WE all know how important it is to give children a good start in life. For many, learning how to walk and talk is a full-time job so it's vital their young minds are kept stimulated, too.

Hundreds of newfangled toys claim to help kids with their education - and cause misery for cash-strapped mums and dads at the same time. But if, like many, you can't afford these expensive gadgets, don't worry. It doesn't mean your children will miss out.

A US study has found that even the simplest of toys can help youngsters come on in leaps and bounds and learn the important skills they need for life. Coloured blocks, for example, were found to be far more effective learning aids than some baby DVDs that had been proven' to help language learning.

The research, which involved 175 toddlers aged between 18 months and two-and-a-half years, discovered that children who played with blocks on a regular basis scored 15 per cent higher marks on language assessments, compared to those who didn't - a huge difference.

The study was led by Dr Dimitri Christakis, from the University of Washington. He believes that simple toys make such a difference because when children play with them, they start to speak to themselves internally.

"If they're building a tower, they're thinking, I'll put that one on top of that one', or if they're making a car or a castle, it's reinforcing that word in their head," he explained.

"In recent years, we've seen an explosion of products that make all sorts of claims that they're educational for kids but the majority of claims are unsubstantiated.

"Parents have been blinded by pseudo-science and they've grown away from traditional toys like blocks. We now have our first evidence of a kind of toy that really can improve language - and it's a throwback to a prior time when children used their hands, minds and inner language to reinforce what they're learning."

Plenty of Essex companies have backed the new findings and Small Monsters Ltd is one of them. The Corringham play centre, in Woolifers Avenue, offers children a safe environment in which to have fun and from bouncy castles to bead frames, it has everything to keep kids happy.

Caroline Dyson, manager of the centre, said: "We have soft play equipment to help children interact with others but we do put a lot of smaller toys on tables as not every child wants to dash around.

"We have traditional things like stickle bricks, duplo and train sets because they don't break as easily but I really think children do prefer them.

"Toys are an essential part of childhood and by giving youngsters something simple to play with, like building blocks, you are encouraging them to use their imagination."

And Gill Gaught, from Benfleet's Turnaround Toys, agreed. Owner of the independent toy shop, in London Road, Gill has been making children happy for the last 12 years and offers a huge variety of play things to suit all ages.

However, she accepted that times were moving quickly and that with progress, manufacturers were always going to "come up with new ideas" - especially in the run-up to Christmas.

"Even though today's children are being brought into a whole different world, toys are always going to be massively important," she told the Echo.

"They're part of growing up and in terms of what we sell, we have found that classic products like Playmobil are very popular. Lego, which has just been reinvented, is still a big hit and so are traditional favourites like Noddy and Thomas the Tank Engine."