn't a very rebellious teenager,
but I remember not doing things that would actually be good for me in the long
term just out of spite for some authority figures. A heavy handed approach and
your attempt to nudge her into programming could well lead her _away_ from
programming.

Give her a great education, be supportive of her interests and show her many
different possibilities for personal growth. Do not try to build a better
version of you.

------
blakerson
The baby-safe variety of Legos? It's hard to imagine a (healthy) case for a
device with a screen at that age. But at the very least she can start building
motor skills and think about building things.

~~~
whichdan
Does Lego have any sets for children under 18-24 months? Once she gets a bit
older, I agree that Lego Duplo would be a great choice, especially the gender-
neutral sets. I can attest that playing with Lego as a kid was a huge part of
what eventually made me interested in programming.

~~~
cpwright
I think Duplo should be safe for all kids, just not very interesting when they
are too young. They used to have an actual Lego-made product Quatro for a
short period, but no longer. Megabloks are the next best thing, they are
bigger and have much less clutch power than Duplo.

------
pseut
A book. Preferably one that her parents will enjoy reading over and over
again. I like "Anno's magic seeds"

(I have daughters and want them to understand programming, but 1 is really
young)

Edit: not clear from the book's title, but "Anno's magic seeds" is a charming
story about exponential growth.

------
pdx
You're worried about ways to "counter the world". I say, good luck. I already
screwed up on my daughter at 3, even while I was consciously and carefully
trying not to.

Since she was little, I've been trying to treat her exactly the same as her
brother. I vowed she would not become one of those girls who only thought
about how they looked.

Around Christmas of 2012, I saw a red, Christmas dress at Costco, and bought
it for her.

She had never had a fancy dress before, and she liked it enough. But the
damage came when we went to the grocery store, and she wore the dress.
Everybody praised how cute she looked. So many grandmothers and mothers in the
store, stopped to tell her how much they liked her dress.

The constant positive feedback from strangers, in my opinion, had a huge
impact on her. She liked the dress more and more, and we bought her more
dresses. She also got more as gifts from relatives. Every time we go out,
she's bombarded with compliments on how she looks.

We dress her brother (one year older) up in nice clothes as well, but
strangers don't stop him to tell him how good he looks in them. There's
something about girls, that makes people want to tell them how cute they look,
and, in my opinion, it effects them.

Who doesn't like getting complimented? Who wouldn't want to do more of
something that is generating so much praise from friends and strangers alike?

I've already lost the battle to have her grow up, not caring about how she
looks. At 4, she cares deeply about it. Already, there is a difference in her
world, vs her brothers world.

At this point, I've caved in and praise her dresses when she wants me to.
You're only a kid once. It's nice when your Dad says you're pretty.

