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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, November 12, 2005

Play for keeps

 •  Drum roll, please, for Trojan Bandfest
 •  It's all about glamour at trunk show
 •  'American Story' screens at Sunset
 •  Candy Cane train rides begin
 •  Crafts fairs bring in holiday season
 •  American Indian author signs book

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Staff Writer

Kathy Carvalho of Makiki plays with her daughter, Kahealani, 13 weeks. Stevanne "Dr. Toy" Auerbach says the parent is a child's first big toy.

REBECCA BREYER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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NEW BABY & KIDS EXPO

10 a.m.-5 p.m. today and tomorrow

Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall

$4.50 general, free for children 5 and younger

239-2229

www.newbabyandkids.com

Featured speaker: Stevanne Auerbach, www.drtoy.org, 2 p.m. each day, main stage.

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Kathleen Carvalho likes to dance her daughter, Kahealani, around the apartment. She shakes a toy above her head and makes the 3-month-old giggle.

"I just love her," the new mom coos. "She's really good. I'm lucky."

Actually, if you ask child play expert Stevanne "Dr. Toy" Auerbach, she'd say it's little Kahealani who's fortunate, because her mom is doing all the right things.

"The parent is the child's first big toy," says author Auerbach, who will speak at the New Baby & Kids Expo at the Blaisdell Center this weekend, discussing Top 100 toys and the importance of play. "... Play is the important work of the child, as they say in early-childhood-development circles."

Play is how children learn best, she said: "When they try to learn things rote, or through textbooks alone, it becomes a lot less exciting and they start to tune out."

But play isn't just kid stuff. Auerbach urges: "I think grandparents need to play. Executives need to play."

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