Development friendly
Toy guide

0 - 6 Months

Water Mats -This is a great gift that will grow with the child as well. As the child achieves independent sitting, kneeling, crawling and standing, the water mat can be used to improve weight shifting, core strength, and balance. Great for sensory input, fine motor skills, shoulder strengthening.

High contrast books and pictures - Helps to engage younger children to work on head control and reaching in tummy time and supported sitting at this age. Helps develop visual perceptual skills, fine motor skills, social skills (reading books together), attention, and imitation.

Foot rattles - As the child is kicking while lying on their back, it helps to strengthen their legs and stomach muscles. Helps build coordination with reciprocal kicking as well as eye-hand coordination, and providing sensory input.

6 -12 Months

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Baby Learning Toy Smart Stages Piggy Bank - Help a child learn to follow 1-2 step directions, develop expressive and receptive language skills, color identification, matching, fine motor skills, and number and size concepts.

Whirly Squigz - Helps to develop fine motor skills, visual motor skills, and visual perceptual skills. By sticking it to a window/sliding glass door child can work on independent sitting balance while reaching, standing, and cruising

Play Tunnel - Great for developing core strength, reciprocal crawling, shoulder girdle strengthening, coordination, balance, proprioceptive input, and tactile input

1 - 2 Years

Water Table - An extremely effective toy for sensory exploration, fine motor skill development, and eye-hand coordination. Using this can develop speech-attributes, vocabulary, sorting, sentence expansion, storytelling, and categorization. Will aid with independent standing, cruising, and ankle strengthening (getting up on tip toes to reach the top of the table), Can place toys on the ground and have the child squat to pick up and place them onto the water table. Use a water table on the grass and if safe, have the child complete without shoes/socks on for sensory input to feet.

Pickler Triangle - Not only great for cold winter month play but also for shoulder/core strengthening, coordination with upper and lower extremity climbing, balance, providing sensory input, gravitational security, motor planning, and proprioceptive input.

Stacking/nesting toys or Duplo Blocks - Helps develop basic concepts such as prepositions (in/on/out/off), size (little/big), coloring, counting, visual motor skills, visual perceptual skills, and fine motor skills.

Strider bike - Get them moving to build core strength, balance, and coordination. The Strider can help with proprioceptive input for calming and regulating, safety awareness, visual motor and perceptual skills

Melissa and Doug Scoop and Serve Ice Cream Counter - This should serve up some fine motor skills, visual motor skills, pretend play, direction following, sequencing while working on verbs, pretend play, and following directions. Consider having the child build an ice cream cone one scoop at a time while completing a balance obstacle course to work on ankle strength and coordination. This may include couch cushions, stepping/jumping over obstacles, ascending and descending stairs, etc.

3 Years

Sensory Bins (water beads, beans, pasta, etc.) - Use these to work on problem solving, fine motor skills, tactile input; building vocabulary by hiding toys/objects; verbs “dump, scoop.” Try placing feet in sensory bins to improve tactile input to feet. Play with sensory bins in a variety of positions including sitting, on the stomach, tall kneeling, or half kneeling to promote posture, core, and lower body strengthening

Stomp rockets - This toy will work on jumping mechanics, coordination, balance, proprioceptive input, direction following, impulse control, and turn-taking.

Potato head - Develops body awareness, fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and aids with following directions, labeling body parts, and asking/answering questions.

4 Years

Melissa and Doug Scissor Skills Activity Pad - Develops fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, attention, direction following, preschool readiness skills

Bike with training wheels - Always a popular one for children but also will develop coordination, reciprocal lower extremity strengthening, endurance, core strength, body awareness and provides proprioceptive input for calming and regulating, safety awareness, visual motor, and perceptual skills.

Play Kitchen - Develop skills for a lifetime with speech-building vocabulary (labeling food/verbs “eat/cook”), pretend play, matching, sorting, turn-taking, and social skills.

5 - 7 Years

Balance maze - Work on balance, lower extremity weight shifting, proprioception, and ankle strengthening. Can also be used with hands in a plank or hands and knees position for core and shoulder girdle strengthening and developing visual motor skills, motor planning, impulse control, and vestibular input.

Charades games - Take communication to a new level by describing, problem solving working with others, taking turns, winning, and losing.

2-wheeled scooter - Working on single-leg balance, coordination, glute, ankle, and core strengthening, endurance, proprioception, developing motor planning, safety awareness, and rhythmicity.

7 and Up

Twister Game - Develops body awareness, coordination, proprioception, balance, core, upper extremity, and lower extremity strengthening, proximal upper extremity strength, right/left discrimination, direction following, motor planning, and sequencing.

Jump rope - Great for coordination, balance, lower extremity strength, jumping mechanics, and coordination of double leg/single leg jumping. Can use on the ground to jump over sideways or forwards and backwards to work on jumping mechanics. Can also be strung across a higher surface for limbo for body awareness, flexibility, coordination, and balance. Develops upper extremity strength and range of motion, motor planning, coordination, rhythmicity, timing, proprioceptive input for regulation/calming, and following directions.

Cash Register - Starts to work on money concepts, pretend play, sorting/matching, improves social language (greetings) and sentence expansion, and money vocabulary.

o Playmats
o Water mats for tummy time
o High-contrast books and pictures
o Soft books
o Rattles
o Texture balls
o Mirrors
o Foot rattles
o Upseat

o Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Baby Learning Toy Smart Stages Piggy Bank
o Whirly Squigz
o Activity centers
o Stacking toys
o Pop it toys
o Teethers
o Books
o Pop-Up Toys
o Wooden blocks
o Chunky puzzles
o Scribble pad
o Ring stacker
o Coin pig
o Cause/effect toys
o Walking crab toy
o Push walker
o Nugget couch/climbing structure
o Squiggz spinners
o Play Tunnel
o Skip hop standing activity center
o Standing/walking activity center
o Squish floor tiles/sensory tiles

o Books
o Tricycle
o Indoor trampoline
o Fine motor flower garden toy
o Train tracks
o Car track
o Kitchen set
o Drawing board
o Playdoh
o Strider bike
o Peg puzzles
o Hedgehog fine motor game
o Megna-tiles
o Large legos
o Music instruments
o Lacing beads (large beads)
o Water table
o Squiggz
o Sensory tiles
o Pretend play toys
o Riverstones
o Soccer ball
o Shape sorter
o Pickler triangle
o Stacking/nesting toys or Duplo Blocks
o Melissa and Doug Scoop and Serve Ice Cream Counter

o Kid-safe kitchen tools
o PlayDoh
o Sensory Bins (water beads, beans, pasta, etc.)
o Tongs Toys
o Stomp rockets
o Dot markers
o Fine motor flower garden toy
o ABC toys/puzzles
o Lite bright
o Racetrack builds
o Potato head
o Dress Up clothes/costumes

o Melissa and Doug Scissor Skills Activity Pad
o Color by number books
o Bike with training wheels
o Drawing pad/writing tablet
o Bead Bonanza
o Melissa and Doug Water Wow Painting Books
o Play kitchen

o Balance maze
o Sorry
o Clue
o Charades games
o Step-by-step Lego sets
o Rush hour
o Science kits
o Battleship
o 2 wheeled scooter
o I Spy Books
o Where’s Waldo Books
o Marble Towers

o Coin jar that counts money
o Monopoly
o Gravity maze
o Magnet dart board
o Lego Sets
o Twister Game
o Snap Circuits
o Bop It Game
o Jump rope
o Simon Says Game
o Cash Register