Abstract

Background: At present, many kinds of building block toys are available on the market and most of them are made of small wooden blocks played by children alone. Parents can not always accompany their children while playing, which exposes them to the danger of swallowing the toy. Nowadays, with the country’s increasing prosperity, traditional culture is vigorously promoted to improve cultural confidence. A part of this culture includes “Mortise and Tenon” structure. Currently, there are few cases of applying mortise and tenon structures to building block toys. Rice husk material is used in the product composition that has the characteristics of high resistance to natural degradation, and it is not a threat if children accidentally swallow the toy. Objective: From the perspective of children's safety, this paper examine and analyzes the current building block toys, and innovates from the two aspects of structure and materials to better protect the children, and at the same time, to inherit and preserve the traditional Chinese culture. Methods: The current literature on building block toys was analyzed to understand the importance of building blocks for children's education, and then the materials was compared and analyzed to determine how different types of building blocks affect children's safety. Finally, the case study was carried out on children's building blocks to analyze how to include mortise and tenon structure with toys and use safer building blocks materials. Results: Through the innovation of building block material and structure, such as edible rice husk material, mortise and tenon structure, as well as parent-child interaction, the design was completed with an eye toward children’s safety and enhancing both the parent-child relationship while using building block toys. Conclusions: 1) Children's safety as the main focus; 2) Using mortise and tenon structure to increase parent-child interaction; 3) The use of rice husk material to make building block toys more eco-friendly and safe. Using the aforementioned three aspects will serve as as the innovation points in the designs of building block toys that are more ideal for children.