Holiday Gift Guide 2024
It’s Holiday Gift Guide time again already! As pediatric therapists, we have a lot of thoughts and preferences on toys. We love getting to help kids learn through play, and teaching parents how to provide opportunities for growth in your child’s skills through play. So let’s get to it! Check out our 2024 Holiday Gift Guide, brought to you by an awesome team of pediatric therapists who get to play with kids all day long. A note that although these are separated by age groups, many toys can be used with a variety of different ages. Enjoy!
Occupational Therapy Baby Toys
The reflection mirror helps your baby develop self-awareness and expression. The interesting patterns and fascinating crinkling noise can help keep your baby engaged during tummy time and enhance eye-hand coordination skills. Your newborn's vision is still developing, and they may not be able to recognize all the colors or see very far yet. The high-contrast background will attract your baby's attention and improve concentration.
This ball is easy to grasp before the skill is refined, and babies love it. From reaching/grasping, crossing midline, visual tracking, and sensory processing, to more advanced skills like throwing and turn-taking, this versatile and inexpensive toy is a big hit!
Occupational Therapy Toddler Toys
This busy board can help develop a variety of abilities such as problem-solving skills, fine motor dexterity, creative thinking, and basic life skills. Your toddler can also learn about letters, numbers, colors, shapes, animals, maps, planets and more.
We love magnetic tiles! These can help your child develop imagination, creativity, motor skills, and social skills.
OT: A simple, but fun stocking stuffer that is great for building fine motor and visual motor skills. It is also a great cause and effect toy plus works on force grading!
Speech: It can be used for any age and any goal! Good for articulation sound trials, early language (go, ball, pop, more, push, look, and exclamatory words), and social skills (turn taking, waiting, sharing).
This toy is a current hit with my own son. Interlocking blocks support fine motor skills like hand strength and bilateral coordination while also targeting skills like visual perception and following directions.
This is another great stocking stuffer that has different functions to work on bilateral coordination, force grading, and fine motor precision. The fact that is a robot just makes it even more fun and engaging.
I like this toy because it’s great for building hand strength, bilateral coordination, utensil use, and matching skills - all while keeping kids engaged in fun, purposeful play.
A classic, low-tech activity that provides so many opportunities for building various skills. Matching, bilateral coordination, and fine motor strengthening are just a few possibilities.
I like this toy because it helps kids recognize and understand their emotions, building essential social-emotional skills like teamwork, friendship, and self-awareness in a fun and interactive way.
Squigz are great for working on fine motor strength, matching colors, force modulation, and can be used in many settings (i.e. bathtub/shower, windows, etc.)
Tried and true favorite for our kiddos of all ages! Open-ended play with opportunities for building various skills. Our favorite ways to use them are for strengthening and proprioceptive sensory input.
OT: Great sensory input, can work on digging in the sand for some fine motor strength, can hide items and work on scooping skills or even use tongs for additional strength.
OT: Fun for all ages and the possibilities for play are endless! Tactile sensory input, imaginative play- you can even hide things inside it and allow your kiddo to pull them out with tongs for fine motor strengthening. Comes in all sorts of colors and themed sets no matter what your kiddo is interested in!
Speech: It’s a great sensory activity and can be used to support language and articulation goals.
The Magnatab is a great way to work on prewriting skills with tracing while getting the input of the magnetic dots raising. It also works on strength when pushing the raised dots down in addition to digit isolation.
These are great to work on bilateral coordination, grip strength, color identification, and UC/LC letter recognition. For ages 18 months and up.
This massager is great to increase proprioceptive input for regulation.
Occupational Therapy School Age Toys
Any game with tongs is a personal fave, but this one is a hit with kids at the clinic. Using tongs helps to promote grasp strength and a mature pencil grasp, and doing so through a board game makes it more fun and less “work”!
This is a fun game that works on fine motor, visual perceptual, and bilateral skills. It can be played in multiple ways with 1-4 players and adapted for many skill levels.
Another fun game that promotes visual attention, visual scanning, matching, favorite movies, and characters.
