Right now, my daughter is almost two years old and she is working on strengthening her verbal abilities. She is getting adept with her words, but she still gets frustrated easily, and like many toddlers, she reacts physically. We work on talking through our problems and taking emotions into consideration. I always try to validate and acknowledge her emotions, and I will share my emotions with her as well.

So, the Brainy Baby “Baby Face” toy is perfect for reinforcing the concepts that we are working on. This innovative toy features six pictures of real babies showcasing various emotions. The emotions range from the very common - happy, sad, and mad - to emotions that are also common, but slightly more complex like surprised and sleepy. I think that the selection exhibits a nice range of emotion- there really isn’t any “feeling” that is left out.

These pictures are situated around a plunger; when the user presses the plunger, the pictures spin around like a top. When the spinning stops, the user is treated to a phrase or sound effect associated with the picture that has stopped above a big yellow button. These phrases might be, “I’m so silly!”, “I’m sad; I need a hug!” or just giggling or growling (mad).

Baby Faces does a good job of keeping a toddler engaged. If some time passes after the plunger is pressed, Baby Faces will try to attract attention to itself by asking a question or playing a short musical burst.

Aside from the plunger and spinning top, there are several other buttons to push and things to wiggle. Some of these buttons reward the user with a musical burst or some sound effects, and other buttons ask the user questions “Can you show me a silly face?”- making play into an interactive experience.

One of the things I look for the most when selecting toys is versatility and a broad age range. A six month old is too young to understand sleepy versus happy, but she can enjoy pushing buttons and seeing the cause and effect of that action- or perhaps watching an older helper push the buttons! Of course, this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce emotions into the infant’s daily routine, i.e. “Oh my! You must be so sleepy- it has been a long day!” or “The music makes you happy!”

But as a child enters into toddlerhood- 18-24 months or so- she becomes more aware of her emotions. I find myself telling my daughter that I know that she is mad that I turned off her favorite public television program, but we have to go to the grocery store. Or, if she starts to fuss after a long morning of playing, I’ll ask her if she is sleepy.

Given that talking about feelings is such a big part of our lives, I just love that this toy can help me reinforce these lessons. I love that the pictures on the plunger are of real babies so that my daughter can associate emotions with the facial expressions that go with them.
I think that the Brainy Baby “Baby Faces” is a great toy. Emotions are certainly complex for adults to understand, so anything that helps decipher is certainly welcome in my home!