11/26/2025
*Warning long post ahead*
Coming up on the holiday season, we get asked often what type of toys to buy children. Little to no electronics, no screens, and toys to encourage interaction and manipulation is often our response. Some of our usually suggestions include:
1. Mega Bloks: They encourage manipulation, imagination, and interaction.
2. Hot Wheels/ Matchbox cars are a great interactive toys that can work on sharing, manipulation, and imagination.
3. Books: They are a great way to imitate sign language, engage with adults, increase awareness of the environment if read in a fun, animated way! Here are a couple of our favorites!
4. Bubbles: Bubbles are great for hand eye coordination, interaction, and sustained attention.
5. Play doh: It helps in hand grip strength, manipulation, hand eye coordination, and imagination.
6. Mr. Potato Head works on hand eye coordination, sharing, asking for help, and body awareness.
7. Puzzles are a great way to work on orientation, manipulation, and hand eye coordination.
8. Balls are a fun interaction way to develop relationships as well as improve coordination, reaction time, and attention.
9. Pop up toys are great for cause/effect, hand coordination, and manipulation skills.
10. Ride on toys encourage kids to move and explore their environments in a new and fun way.
11: Broken crayons!! That wasn’t a typo with broken. Broken crayons encourage good grasp in order to color effectively.
12. Simple games encourage turn taking, sharing, communication, and interaction skills. See below for a couple of our favorites.
13. Play kitchens, food, and utensils encourage imagination, interaction, and manipulation!
14. Play dolls, Barbie’s or figurines can facilitate interaction, imagination, and daily living skills.
15. Play putty encourages hand manipulation, strength, and coordination. It also can help foster imagination.
16. Little people figurines or animals can help encourage imagination, language, and interactive play with others.
17. Tricycles are a great way to promote bilateral coordination, visual scanning, and improve motor skills.
18. Save those cardboard boxes from deliveries. Open up a world of imagination as kids can color or build their own "ship".
19. Mad Matter: a fun material between kinetic sand and play doh that helps develop hand muscles and manipulation.
20. Kinetic sand: helps explore different textures in a fun way.
21. Costumes! Bring out your imagination and become a doctor, firefighter, etc. This is a great way to foster communication, interactive play, and dressing skills in a fun way.
22. Snacks! Different variety of snacks that may not always be available but only on special occasions are a great way to encourage interaction by asking for snacks, manipulation with hands and mouth, and good for social engagement.