Teaches color and shape matching and spoon use in a fun way. You can play the game in many ways or practice using utensils.
OT: This is a fun visually stimulating item that works on writing skills! Many kids enjoy seeing the different colors and the easy clear function to start all over again!
Speech: *good stocking stuffer idea!
Clients of all ages enjoy coloring on this "tablet".
Portable fun
Promotes sensory exploration
Reinforces early learning concepts (can trace letters, numbers, shapes)
Aids in developing fine motor control.
I like this toy because it’s great for teaching emotional recognition, fine motor skills, and visual perceptual skills as kids match and create facial expressions. It combines problem-solving with social-emotional learning in a fun, interactive way.
This game is great for turn taking, impulse control, fine motor precision skills, and it provides sensory input via the kinetic sand. For school aged kids.
Physical Therapy Baby Toys
Playmats are fantastic for babies to work on all sorts of skills such as reaching, visual tracking, core strength, and rolling. This playmat also provides lots of sensory opportunities with it's different sections. Babies can explore different textures, mirrors, black and white cards, different colors and sounds all with this one mat.
These types of balls are easy for babies to grab ahold of. That makes them a great choice for early sitters to hold onto with both hands, which promotes independent sitting.
Babies love the colors and textures of play mats like this which is great for encouraging tummy time!
Tunnels are great for encouraging crawling! You can play peek-a-boo in them as well as hide toys to encourage little ones to go through.
Physical Therapy Toddler Toys
Movement in different positions works on integration of all the sensory inputs (vestibular, visual and proprioception) that help us to know where we are in space so we can plan on where to go next.
This toy offers lots of opportunities for strengthening via climbing! I love that it also offers opportunities for vestibular input via sliding and rocking. It also helps with more advanced skills such as problem-solving, coordination, safety awareness and decision making.
A simple t-ball set like this helps to promote hand-eye coordination as well as upper-body and core strength. Bonus: grown-ups will get a workout chasing after all of the balls too!
Sitting and bouncing on toys like this works on balance, core strength, and leg strength.
Toddler-age children are generally able to start exploring ride-on toys. Balance bikes and tricycles can be a great introduction!
Check out this additional suggestion for ride-on toys for your toddler!
Physical Therapy School Age Toys
Gives an appropriate outlet for emotion while working on eye hand coordination, eye foot coordination and balance, force production.
Stopping body and mind at the end of the day is hard. This gives kids something to look at at listen to to help the ease into sleep.
Scooter boards are great for working on coordination, leg and core strengthening, and motor planning.
Soccer works on several skills for kids including eye/foot coordination, running agility, and endurance to name a few.
A great rainy-day activity, balance beams are such a fun choice! You can place stuff animals along the way and have your kiddos "rescue" them while trying not to fall off the beam.
Frisbees are an outdoor activity that lots of kids love! And we're all for anything that gets kids outside more!
Speech Therapy Baby & Toddler Toys
This popup toy is always a hit with little ones! It can target colors, animals, core words and gestalt phrases for our gestalt language processors (ex: let's open it), and my kids love it! It is a draw every time and they make them with many different characters so you can pick your child's favorite!
Fun cause and effect play!
Lots of opportunities to model core vocabulary, as well as gestalt phrases and great way to promote turn-taking opportunities.
Love love the baby tissue box! There are so many versions of this, but they generally come with ‘tissues’ in a variety of different textures and colors. Bonus points for the ones that include the crinkle tissue for some added auditory stimulation. Littles have so much fun repeating ‘out’ and ‘in’ with this one. Also a great way to keep them engaged! Lots of laughs and opportunities to model language with pretend sneezes with you, them, or stuffies/dolls.
We cannot say it enough: It is never too early to start reading to your child! This is one of my favorite books for the first year. Simple, easy pictures and a lift-the-flap component that allows for some good language modeling (open, up, etc.) Love this book!
I love a bubble machine because it is a great way to create a play routine with common phrases and words. It's less time blowing bubbles and more modeling language. Some phrases I like to use are ready set go, let's do more, and let's stop, while also using signs for some of these words.
