Wednesday, December 9,1987/The Battalion/Page 5 kES specialist says toys for kids should involve their imagination pplio eerint :t Dt By Kim File Reporter When choosing playthings for oung children, it is important to ask the toy will invite action on the liild’s part rather than just generat ing a performance for the youngster ) watch, a Texas Agricultural Ex- msion Service family sciences spe- ialist says. ftaJioi Battery operated toys — including ays 1)6 ;orytelling stuffed animals like eddy Ruxpin — may not be the lest gifts for young children, Dr. Sa il) L. Anderson, TAES specialist, iys. In fact, toys that “don’t do any- ling" are preferable because they ontribute more to a child’s devel- pment than playthings that auto- itically move and maxe noise, An- erson says. “It’s best if a child can actually do jraething — not just sit and watch a )y,” she says. “Young children from bout the age of three or four like “It’s best if a child can actually do something — notjust sit and watch a toy. Young children from about the age of three or four like toys they can be actively involved with.” — Dr. Sarah L. Anderson, TAES specialist toys they can be actively involved with.” This is one reason the inanimate Cabbage Patch doll was so success ful, says Anderson. Young children are able to inter act with the doll by using their imagi nations to make it come alive, she says. Even babies were able to relate to this doll by dragging it around and chewing on it, Anderson says. “The Caboage Patch dolls, besides being ugly, really didn’t do anything — they just laid there and they didn’t cry or wet,” Anderson says. “But what’s important is that the children were able to pretend with them.” On the other hand, automated toys or “high-tech toys” usually tend to limit a child’s involvement, she says. When a child engages in play with these toys he becomes more of an observer tnan a doer and this lim its a child’s productivity in imagina tion, Anderson says. One example is Teddy Ruxpin, a teddy bear with a cassette player concealed inside its body. The bear tells storys as they are taped from the cassette. This toy doesn’t encour age verbal growth because it does all the talking, she says. It would be better if the youngster could talk for the bear and then talk back to the bear as himself, Ander son savs. Not only does the child have a greater chance of becoming bored with a toy of this kind, but the costs of high-tech toys of this type seem to be steadily increasing, she adds. To further a youngsters’s devel opmental growth, Anderson recom mends some old stand-bys such as erector sets, building blocks and paints that children can use for years. “We want to encourage original thinking so children can find solu tions to problems rather than having things set for them,” she says. “You get to the point in life where there isn’t someone to give a solution — you have to be able to find it.” And she adds, “Books are always a wonderful gift for children of any age, even infants.” Worried About Finals? ►special study ►free coffee ►free wake-up $15 per room w/A&M I.D. exp: 12/10/87 E-Z Travel Motor Inn 2007 S. Texas 693-5822 SHO ON CASH??? Sell your BOOKS at University Book Stor*’ Northgate & Culpepper Plaaa SCHULMAN THEATRES 2.50 ADMISSION 1 Any Show Before 3 PM '. Tuesday - All Seats J. Mon-Wed - Local Students With Current ID’s 4. Thur - KORA “Over 30 Nite” "DENOTES DOLBY STEREO MANOR EAST 3 Manor East Mall 823-8300 PUC officials ecommend ate increase AUSTIN (AP) — Public Utility Commission examiners have rec- (mmended an $86.7 million rate ncrease for Gulf States Utilities. The 437-page examiners’ re- »rt was forwarded to the three- nember PUC on Monday. The land will rule on the case on Jan. idersloffi zing Rail a.m, >ge ely 1/ pressii# snow thwart I) icific during The Beaumont-based utility rants a $144 million increase. The examiners’ report recom- nended that GSU be forbidden rom passing along to customers C247 million in costs associated nth construction of the River lend nuclear plant in St. Francis- ille, La. GSU’s rates were increased by 89.9 million on April 7 as a re mit of the company’s request for an emergency rate hike. The 86.7 million recommendation includes that increase. When the case started more than a year ago, homeowners were paying $68.46 per month for 1,000 kilowatts. The recom- icnded increase would bring t bill to $78.41. “It doesn’t look like a very seven hood day for consumers in South- ast Texas who need to get that egrees, |conomy going,” Geoffrey Gay, [he state lawyer who represents onsumers in PUC cases, said. GSU serves 555,000 customers iteorolOS* in Texas and Lousiana. leteorolo? of an 0 Iren justice defends his judgment in Texaco case Police chief: Officers fired for behavior, not shooting DALLAS (AP) — Dallas Police Chief Billy Prince maintained that his department was sound Tuesday, hours after two officers involved in the wounding of an unarmed 16- year-old were fired. “We don’t have a crumbling police department,” Prince said. ‘T have never hesitated to take disciphnary action against officers accused of misconduct.” Officers Eva DeChoudens and