Yo-Yoing Your way to Better Physical and Mental Health- Proven Benefits of Yo-Yos

Yo-Yos, a popular pastime for people regardless of age and culture, is a toy that helps kids build skills. They are therefore considered “skill toys”.

Skill toys are essential for development as they help enrich a child’s physical, emotional and social wellbeing. As far as brain development is concerned, early childhood is a crucial time that helps make connections that build and constitute skills, personality, and habits. Most behavioral, social, personal, and mental skills are cultivated during this time, and these help mold the kid into a healthy adult.

Among other popular skills, toys, and related activities like magic tricks, juggling, cubing, card tricks, cup stacking, and spin tops, Yo-Yos are popular among kids and adults alike. Fun fact: In America, Yo-Yos are the number one most popular collectible. Here are a few benefits of Yo Yoing that you need to know.

1. Better Dexterity and Coordination

Complex movements like learning to play the yo-yo, juggling, and throwing a frisbee require skills and coordination. These skills build gross and fine motor skills and help enhance basic movements like walking, jumping, and throwing.

Yo-yos promote better dexterity and bilateral integration. What that means is that your kids will be prone to learning new and complex movements that would require the use of both sides of the body together thereby making them fit for learning more physical skills in the long run. These movements can include skills like writing and other dynamic skills.

2. Encourages Creative Thinking

Yo-Yos keep kids interested because they are very diverse. There are many tricks out there yo-yoers need to master and therefore, it’s an experience that is far from boring. It is a repetitive task that requires practice but it also has a variety of tricks that requires creativity and imagination to keep your kids engaged.

Yo-yos act as a creative outlet for kids encouraging them to learn new tricks using their skills and imagination.

3. Improves Spatial Awareness and Physics Learning

Being a skill that often needs practice, Yo Yoing requires an understanding of the mechanics in order to perfect the art. Being exposed to this experience, helps kids become aware of the mechanics of the physical world like gravity and inertia.

Yo-yoing needs space and you might have to deal with your child throwing the yo-yo onto things in close proximity. That’s part of learning! Eventually, a child understands the space around them needed to complete such a dynamic range of motion and therefore becomes acutely aware of the surroundings in which he/ she intends to practice.

4. Mental Skills

Yo-yos are excellent at improving mental skills including focus and determination. The skill requires one to focus and learn along the way, and constant practice is proven to have a positive impact on the level of focus a child has. It also helps develop the ability to excel in other physical activities, multi-tasking, and problem-solving.

5. Helps Kids with Learning Disabilities

Yo-yos are also found to be helpful for kids with learning disabilities like ADHD. Yo yoing is a good skill to learn both for children and adults because learning new tricks boosts the self-confidence and self-esteem of the child.

It is also a relaxing skill to learn that can be easily improved with a little bit of practice.

6. Helps Keep Kids Entertained 

One important question you need to ask yourself when buying toys is how long they would keep kids engaged. You might have realized that kids get bored even with something they were very excited about when they have eventually learned and mastered it. They require constant support throughout their journey of learning to help perfect any skill.

Since yo-yoing is something that demands constant learning, it encourages the kid to stay engaged and never get bored with it. Of course, your support is crucial but it’s something that doesn’t require you to constantly help your kids with. Once they get hold of the basic skills, they should be well on their way to learning exciting tricks with it. 

7. It’s a Simple Toy

With all these benefits, it should come off as a relief to you that yo-yos are portable and relatively cheaper when compared to other toys. They do not include easily detachable tiny parts that can be hazardous to children. For this reason, yo-yos are toys that you can easily carry around putting up a show for onlookers with your impressive set of tricks with the yo-yo.

Yo-yos do not need any form of powering up. They come ready to go right out of the box and do not require a battery or charging before use. 

Conclusion

Yo Yoing is an interesting skill that both kids and adults can learn.  If you feel like your child is ready to learn this new skill or if reading this has re-ignited your inner child, we encourage you to pick one for yourself here from our collection of classical toys for kids. Enjoy yo yoing!