   
Babies, Toddlers and Two Year Olds
Toys
to encourage Visual Attention, reaching and
pointing
Books
with black and
white patterns
Bubbles
Cardboard or plastic,easy to turn books
Mirrors
Mobiles
Picture books
with faces or simple objects
Water play mat
Toys
to Encourage Reaching, Grasping, Pointing and Hand Movement
Books, tapes and videos
with
finger play songs
Busy
blanket,
boards or toys with exciting objects to pull,
press,
roll, squeeze
and push.
Clutch
Cube
and other clutch toys
Drum
and
other toys to bang
Happy
Apple
and other weighted toys which start to topple
when
pushed
but then right themselves. These are great while
the baby plays on the
tummy.
Laugh and
learn Learning Tool Bench- child hammers or pushes
down a shape "nail".
Play pianos,
push button telephones and other toys with buttons
to
push
producing sounds.
Pop and Spin
Top- push down to make balls spin inside
Pop-In- Pals,
Jack in the Box and other toys which involve
activating a
switch (like
pushing a button) to produce an action (such as Jack in
the Box popping up)
Pound
a Ball
Rattles and mouthing
toys to encourage grasping and
exploring with the mouth.
Wrist
or foot
rattles so sound is made when arms or feet move.
Toys
to encourage coordination using both hands together
Cardboard stacking
blocks
Duplo-
Large Legos®
Fill
and dump water and sand toys (pails, cups, spoons)
Nesting
cups
Pop-it-beads
(these large plastic beads snap together)
Ring
Stacks
Scribbling
on paper
Shape
sorters
Wooden stringing Blocks
More
Toys to Encourage Eye-Hand Coordination
Beads-
large ones with stiff string
Form board
with circle, square, triangle shapes
Peg Boards- large ones
Push
button toys
Stacking
blocks- large
ones
Three Year
Olds
Toys to
Encourage Eye-hand Coordination and Perceptual Skills
Accordion
tubes
Bathtub paint
Carpentry toy tools
Coloring inside a large stencil
Bowling pin toy set
Color Forms
"Dressy dolls" with fasteners
Finger
paint
Finger puppets
Golf toy set
Loop squeeze scissors (easy to use, just squeeze)
Lotto (matching picture toys and games)
Magnetic letters, numbers and shapes and letters
that stick
in
bathtub.
Mr. and Mrs Potato Head
Nesting
cups
Peg boards with smaller pegs
Play dough with toy knives, rolling pin,
spaghetti
maker.
Preschool crayons, fat chalk and paint
brushes
Scribbling and copying lines and circles- try
"drawing" with
index
finger in whip or shaving
cream.
Shape sorters
Single
Piece non-interlocking
puzzles
Small
stringing beads
Velcro food to "cut".
Water and paint books
Water toys
Wind up toys with large knobs
Four and
Five Year Olds
Toys
to Encourage Eye-hand Coordination and Perceptual Skills
Activity books
with large simple
mazes, dots to
connect,
circle what is
different pictures, finding hidden pictures,
color in
the named shapes,
drawing lines to matching pairs.
Bead-
smalloer with flimsier string, jewelry stringing kits
Books, tapes and videos with movement songs and
sign
language
Changeable markers
Clay/ Model Magic
Color Forms
Copying design patterns with mosaics, blocks,
pegs,
beads
(make
jewelry), geoboards.
Crafts
kits including: glue, pipe
cleaners, large paper
clips,
clothes
pins,
cotton balls, scissors, paper.
Crayola Color Wonder- motivates to color using
nonmessy
materials
Creepy Crawlers- pour goop into mold, bake to
make slimy
creatures
Cut and glue books
Get-a-Grip Patterns
Glitter Glue
Glow
in dark drawing boards
Ink stamps
Lacing cards
Legos® -
More complex and smaller, Tinker
toys,
Lincoln
Logs,
Knex and other construction toys
Marble Run
Paper crafts- simple folding patterns
Paper weaving or place mat weaving kits
Peg
boards with thinner
pegs, stacking pegs,
pegs
that
are laced, size graduated, barrel pegs
Picture Perfect (find matching tiles to place on
grid)
Pipe cleaner crafts
Preschool scissors and a snazzy variety of
paper,
stiffer
paper
is
easier to cut
Pretend kitchen supplies, carpentry tools and
household
gadgets
Puzzles
with 3 or more
interlocking
pieces
Snap Lock Beads
Sparkling
Wheel
Spinning Tops
Stencils- coloring around borders or inside
Sticker books
Squirt toys
SuperGears
Wind up toys with smaller knobs
Writing Preparation Toys: Magnadoodle, art kits
with
variety
of large thick crayons, markers, chalk, brushes
with variety of
paper and paint activities.
Preschool
Games to develop coordination and concepts
(Some of these
games may also be suitable for older children)
Ants
in the Pants- Press down on
ants to make them jump into pants.
Candy
Land-requires matching
Chutes and Ladders- move pieces on board, no
reading required.