EDIT: In response to my commentors. I reject the premise that boys and girls
are different, at least, prior to puberty. For a kid of 3 years, I contend
that they are exactly the same, but that they are treated differently, and
that is what makes the difference.

~~~
bobfromhuddle
> I reject the premise that boys and girls are different, at least, prior to
> puberty. For a kid of 3 years, I contend that they are exactly the same, but
> that they are treated differently, and that is what makes the difference.

That's a fashionable notion in our post-modern world, but wrong. Young rhesus
monkeys display gender-specific toy preferences in line with human behaviour:
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X08...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X08000949)

Boys and girls _are_ different, though I'll agree with you that most of the
pressure to look good is societal rather than innate. Worse: most of it comes
from other women.

------
meerita
Why would you think she may like to go and work for an Startup when she's in
the age of working? Maybe she wants to be a musician or a model.

------
cpwright
I think you need to go for just problem solving, not for programming. A shape
sorter might be OK. Fisher Price made a remote control car that was very good
for kids called a Bounce Back Racer. It was tough, so you didn't need to worry
about a toddler breaking it, and it could flip over; so there wasn't really
frustration with it being undrivable if something didn't work. You get to push
buttons, see something happen, and have feedback. You can try to make the car
go to Mommy or Daddy, so it seems like that is a start to having a machine do
your bidding.

------
JunkDNA
I have two daughters (1.5 and 3.5 years old). Every kid is different, but from
what I've observed, you can't do what you want directly at this age. But that
really doesn't matter at all.

Buy her tons of books. Make her love books. Read 3 books before bedtime. Read
any time she asks, even when you're staring at your phone, trying to claw back
that little shred of personal time by responding to something "important on
the internet". Why? Because the earlier she learns to read in life, the more
she'll have the wind at her back when it's time to learn more. Books are
cheap. You can get them at Goodwill for next to nothing. You can get them from
the library for free. We have so many, my kids can't possibly read them all,
and that is a _great_ problem to have.

I am also a fan of open-ended toys like big, wood blocks, a stack of blank
paper and some crayons, and Play-Doh. You can never do too much of that stuff.
It works their creative side, their problem solving abilities, fine motor
skills, and hand eye coordination.

------
ScottWhigham
You are very thoughtful - love it. But as others have said, 1yos just don't
have brain development far enough along that you can target specific toys with
activities. What 1yos need are things that help them learn to control their
limbs - a Johnny Jumper, blocks, hammer + block things to nail down. That's
what they're focusing on at that age: I want my hand to do this.

------
kotakota
I'm always bothered when I see these types of questions. Why do you feel the
need to lead a young child to programming? Why can't you simply let the child
be like all other children. Let them enjoy their youth and at around 7 or 8
you can introduce them to programming. If they like it great, if not let them
decide what they do like doing.

------
falcolas
Colorful wooden building blocks. Sturdy enough to last for years, encourages
problem solving, and lets them make something.

------
dragonwriter
> is there a toy that I could buy her at this very early age that would have
> the slightest influence on that?

Probably not; at this age, the real influence are going to be more subtle and
indirect than a specific toy, etc. There might be something _her parents_
could do to avoid laying the gender-stereotyping groundwork on which later
influences that tend to push girls away from programmming (and math and
physical science generally) build, but as a friend of the parents choosing a
birthday gift there's probably no choice you can make that has any predictable
influence either way.

Although, if her parents share your concern and are actively working in that
direction, you could ask them what you could do that would fit into what they
are doing.

------
DanBC
She's too young for cuisenaire rods / blocks yet, but those are great.

Pound o' dice (chessex) are great. Really tactile, lots of colours. Again,
severe choke hazard at the moment.

It's probably more important to teach logical thinking and questioning. When
she says "why?" Say "that's a good question, what do you think?" Teach her to
gather the information she has and to find out what information she needs.

Teach her about estimation.

But as for stuff that's available now? There's a big gap in the market for
gender neutral clothing with positive messages. Onesies and t-shirts in a
variety of colours with messages like "future rocket scientist" or similar
"geek" slogans would be great.

------
javiramos
I agree with everyone that's saying that you should focus on developing her
problem solving skills instead of pushing her to program. At this point you
don't know whether she will want to become a programmer or not. Problem
solving skills are applicable to any career so why not teach her something
that would make her a better person (and maybe a better programmer someday)? I
have heard of [http://www.goldieblox.com/](http://www.goldieblox.com/) as a
great way to get girls interested in engineering early on :)

------
EdwardMSmith
Are the parents planning on doing (baby) sign language? If not, a book on how
to do that would be, in my opinion, the best thing you could do.

I don't know what the latest research says about later brain development with
early sign language learning, but I do know that teaching our kids baby sign
language from birth certainly cut down on frustration as a parent, as we were
much more likely to understand what the baby wanted/needed.

It's also a serious trip to see a 1 year old kid doing sign language.

------
jacknews
It's almost ridiculous to consider 'programming skills' for a 1-year-old, let
alone the presumptive pressure that she should become a programmer, etc.

But, programming in real life is much more about clean organisation, rather
than clever algorithms. Buy her a peg board toy, building blocks, and a
cupboard to keep it all tidy, and the constrained creativity and discipline
she will practice will apply to almost any field.

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Aloha
Nothing. She's one. Wait till she's four.

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hmhrex
Interesting question. I wouldn't mind seeing what suggestions come up as well,
as I have a daughter that's almost 1 year old.

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pstack
She's one. Buy her some Tinker Toys and finger paints. Read every night to
her, until she starts picking up books and reading on her own (it happened for
me by about the age of three, simply from reading with my mom every night).

FFS, she won't even construct memories that she'll recall later in life for
another couple of years. This is all really kind of absurd.

------
lafar6502
Well, if you really want to turn her away from computers, why not try teaching
her to program when she's 1 year old?

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ChuckMcM
I think you're not quite in the position to solve this problem :-) But one
characteristic that serves kids well is curiosity coupled with good mentoring.
At one she is still probably working out object permanence, I found my kids
were more interested in the box that things came in rather than the toys at
that stage :-)

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bcguy390
Why are you trying to influence a child who isn't even yours...thats the job
of the parents...

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DanBC
heuristic play is putting a child amongst a bunch of everyday items and
letting them experience this stuff without any guidance from a parent. The
adult monitors for safety, and joins in, but should let the child guide the
play.

So a box of suitable items for that might be nice? A soft safe play mat. Some
hair brushes, fabric of different texture, stuff that crinkles, plastic
bottles with dried peas in, pine cones, emery boards, glittery things, etcetc.

You have to be a bit careful because the mouth is a sensory organ and children
at that age will put anything to their mouth to explore it. You might want to
nicely print something about heuristic play.

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wallflower
Actually one of my friends taught his kids to count starting from zero.

For a while, someone other than him (e.g. a teacher) would ask his kid 'How
many X are there?' and the kid would proclaim loudly and proudly: "Zero!"