The critter clinic is a great way to model language, from requesting for help to opening the doors to commenting about the animals inside. This is a great way to develop imaginary play, as you can play veterinarian or fill the critter clinic with something else that interests your kid.
The piggy bank toy offers an opportunity to model prepositions, label, and develop language around a play routine with kids. It also has music, which so many kids interact with and enjoy.
We love bubbles! They are simple and easy to use to facilitate language with little kids.
Bubbles are so versatile! They can be used with all ages of kids from babies to school-aged, and there are so many speech and language skills that can be facilitated through playing with bubbles.
Bubbles are great for all ages, a fun transition item, a great way to model core words and gestalts and also easy to use in feeding therapy too.
I love wind-up toys, especially for my language kiddos. Whether they are analytical language processors or gestalt language processors, they can be used in so many ways. For example with our analytical language processors, we can model action words like 'jump, flip, spin', as well as using and identifying descriptive words to increase both expressive and receptive vocabulary. For our gestalt language processors, we can model phrases like 'it's ready', 'let's do it again', 'this is fun', 'let's get another one'. So many kids love these!
I use the ball tower because it is very popular with a lot of my younger clients. They enjoy the sensory input that they get from hitting the balls as well as seeing it go down.
Lots of language opportunities! You can model core words ‘push, go, down, up,’ as well as color concepts and matching. Also works to promote cause and effect skills.
I use toy food because it can help with modeling different phrases like "let's eat," "I'm hungry," "that's not what I want." It's also just fun to have a little picnic with them!
I like to use this game to work on identifying/matching shapes, vocabulary (I.e., labeling, describing), turn taking, and as a reinforcement when practicing speech sound targets.
This puzzle is great for a variety of little ones! I like that the pieces are magnetic so they will not spill everywhere. You can target colors, core words (open, help, more, etc), matching skills, and it's great for GLP kiddos!
This toy, or any stacking blocks, are a great option for supporting a variety of speech and language goals. They are great for building language routines, using core words and/or signs, requesting, imitating animal sounds and other combinations, joint attention, and overall just a good option for interactive play!
A toy piano (or any musical instrument) is a versatile and engaging tool for speech therapy. Sound Repetition - Assign a piano key to a specific target sound or word (e.g., press the red key every time the child says “cat” with a clear /k/ sound). Labeling Colors: Use the colorful keys to teach colors (e.g., “Press the yellow key!”). Action Verbs: Model verbs like press, play, hit, or tap while using the piano. Or you can just let the child play as a reward for completing a task.
Kids love mini objects! This is great for modeling core words (open, more, again, close),
modeling gestalts (requests, comments, descriptors) and
easy to incorporate alone or in other games/sensory bins.
This book, or any from this line, are great for young kids because it is an interactive and engaging book that can support so many goals! These books are a great way to ask and answer questions, label, use familiar phrases and gestalts, and to continue with core words and signs.
This toy can be used for a wide age range as it can start with imaginative puppet play and go to early math and color recognition skills. It can also build fine motor skills with two piece barns sized right for little hands. The fidget toys and activities not only encourage children to explore and investigate, they also help develop motor skills and even build nerve connections in the brain.
Can be used to provide so many language opportunities for kids!
Poke-A-Dot books are a great interactive option when reading to your child! Interactive books can help keep our kids engaged and excited about shared book reading. These also allow for providing more opportunities to model core vocabulary like “push, in, pop,” etc.
This is a fantastic toy that can help target a variety of goals like identifying items, naming actions, following directions, taking turns during play, and requesting or commenting using various 3-5 word combinations. The crayons can be hard to open so it can present opportunities for requesting help and also matching! Children of all ages love this activity!
This toy is always fun and exciting for all ages! It is a great way to elicit spontaneous language and give opportunities for naming familiar objects, identifying actions, and describing objects. It is also great for building literacy and phonics skills with matching the object to the alphabet.
Speech Therapy School Age Toys
I use toy cars in my therapy sessions because it helps target a variety of different communication functions.