Color
Shape Bingo-teaches
matching skills
Cootie- First player to finish building the
strange creature wins.
Crazy Crab- a motorized game involving a large
crab guarding
pearls in
the ocean. The players have to steal them by picking them
up with large tongs
that
look like claws.
Crocodile
dentist game- Players
take turns counting teeth until the
crocodile tries to give a friendly bite.
Don't Spill
the Beans-requires
children to try to and more beans to the
pot without it spilling.
Don't
Wake Daddy- Uses a
spinner and counting spaces while children try
to avoid waking daddy.
Elfin Game- trains visual tracking as your child
nets butterflies
flying out of the elephant's trunk.
Fishing
Around Game- Children
coordinate putting rods in moving fish
mouths.
Hands Down-
requires speed
and visual matching
Hi
Ho Cheerio-teaches counting
skills
Hungry Hungry Hippos- Press a lever to feed
opening mouths.
Monster Mash- discriminate which monster is
different before
mashing.
Mr. Caterpillar Alphabet Game- teaches letter
recognition as
children
gather letter cards.
Mr.
Potato Head Memory Game
Squiggly
Worms-
requires color
matching
Swat That
Fly- This game encourages tracking as the child tries
to swat a flies.
Toy darts.
Whack a Mole- when the mole pops up, the player
whacks it.
Five Year
Olds and Older
Toys to
Encourage Eye-hand Coordination and Perceptual Skills
Activity
books- crossword puzzles, anagrams, decoding,
Word
Search,
unscrambling words, Hang Man, Jotto)
Balloon
Sculpture books
and supplies
Color by Number Books
Cook books with pictures and numbered steps
Crafts kits-
i.e. make a bird
house, soap molding kit, etc.
Cut out dolls and other complex shapes
Dolls with
complex clothing
fasteners, squeeze clothespins to
hang
out
doll clothes
Ed Emberley learn to draw step by step books
Etch and Sketch
Gimp
Hair braiding
and other braiding
or knot tying craft
kits
Hama beads
Hole punchers (hand squeezed and finger pushed
punches)
Juggling
Legoes and other
construction toy
kits with diagrams to
follow
Leather Lacing
Musical instruments
Origami
Paper flakes cut outs
Paper mache kit
Pot Holder Weaving
Puzzles-omplex
Rubber
Band
ball kit
Scratch Art
Tissue Paper Flower crafts
Weaving crafts
Yo Yo's
Games to
develop coordination and concepts
Air
Hockey
Barrel of Monkeys- players need to hook the next
monkey to the
bottom
of the strand.
Battle Ship- Teaches graphing concepts
Bed Bugs
Bingo
Blast Out- a
motorized air power action game requiring keeping eyes on a ball while it is
catapulted into a large cup and air pushes the ball
up into another level.
Boggle- quickly write
down words seen on a letter grid.
Booby
Trap-requires players to gently remove a shape from the board
without moving the
other pieces.
Card
games (i.e. rummy, Spit, War, Crazy Eights)
Checkers
Chess
Clue Junior and Clue
Connect
Four
Cranium
Dice
Games
Dominoes
Don't Break the Ice-
Players use a mallet to tap plastic pieces of
ice without the ice
man falling through the openings.
Fooseball
Guess Who- Players
need to find out who the friend's mystery
person is by
eliminating all other possibilities.
Jacks-
gather the jacks before catching the small ball.
Jenga
Kerplunk-
players attempt to remove sticks from the marble filled tube
without losing any marbles.
Labyrinths-
there are a variety of
games on the market that are like
three dimensional mazes.
Life
Loopin Louie- a
motorized flip-flopping flier game that requires visual
tracking to follow Louie in
his airplane as he flips around. The players try to
keep him from knocking over the
tokens by hitting him with a paddle.
Magic Tricks
Monopoly Junior and
Monopoly
Mouse Trap- a
constructed project is used to send a ball cascading.
Operation- Uses tongs
to remove small body parts.
Othello
Parcheesi
Perfection- quickly
match shapes into a board before all pop out.
Pick-Up-Sticks-
require removing a stick without touching any others.
Pictionary
Plunk a skunk-
Whack skunk heads as they light up to score points.
Risk
Scrabble/Scrabble
Junior
S'getti Scatter-
Plastic spaghetti is in a bowl. Children remove pieces
one by one without letting
the plastic meatballs fall through to the bottom.
Simon- develops
visual and auditory memory.
Slamwhiche- requires
speed and matching skills.
Snafu-
players push buttons and turn dials to speed a ball over a maze
course.
Sorry
String
Games (i.e. Cat's Cradle)
Taboo
Toss-Across- toss a
bean bag into the board attempting to create a tic
tac toe pattern.
Traffic Jam Junior
and Traffic Jam- Players maneuver vehicles
on a grid to get an
ice cream truck out of traffic.
Trouble-
move pegs on a a board according to number on mounted die.
Yahtzee-teaches math
concepts
TV-
B- Gone
©2008 Barbara Smith
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