Larry Pope, both 24, were fired after an expedited internal investigation into the teen’s shooting. Officials said the officers were not fired be cause of the shooting, but because of other improper actions. Allegations probed included falsi fying documents, falsifying reports, failure to arrest an alleged felon and conducting an illegal search. De Choudens also was accused of using greater force than necessary, offi cials said. “I’m tired of a few officers contin uing to ignore our rules and regula tions,” Prince said. “There are offi cers who try to go a little too far in their actions and it’s unacceptable.” Reserve officer M.L. Edwards was relieved of his duties in connection with the wounding of the teen-age girl, who remained hospitalized Tuesday. The police department’s deadly force policy has long been the center of controversy, and the teen-ager’s shooting prompted another round of angry outbursts from black lead ers. The policy was the subject of a congressional hearing this summer, and earlier this month a state district judge slapped the city with sanctions after he found officials had not been cooperating in a lawsuit involving the 1986 accidental fatal shooting of an Addison police officer by a Dallas officer. “This is as clear a case of discovery abuse as I’ve ever seen,” Judge Joe Burnett said last week in the lawsuit brought by the widow of officer Ronald Cox. The 16-year-old’s shooting Nov. 27 was the third controversial action by officers in November. On Nov. 4 a cocaine-intoxicated man died after officers tried to restrain him with a neck hold and on Nov. 13 a 62-year- old man was fatally shot at his home when he allegedly pointed a gun at officers serving a search warrant for illicit alcoholic beverages. Police spokesman Ed Spencer said four people have been killed so far this year in police gunfire and 14 others were wounded, compared with 28 shootings during the same period last year, including nine kill- mgs. Police determined in the case of the wounded 16-year-old that, be fore the shooting, the officers in volved illegally entered and )oug searched an apartment in the same complex where the shooting oc- cured, internal affairs Lt. Dt Kowalski said. They then went to another apart ment and told investigators that the shooting occurred after DeChou dens saw the 16-year-old, who had answered the door, reach to her waistband and produce a shiny ob ject, Kowalski said. She was then shot in the leg. In fact, Kowalski said, the officer neither observed the 16-year-old reach to her waistband nor did she reach for a shiny object. DeChoudens also was among sev eral officers investigated by the de partment’s internal affairs division in connection with the alleged beat ing of a prisoner in August. The report awaits final action by the department, Prince said, who ac knowledged it was one of those re ports that just took too long. Former Mayoral candidate Jim Buerger said DeChoudens and three other officers made no attempt to in tervene when a fourth officer alleg edly beat a handcuffed burglary sus pect. DeChoudens also was suspended for five days Nov. 7, 1986, after she was found to have participated in an illegal search and arrest. AUSTIN (AP) — Texas Supreme <)urt Justice William Kilgarlin on jfoc uesday fired back at Gov. Bill lements for saying the court hurt le state business climate by not hav- [ e s i ng a hearing on the $ 11 billion .n i judgment against Texaco. “When I went to law school, I was old that you decided cases based on (,ili he law and on the facts,” Kilgarlin j pi )ld members of the Society of Pro- essional Journalists. “Now Gov. Clements has added a bird element... I suppose based on diat he has said, we are to decide ,. s fuses on the law, the facts and how it j ffects the business economy in the ,j: fate of Texas,” Kilgarlin said. Kilgarlin also criticized as slanted CBS “60 Minutes” television pro gram on the Texas judiciary. The program also was criticized by Pennzoil Chairman J. Hugh Laedtke but praised by Clements in separate appearances Tuesday. Clements last week blasted the Su- E reme Court for deciding against earing Texaco’s appeal of its $11 billion Toss to Pennzoil. The award, which was made by a Houston jury and upheld by a lower state appeals court, was made be cause or Texaco’s alleged interfer ence in Pennzoil’s planned merger with Getty Oil. The court found no reversible er ror in the lower courts’ rulings in the case. Texaco, which has filed for bank ruptcy protection, has said it will ap peal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Texas Supreme Court does not have the authority to adjust the size of a lower court award, Kilgarlin noted. He said the court pondered the Texaco-Pennzoil case for four months. “To say that we just refused to hear the case without study is a total misrepresentation of the facts,” he said. “More study went in on that particular case by the Supreme Court (than) on any other applica tion for writ of error that we’ve had since I’ve been on the court.” Connections exist between Tex aco and “60 Minutes,” Kilgarlin added. 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