By: iTopTopics Staff
Holiday season is such a joyful time, especially for children mainly because they are off school and expecting to receive presents, lots of presents during this time of the year. Holidays, birthdays or special occasions, parents, uncles and aunts, grandmas and grandpas all over the world try to fulfill their kids' wish lists, some are mighty long list. Many children wish to receive pets for presents, commonly, a puppy or a kitten.
Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia recently published a study resulting a significant increase in children interactions when they are exposed to pets versus new toys. The survey was done among children with Autism, it showed that the children talked more and made direct eye contacts with others a lot more in the presence of animals compared to toy. Even though the research was done on autistic children who lack the most social interactions, it proves that children in general can have tremendous social benefits when it comes to having a pet instead of having a new toy to play with. So in term of emotional and social benefits, pets are definite in the top run for gifts. However, most parents would avoid to get their kids pets because of the hard work entailed. To have a pet is to add more work in general. The kids, in the excitement and anticipation of owning a pet, they would promise to take care of their pets themselves but in reality, not many kids can keep holding on to that commitment for long. So in term of additional effort involved, a toy might be a more sensible choice for gifts in this case. However, the long-term benefits to boost a child's development is so significant, it can easily overweight the hard-work entailed when it comes to adopting a pet for your child.
The short film "The Present", created by Jacob Frey and Markus Kranzler in 2014 as a graduation project while they were students at Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg in Ludwigsburg, Germany, showed a touching story of how a pet changed the lifestyle for this kid. We won't say more to spoil the story. According to the Vimeo page, the film has won more than 50 awards around the globe, including Canada, the U.S., Italy and Portugal and landed jobs at Walt Disney Animation and at Pixar Animation Studios.
Enjoy the short film below, this might change your mind on the gifting choice for your kids this holiday season: