Tri-County Therapy Top Toy Gifts for 3 to 4 YO Children

Top Toy Picks: 3-4 Years

December 2, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog 3 years old 4 years old fine motor toys first words gift ideas language language development occupational therapy OT pediatric therapy physical therapy speech therapy speech therapy toys therapy toys toys

Are you looking for toy ideas to foster language, fine motor, sensory, and gross motor development? Look no further! Here are our Top Ten toys for children ages 3 to 4 years old, along with a direct purchase link to make shopping easier!

1. AquaDoodle

AquaDoodles are so much fun! Best of all, they are mess free! Simply fill up the marker with water, and your child can practice handwriting and drawing on this fun mat. Different colors will appear as the wet marker hits the AquaDoodle mat. This is also a great way to encourage a child who struggles with handwriting to practice by making it fun!

2. Melissa & Doug Wooden Fishing Puzzle

This magnetic fishing puzzle allows a child the opportunity to learn hand-eye coordination and fine motor development within play. You can also teach descriptive concepts, vocabulary, colors, counting, turn-taking, and more!

3. Do A Dot Art Markers

These Do A Dot markers are washable and a great way for a child to paint and complete crafts without the mess. You can find dot printables online and help your child work on visual spacing and hand eye coordination skills as well. This is a great stocking stuffer!

4. Candy Land Board Game

Candy Land is one of the top board games in our offices. This is a great way to teach turn-taking, counting, colors, and more. Children can be rewarded after ‘work turns’ by taking a turn at this board game!

5. Learning Resources Deluxe Food Market Set

Pretend food can be used to teach role playing, work on concepts and descriptive words (hot/cold), model mealtime routines, turn-taking, vocabulary, colors, actions, and more.

6. Melissa & Doug Bead Sequencing Set

This Melissa & Doug sequencing set promotes matching, sequencing, and fine motor skills. The card combinations become more complex as you go!

7. Kinetic Sand & Folding Sand Box

Kinetic Sand is a great sensory gift that can be incorporated into many activities! The sand oozes, moves and melts right before your eyes. It flows through your fingers like a slow-moving liquid, but leaves them completely dry. We often put objects, letters, and other therapy targets in the sand to make it a fun game!

8. Learning Resources Alphabet Acorns

Alphabet acorns help children learn letter identification and much more. Bottoms of acorns feature written letters—tops have matching colors. Kids will learn as they match them together! Each acorn has a color counter inside that corresponds to the letter.

9. Learning Resources Muffin Matchup

This game is one of our favorites! Develop math skills with these mini muffin counters, along with color recognition, matching, sorting, counting, and early math skills. The Squeezy Tweezers increase fine motor skills and hone skills needed for writing

10. Play-doh Play Sets

Plah-doh sets are great to encourage creativity while building fine motor, language, and social skills. This play-doh set teaches shapes, colors, grasp, and other skills!

We hope you enjoyed these Top Toy Picks!

SaveSave

Top Toy Picks: 2-3 Years

November 30, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog 2 years old 24 months old 3 years old fine motor toys first words gift ideas language language development occupational therapy OT pediatric therapy physical therapy speech therapy speech therapy toys therapy toys toys

Are you looking for toy ideas to foster language, fine motor, sensory, and gross motor development? Look no further! Here are our Top Ten toys for children ages 2 to 3 years old, along with a direct purchase link to make shopping easier!

1. Jumbo Nuts & Bolts

This nuts and bolts set is for children 1-4 years old! It allows children to focus their attention on the movement and placement of objects as they become aware of balance, coordination and gravity. The jumbo rainbow nuts and bolts help promote the following: matching, sorting, colors, counting, shapes, and more!

2. Seek A Boo Game

Seek-A-Boo is an awesome game for children ages 18 months to 4 years old! Hide the spots around the room, play a sorting game, or jump from spot to spot. You can work on receptive and expressive vocabulary, word phrases, turn-taking, gross motor, fine motor, and more!

3. Magna Doodle

This Magna Doodle is a great choice! It comes with legs to make it into a small table, as well as a handle to fold the legs and carry it with you. Practice fine motor, grasp, and handwriting skills in a more functional way by having the toy elevated, similar to a typical writing space.

