Helping Hands Therapy Holiday Gift Guide
Do you need a little help with ideas for holiday gifts? We got you covered!
Here are some of our top recommendations for toys that stimulate development, recommended by our therapists. Please share this with friends or ask us any questions that you might have.
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Need some help? Ask your questions, if any, in the comments. Happy Gifting! 🎁
The First Years “Stack N Count" Cups: https://amzn.to/3gXl4bS
These Stack N Count Cups are great for playing with both little and big kids! Building activities are wonderful opportunities for eye-hand coordination play. Nest the cups together, stack them up tall, and incorporate both language and motor skills to knock them down. Practice sizing and bilateral hands skills, and motor control of the arm, wrist, and hand. Expand play to dirt, sand, or water ( There are holes for water play) and you have a very versatile, simple toy that is a lot of fun. This toy is recommended for 6 months and up.
Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack Baby Toy, Classic Roly-Poly Ring Stacking Toy: https://amzn.to/3ulUAEk
It’s the classic stack ring toy, and for good reason. For babies that are able to sit and show emerging control with their arms, this is a great toy to encourage and refine motor planning, vision, and eye skills. Practice with one hand or incorporate two hands for increased bilateral control work. There is problem-solving required to place the shapes in the correct size order, or they don’t fit! Older child? Try throwing the rings to land on the peg. Quite challenging for big kids and adults alike. This toy is recommended for 6 months and up.
Brilliant Basics Stack and Roll Cups: https://amzn.to/3OXZIHV
Similar to stacking cups, but with a design that allows for expansion of play. Stack the cups into a tower, nest them into bowls, or snap them together to make balls. More opportunities for number and color recognition, bilateral play, grasping skills, and strength. Use the ball to incorporate incentives to crawl, or roll the balls back and forth between you and the child. Stack the balls in a tower for an extra challenge! There’s a lot of versatility is packed into one toy! This toy is recommended for 6 months to 4 years.
Kidoozie Ball Drop: Learning & Developmental Ball Tower: https://amzn.to/3ixn1fR
A wonderfully engaging cause-and-effect toy, with 6 levels and 4 rattle balls. Great for reaching during sitting, and dynamic standing play! Child practice grasp and release skills to place balls on the upper level of the tower. Wonder visual tracking to watch the ball roll from the top to the bottom. Any rattle toy is a great excuse to engage your child to join in to shake, shake, and shake the balls. Have children 6 months old and older, bang the balls together at midline with one ball in each hand. This toy is recommended for 9 months to 2 years.
Melissa & Doug Farm Animals Jumbo Knob Wooden Puzzle: https://amzn.to/3UtpRPW
With large knobs for easy grasping, this inset puzzle is a great expansion on puzzle play for the younger child. Practice visual matching, and eye-hand coordination refinement. Puzzles are great to work on graded control to shift the piece right into its place within the board. Know puzzles are fun to address repetitive grasp and release. This toy is recommended for 9 months to 2 years.
Note: Older children will start to use a more refined grasp on the peg. In the future, you can upgrade to smaller peg puzzles.
Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Piggy Bank: https://amzn.to/3OYhuLl
This piggy bank is so much fun! It has so many cute songs and some hidden button features. For little ones that are sitting, it’s a great start for working on the skill of “grasp and release” with these colorful coins! This toy can help with understanding object permanence (where things go), and problem-solving when learning how to open and close the door. It takes some practice to get the coin just right! For extra skill requirements, once the child can complete placing the coin in vertically, try at an angle, then horizontally. This toy can be incorporated into gross motor play when a child is just learning to take steps and address repetitive grasp and release. This toy is recommended for 6 months to 3 years, but older kids like it too!
Baby Toy Cars for 1-Year-Old Gifts Press and Go Cartoon Truck: https://amzn.to/3XVIJKo
This 4 piece car set toy is great for younger kids. It will encourage imaginative play, cause and effect, and can encourage gross motor skills like crawling and walking, and switch use ( it’s a push-activated toy). You could work on color recognition . These toys are recommended for 12 months to 18 months and up! Older kids who enjoy car toys like these too. Great interactive play between kids and parents for hours of fun.
Fisher-Price Little People Airplane Toy with Lights Music and Sounds: https://amzn.to/3XPLQUi
This toy comes highly rated! Your little one can practice cause and effect with buttons that activate a variety of lights, sounds, and music. It comes with two characters so children can model social interaction skills and enjoy sharing the experience of going on adventures together! This toy can foster imaginative play and encourage speech sounds during various actions of flying ( “wheeeee!” or “zoom!”) and driving ( “ vroom”). This airplane toy is recommended for 12 months to 5 years of age.
Which one of these toys was your favorite? Do you already own some of them? We want to know. Want more information? Stay tuned for our online training on play skills! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, where will be sharing more helpful tips.
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