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In the first research programme of its kind, a decade-long study at the Center for Early Childhood Education at Eastern Connecticut State University looked at the sorts of play elicited by different kinds of toys.
东康涅狄格州立大学幼儿教育中心进行了一项为期十年的研究，研究不同种类的玩具引发的游戏类型，这是此类研究的首个项目。
“Back in 2010, when we started this, there wasn’t a lot of research on toys,” Julia DeLapp, who now directs the centre, told me.
“早在2010年，当我们开始这项研究时，还没有很多关于玩具的研究，”该中心现任主任朱莉娅·德拉普告诉我。
After watching kids play with more than 100 different types of toy, the researchers concluded that simple, open-ended, non-realistic toys with multiple parts, like a random assortment of Lego, inspired the highest-quality play.
研究人员在观察了孩子们玩100多种不同类型的玩具后，得出结论，简单、开放、由多部分组成的非现实玩具，如随机组合的乐高，可以激发最高质量的玩耍。
While engaged with such toys, children were “more likely to be creative, engage in problem solving, interact with their peers, and use language,” the researchers wrote.
研究人员写道，孩子们玩这些玩具时，他们“更有可能发挥创造力，参与解决问题，与同龄人互动以及使用语言”。
Electronic toys, however, tended to limit kids’ play: “A simple wooden cash register in our study inspired children to engage in lots of conversations related to buying and selling – but a plastic cash register that produced sounds when buttons were pushed mostly inspired children to just push the buttons repeatedly.”
然而，电子玩具往往会限制孩子们的玩耍: “在我们的研究中，一个简单的木制收银机会激发孩子们参与许多与买卖有关的对话，而一个触发按钮就会发声的塑料收银机主要是激发孩子们一遍又一遍按下按钮。”
As a result of such research, it is increasingly acknowledged that the best new toys are the best old ones – sticks and blocks and dolls and sand that follow no pre-programmed routines, that elicit no predetermined behaviours.
这种研究的结果是，越来越多的人承认，最好的新玩具等于最好的旧玩具——棍子、积木、玩偶和沙子，它们不遵循预先设定的程序，也不会引起预先设定的行为。
“I don’t think electronic toys are a horror, but what often happens in the industry is that we kind of overdo the toys, and we take over the kids’ experience,” Hirsh-Pasek said.
赫什-帕塞克说: “我认为电子玩具并不可怕，但在这个行业中经常发生的情况是，我们有点过度使用玩具，我们主宰了孩子们的体验。”
“Then after the kids play with the toy once or twice, they’re more interested in the box.”
“在孩子们玩了一两次玩具后，他们对盒子更感兴趣。”
And yet many policymakers, toymakers and parents still drastically underestimate children’s cognitive abilities.
许多政策制定者、玩具制造商和家长仍严重低估儿童的认知能力。
Only three years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics felt it necessary to warn against “the proliferation of electronic, sensory-stimulating noise and light toys … that can be perceived by parents as necessary for developmental progress despite the lack of supporting evidence”.
就在三年前，美国儿科学会认为有必要对“电子玩具、刺激感官的声光玩具的激增提出警告……尽管缺乏支持性证据，但父母可能认为这些玩具对发育进化是必要的”。
The Ideo Play Lab, located in a former syrup factory in San Francisco’s Mission District, could be thought of as Fisher-Price’s more urbane second cousin.
Ideo Play实验室原来是一家旧金山教会区的糖浆厂，人们认为该实验室是费雪更文雅练达的表亲。
A design and consulting firm famous on the Ted Talk circuit for attempting to reimagine everything from the shopping cart to dying, Ideo has had a toy division for more than 30 years.
Ideo是一家设计和咨询公司，在Ted演讲中以试图重新想象从购物车到死亡的一切而闻名。Ideo成立玩具部门已有30多年的历史。
“We like to say that play is part of Ideo’s DNA,” Michelle Lee, one of the Play Lab’s managing directors, told me as we stood in the company’s sleekly appointed headquarters.
当我与Play实验室总经理米歇尔·李站在陈设整洁的总部时，米歇尔告诉我：“我们想说，游戏是Ideo基因的一部分。”
