Are toy-free kindergartens the future in Zurich?

Since 2021, 54 kindergarten classes have participated in the Canton Zurich’s toy-free kindergarten trial. According to the city's Centre for Addiction Prevention, this will teach children to regulate their consumer habits. 

Swiss kindergartens perform toy-free trial

Currently, 21 kindergarten classes in Zurich are testing the effects of toy-free learning environments on the development of children. For eight to 10 weeks, kids play independently with available materials: tables, chairs, boxes and nature.

Under the guidance of the Centre for Addiction Prevention, teachers are encouraged to give kids as much freedom as possible in their choice of entertainment, and to only intervene when necessary. The trial pursues the question of how children become more creative, independent and social without access to toys.

According to the City of Zurich, children develop important skills when toys are removed from their environment. They learn how to express and regulate emotions and needs, while engaging with each other, rather than with objects.

Critical views on the experiment

Information sessions hosted by the Centre of Addiction Prevention are prompting parents to encourage their children to develop skills detached from toy-based play. Some, however, have voiced their upset with the trial. 

A mother from Zurich shared her frustrations with the Limmataler Zeitung. She says she had only been informed but not asked for permission. She is worried about the experiment. The people responsible had rejected her concerns, saying it was normal for a child to come home sad and tired from kindergarten. Her son will now be placed in a private school.

However, the Centre for Addiction Prevention calls the project a success, reporting positive feedback from parents and teachers. In regular check-ins with participating facilities, they were informed about the beneficial development in the children's creativity and social skills. 

Experts, such as the children and youth psychologist Allan Guggenbühl of the Institute for Pedagogy in Zurich (Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich), are doubting the correlation between toys and addiction in children. He told the Limmataler Zeitung that the assumptions by the Centre for Addiction Prevention were loose and speculative. Regardless, the trials will probably not cause any emotional harm to children, and the trials will continue.