Background: Play is a natural and most easily available out let for children‘s expression of needs and feelings. It is necessary stimulation for optimal development and support for their natural curiosity. Spontaneous play evolves from children’s need for self-expression, mastery in the environment and integration of past and current experiences. Young children play with exhilaration and total enjoyment. A play is important for the children’s physical, psychosocial and intellectual development. Medium of play, children can learn what no one can teach them. They learn about their world and how to deal with this environment of object, time, space, structure, and people. They learn about themselves operating within the environment what they can do, how to relate to things and situations and how to adopt themselves to the child. Objectives: To assess the knowledge and knowledge on practices among mothers of under five children regarding selection of toys. To evaluate the effectiveness of Structured teaching programme on selection of toys among mothers of under five years children. To associate the relationship between demographic variables and knowledge among mothers of under five years children on selection of toys. To associate the relationship between demographic variables and knowledge on practices among mothers of under five years children on selection of toys. Methods: An experimental study involving 50 Mothers of under five children were taken for the study. Pre-experimental research design was adopted for this study.Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. It included data regarding sociodemographic characteristics and questions pertaining to knowledge on selection of toys, and knowledge on practices on selection of toys. Results: Out of 50 mothers of under five children 50% (25) had inadequate knowledge, 32% (16) had moderate knowledge and only 18% (9) had adequate knowledge. With regards to knowledge on practices 26% (13) had inadequate knowledge on practices 64% (32) had moderate knowledge on practices and only 10%(5) had adequate knowledge on practices regarding selection of toys among mothers of under five children in pre-test. Out of 50 mothers of under five children majority 86% (43) had adequate knowledge, 14% (7) had moderate knowledge and none of them had inadequate knowledge. With regards to knowledge on practices majority 68% (34) had adequate knowledge on practices, 32% (16) had moderate knowledge on practices and none of them had inadequate knowledge on practices regarding selection of toys among mothers of under five children in post-test. Conclusion: A majority ofmothers of under five children were having adequate and moderately adequate knowledge, knowledge on practices on selection of toys and demographic variables were statistically significant, hence it can be concluded that, there is an improvement on level of knowledge, and knowledge on practices on selection of toys in posttest.

Keywords: Structured Teaching Programme; Mothers of Under Five Children, Toys.