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With so many toys on the market it can feel daunting finding a toy that promotes engagement and learning opportunities. We wanted to share a list of toys that we have curated that are generally crowd pleasers.
- Bubbles
- Typically very popular, bubbles are great for practicing language skills and even fine motor skills (example: request your learner pops the bubbles with their pointer finger). You will often find our staff modeling vocal requests to access more bubbles (“I want more bubbles/ready, set, go/let’s blow bubbles!”).
- Coloring/art supplies
- For our artsy kiddos, embedding learning into craft projects involves color and item discrimination, fine motor skills, and communication skills. You may see staff hold the art supplies contingently in order to facilitate independent requests (“I want the orange marker!”). For a kiddo that needs a little help with requesting, you can offer two choices (“Do you want the stickers or the tape?”) or you can “thought-bubble” for them if you observe they appear to want a specific item. (For example, when your learner is reaching for the brown crayon, you can “thought-bubble” for them: “I want the brown crayon.”) Art is also a perfect time to strengthen fine motor scissor skills. Whether it’s finger painting, targeting a tripod-grasp while coloring, or using scissors to snip paper. Consistent opportunities to practice these skills will help increase strength and dexterity.
- Mr. Potato Head
- Mr. Potato Head is a great playful opportunity for learning through play. This toy is fantastic for learning body parts (“Where do his eyes go?”) and prepositional placements (“Put the nose under the eyes”). It also lends itself naturally to motor development as your kiddo will need to line up the body peg pieces with the corresponding slots. Mr. Potato Head comes in many character variations now- depending on the specific pieces available to you, you may also embed learning about emotions and social cues into play.
- Puzzles
- Puzzles are a great resource for practicing patterns, matching, and attention span. Wooden inset puzzles can be used for teaching matching and problem solving to early learners as they often need to rotate pieces to match the piece to the inset image. More advanced learners can explore jigsaw-style puzzles, combining image and shape matching to connect pieces. For learners that struggle with attention and task completion, puzzles are fantastic for gradually increasing task time: learners can place the last piece in the puzzle and staff will increase the number of pieces required to complete the puzzle over time (backwards chain task analysis if you are familiar with ABA terminology!)
- Blocks
- Blocks are already popular with kids and are great for incorporating spatial awareness, counting, turn taking and imitation skills. Duplo Lego-style blocks are easy for little hands to manipulate and build with. Combining these large blocks practices counting and spatial skills as learners need to determine what pegs fit together to build their creation. Blocks can also be used to practice imitation skills building novel objects (For example, staff may build a simple house and request their learner build a matching house). Smaller Lego blocks are perfect for more advanced learners and are also an age-appropriate leisure activity for older children (even through adulthood as well!)
- Music activated books
- Bonus if these are preferred characters as well! The anticipation of pressing the corresponding button after a page is read is often a powerful reinforcer for sitting during reading/circle-time activities.
- Play-Doh
- Preferred sensory play activities can vary wildly across individuals, but Play-Doh is generally well-liked by many! Natural language opportunities can be embedded in play by holding back accessories (forms, shape cut-outs, small character figurines) to facilitate requests for different items. You may also be able to embed some playful object discrimination as well.
- Board games
- From classics to newer selections, board games are great for practicing a handful of skills: waiting for your turn, keeping track of turns, tolerating losing, winning gracefully, following instructions, counting, color discrimination, item discrimination/labeling, matching, even fine motor! Board games are also great for practicing age- appropriate ways to relate to peers.
- At Behavior Resources, Candyland is a favorite. Candyland is perfect for pre-readers as it relies on counting and matching without requiring reading skills. Learners must attend to keep track of whose turn, wait for their turn, and discriminate between game pieces and colored spaces. Additionally, the image spaces add extra elements: these spaces may push you far forward or far back on the board and lend to natural teaching opportunities for winning gracefully or tolerating losing/being set back in the game.
Learning (and teaching too!) is much more enjoyable for children when learning opportunities can be embedded into play activities. Although these are all great options, interests will vary across individuals and it may take some trial and error to find what your learner likes best. At Behavior Resources, we are always striving to find the most motivating activities for your learner to set them up for success!