In my practice, I often get asked for recommendations for toys for my clients. Sometimes it’s just for fun toys in general and sometimes it’s for toys that support language development. Generally speaking, there is the idea that the more ‘bells and whistles’ a toy has, the better it is going to be but in my experience, this is not the case. Some of the most enjoyed toys at my practice are the simplest toys that have no bells or whistles or right ways to play.

The most frequently enjoyed toys are:

Marble towers

Marbles towers are a hit for almost every child. The younger ones enjoy watching the marbles go down the tower and race to the bottom. The slightly older children enjoy picking which piece to put on next and working together to build “the tallest tower”, and the older kids enjoy building their own tower or having a tower competition and seeing who’s marble makes it to the bottom first.

Building toys

Building toys is a large category, it includes blocks, magnet tiles, magnetic cubes, lego, duplo, etc. What I have found to be the most successful are open ended sets that dont have instructions or an end goal. This allows the child to use their imagination and can lead to endless hours of fun. Building toys can also become ice cubes, or people, or characters.

Cars

Cars have always been a classic toy. What I find fun is how open ended they are and how they aren’t limited to a floor mat or a car ramp. They can go down slides, get lost in sensory bins, have cardboard bridges and parking lots, or roads printed from the computer. They can also be lined up or raced.

Pretend food and friends

Whether it is hand puppets like the one in the picture, or sand toys with mouths that open and close like in the video, kids loves feeding their friends. You can have a tea party, a birthday party, or a day before school. Or it can be a silly friend that wants to eat the weirdest things.

Playdough

Playdough has so many sets to choose from but even just a container of playdough can lead to a lot of fun. Below, we used playdough to make a road and speedbumps for our cars. Squishing playdough also provides great sensory input.

Sensory bins

Sensory bins are fun for everyone. Rice is common but can be quite messy! I prefer using beans, pasta noodles, and various pompoms to make most of my sensory bins. They are fun to play with on their own but you can also hide things in them or add tools and toys to scoop, dump and move the material. Note: Water beads that grow are another common sensory bin item but they should be used with caution as many have been found to cause damage if swallowed and can also be choking hazard. I have seen that an alternative to water beads is Tapioca Pearls but I have yet to try them.

Bubbles

I know that the thought of bubbles inside scares a lot of parents. Thanks to the video below, I am able to allow my clients to enjoy bubbles inside without the mess. I hold the bubble container and wand and they get to blow them or just run around and pop them!

@cullligan

been doing it wrong the whole time 🪄🫧🫧🫧 #bubblewand #todayyearsold #mindblown #bubbles #bubbletricks #diyhacks #parentingtips #fyp #fypシ

♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey

Sensory tiles and stepping stones

Stepping stones and tiles provide great sensory input for our kids. They also make for really great obstacle courses! The tiles below are infant sensory tiles but if you look up stepping stones for kids you will get a variety of them.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas for fun and engaging toys and maybe some alternative ways to use them!