This portable car track is awesome. 15 feet long, and you can attach to so many different places. This is great for modeling core vocabulary (“go, up, more, down”), but can also be used for higher level language goals like describing and making inferences. One of the best parts? It rolls up and is super portable - grab a couple of Hot Wheels with this track and you are good to go!
This game is extremely useful with early language (colors, in, out, up, down, pop, win, play, again, not out, not pop, pop out, play again, my turn, push in), and turn taking. It’s also useful for early speech sound targets with words listed above. It can also be a great reinforcer to get a high number of productions of speech sounds practice at home.
Let’s Explore by Melissa & Doug encourages following multi step directions, maintaining attention, and problem solving skills.
I love this fun twist on the marble run! Marble run + magnetic tiles = yes please. Great to help kids plan, make inferences, and organize. There are so many ways you can model core vocabulary and lots of opportunities for language expansion by modeling 2-3 word phrases. Also a great opportunity to model a variety of gestalts. Popping the pieces together can help encourage some fine motor skills and kids love it!
Rapid Rumble is a fun, quick thinking, fast-paced game that is easy to learn & play! It will address semantic skills such as increasing vocabulary, improving word finding skills, and improving working memory.
It’s a really fun game for older kids! It allows for language and articulation opportunities.
I love this game because it can be modified for all ages and goals. It can be used as a cause and effect toy by twisting the carrot to let the bunnies fall down (the bunnies are small so that is something to watch out for). It can be used as positive reinforcement motivator while working on language goals or articulation. It can be used as a tool for frustration tolerance when your bunny falls in and you have to start over. It is a crowd favorite and so fun for everyone!
Stomp rockets can be hard to set up (allowing kids the opportunity to ask for help) but a crowd pleaser! It also promotes f
ull body movement to meet sensory needs, and is easy to use to model core words and gestalts.
I love using the balloon bump to blow up balloons with many of my kids. Regardless of their age and their goals, balloons can be great to keep the kids engaged and motivated to participate in therapy sessions. It can also be used with a range of ages, making it versatile and a staple in many therapy sessions.
This is a great option for older kids and an awesome tool for working on describing skills.
These can be used with a variety of ages and provide so many language and communication opportunities for our kids.
It's a fun take on a classic game! I love to play this one with some of my older elementary kids, they love the Bluey characters and it helps with turn taking and accepting losses when they lose a turn or get sent back home. It's also great because it is a 4 player game!
Such an easy game that engages attention and targets turn-taking while providing repetitive practice. Lots of opportunities to model language (“lets eat it”, “push it”, “look at that”, “this is fun”). Or target articulation by saying a word with the target sound before taking a turn. Practice fluency strategies before "popping" or "feeding." Use to build suspense and reinforce waiting skills.
Pop the Pig is a great way to target a variety of goals. It can be used for articulation and increasing number of trials, to work through the NLA stages with our gestalt language kids, labeling, counting , multi word utterances, building a routine, and so much more!
This is my most used toy in my room right now and the age range of clients who love it varies.
- Encourages creative problem solving and other executive functioning skills to play (planning, organizing, initiating, self-monitoring, attention to detail, ect)
- Again, plenty of opportunities for modeling core words and gestalt phrases.
A great fun and fast paced group game. It’s fun for the whole family. You can label and describe the objects on the cards. You can choose a favorite object to draw and describe. A different way to play is making it is a matching game.
This game is good for following multi-step directions, critical thinking, working together!
If you struggle to get your child to drink water and stay hydrated, try getting them a fun new cup that has their favorite characters or themes on it! This may encourage them to drink more throughout the day.
A play kitchen provides ample opportunity for language modeling and exploring different foods without the pressure of interacting with real food!
Gardening is a great activity for kids and caregivers to do together! It's a relaxing task that targets a lot of skills such as following directions and planning plus it helps kids learn where their food comes from! As a bonus, seeds make a great stocking stuffer!
So many great options! Thanks to all of our therapists for contributing your thoughts, and for all that you do. Need more inspiration? Check out our 2023 Holiday Gift Guide and our 2022 Holiday Gift Guide! Have more specific questions about what toys might make great gifts for your child this season? As always, feel free to as your therapist. Happy Holidays from GASLC!
