Toys are the child’s means of discovering both self and the world. Infants are not born knowing the difference between red and green, hard and soft, sweet and sour, loud and quiet, and so on. In the same way, babies are not born knowing the difference between self and others. Toys are the tools that help the infant, and young child, make these discriminations. Ironically, this “playful” process of discrimination is effortful and time consuming. Infants (and older children) process information much more slowly than do adults. It may take an infant hours, or days, to explore all of a toy’s facets. That is to say, a baby learns a great deal from playing with the same toy over an extended period of time. Variety may be the spice of life, but it is a turn-off of infant learning.