~~~
sbhere
coding win.

Edit: I actually disagree with this method (although it's hilariously
awesome), because having an item is not the same as having zero items. It
might be the _zero-th_ item, but it is not zero items.

------
facepalm
I bought my kid a Hexbug Nano around that age. It's a small robot. It's small
enough to swallow, so it depends on the kid.

------
salahxanadu
Bilibo chair. There's no replacement for imagination. Wait until she's 6 and
then go after the programming angle.

------
qbrass
Get a Towers of Hanoi puzzle.

For a 1 year old, it's just a stacking game, later on, she can learn how it
really works.

------
okpatil
Poor girl..

------
mapster
Something from Baby Einstein

~~~
azurelogic
While I think that the Baby Einstein videos and toys are great (my daughter
loves the both), I wouldn't say these are specifically programmer oriented.

~~~
ScottWhigham
Yeah, but what is "specifically programmer oriented" that is also appropriate
to 1yos? Nothing!

~~~
pseut
True, but that doesn't make "something" the correct answer.

------
bhousel
This is a really great question. I have a daughter who just turned 2, so I
guess I have some experience with this. Lots of other commenters are correct
in pointing out that 1 year old is really still very young. A 1 year old is
still trying to learn how to stand, move around, feed themselves. Their brain
is spending more time developing gross motor skills than fine motor skills.
They don't have much logic yet, and they are only beginning to learn things
like cause and effect and object permanence. I'll try to point out what things
she can do at 1, but also things she will grow into over the next year.

Blocks are a great gift for a 1 year old. We have some wooden ones with
alphabet letters and numbers and animals, and we also have Megablocks. My 2
year old still plays with those, and as they develop finer motor skills and
logic, they can play different kinds of games with the blocks (e.g. "lets put
all the same colored ones together").

Musical stuff is also a really good gift for a 1 year old (and musical skill
happens to correlate strongly with programming skill). So you could get her a
xylophone or some toddler percussion stuff. At this age she will just bang on
them, but that's fine, and like with the blocks, her play will develop as she
learns finer motor skills and logic.

Reading to kids at any age is good for them, so you could also get them some
board books.

Between 1 and 2, she will go through huge development in fine motor skills,
logic, and language. In this year she'll become more ready for paper books,
like Dr. Seuss books or Goodnight Moon, and will start to memorize them. She
will start to learn that the words on the page go with the words to the story
and pretend to read along. She'll also have the fine motor skills to put
together the Duplo Legos. She will also start to understand cause and effect,
and the basics of time (now vs later vs tomorrow). Her play will become more
imaginative too.

Around 2 is when she will also start to understand the difference between boys
and girls, and this is where you will want to be more careful in the kinds of
toys she is exposed to. I try to acknowledge the differences between how boys
and girls play, without enforcing the negative gender stereotypes.

A while ago, some HN commenter, who happened to be a child development
psychologist, made a statement that stuck with me. She said something like
"all kids can play with the same kinds of toys, but boys will play just for
the sake of play, but girls need to breathe life into their toys." This has
turned out to be really true, at least with my daughter and her playgroup of
friends. She plays with Lego Duplos, but she wants to know what all the Lego
people are doing, give them places to go, have them take care of baby Legos,
have them use a Lego potty, etc. She plays with Matchbox cars, but again, she
is more interested in building rich stories for them and having the cars talk
to each other than racing them. Boys do this too, but girls seem to need this
kind of play more than boys do in order to stay interested and engaged.
Playing with a 2 year old is actually a lot of fun. :-)

------
sambeau
Duplo.

~~~
ld00d
This is a great toy for teaching kids basic engineering concepts. It's also
fun for me to build stuff with my girls.

------
print
A chess board!

------
hadr13n
A macbook air?

------
mknappen
ball