4. Melissa & Doug Sounds Puzzles

These Melissa & Doug puzzles are great for increasing child engagement and reinforcing independent play! Depending on the puzzle, your child can learn a variety of vocabulary, animal/environmental sounds, new words, word imitations, and more! He/she will also be working on fine motor and visual-spatial skills.

5. Lego Duplo Blocks

Lego Duplo blocks are great for children ages 18 months to 5 years! Many sets are available, which mean you can work on new target vocabulary, new visual-spatial skills, and more!

6. Doll Sets

Baby doll sets offer children the opportunity to develop pretend play skills, learn actions, body parts and clothing, follow simple directions, improve joint attention, and more! We’ve also included some little boy dolls that may be better suited for your child than a baby doll.

7. Melissa & Doug Lace & Trace Activity Set

Melissa & Doug makes several different lace and trace activity sets! Your child can work on vocabulary, visual-spatial skills, fine motor, and early handwriting skills.

8. Fine Motor Beehives

Here are two beehive fine motor toys that will keep your child busy while learning new skills! These toys promote the following skills: hand and finger strengthening for preparation for handwriting, color identification, counting, matching, visual-spatial, motor control, and more!

9. Funny Faces Game

This game encourages fine motor skills, brain & critical thinking, memory, social skills, creativity and imagination. You can also work on following directions, turn taking, and body parts.

10. Pretend Play Vet Set

This pretend play puppy vet set is great! You can work on joint attention, pretend play skills, word imitations, empathy, actions, and more!

We hope you enjoyed these Top Toy Picks!

SaveSave

Top Toy Picks: 18-24 Months

November 28, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog 18 months old 2 year old toys 2 years old 24 months old fine motor toys first words gift ideas language language development occupational therapy OT pediatric therapy physical therapy speech therapy speech therapy toys therapy toys toys

Are you looking for toy ideas to foster language, fine motor, sensory, and gross motor development? Look no further! Here are our Top Ten toys for children ages 18 to 24 months old, along with a direct purchase link to make shopping easier!

1. Potato Head

This is a great toy to promote fine motor and bilateral coordination skills. You can also work on body parts, colors, counting, actions, word imitations, and more! Store the pieces inside and the plastic makes it an easy item to disinfect and clean.

2. Shape Sorter

Shape sorters are great for learning colors and shapes! Also teach visual motor skills by matching the shapes into the correct hole.

3. Farm Animal Play Set

Farm play sets are great for receptive and expressive language development! Teach your child animal sounds, vocabulary, actions, colors, describing words, and more!

4. Fat Brain Stacking Toy Tobbles

This toy is actually great for children over the age of 6 months! Children can play with this until they’re 3-4 years old, or longer. It’s great for sensory exploration, fine motor skills, coordination, and visual-spatial acuity. The unique, grippable texture and playful curves increase tactile exploration.

5. Laugh & Learn Toy Piggy Bank

This toy piggy bank can be used to work on so many skills! We target animal vocabulary, numbers, colors, counting, fine motor, body parts, and more!

6. Sensory Press & Stay Sensory Blocks

These blocks are soft and encourage your child’s imagination. Your child can stack then up or sideways! Teach directional concepts, colors, counting, all while providing sensory stimulation!

7. Melissa & Doug Chunky Puzzle

Melissa & Doug makes several different themed chunky puzzles. You can teach your child transportation, animals, shapes, colors, and more! These puzzles promote fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, matching, and problem solving.

8. Wooden Lacing Apple

This lacing apple is very durable and helps ease into teaching personal/self-help skills, such as tying shoes. Your child will develop bilateral coordination and visual-spatial skills as well!

9. Stacking Peg Board Set

This stacking peg board set comes with a handy bag to hold all the pegs and board. This toy can keep your toddler busy for a long time, all while developing and strengthening fine motor skills, teaching numbers, patterns and sorting, and teaching visual perception and motor coordination!

10. Color Matching Eggs

This toy is great for 18 months to 3 years and up! Your child will work on improving hand dexterity, color recognition, and fine motor skills. You can make a fun game out of this do an egg hunt and match activity!

We hope you enjoyed our top toy picks!

SaveSave

Top Toy Picks: 12-18 Months!

November 27, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog 12 months old 18 months old fine motor toys first words gift ideas language language development occupational therapy OT pediatric therapy physical therapy speech therapy speech therapy toys therapy toys toys

Are you looking for toy ideas to foster language, fine motor, sensory, and gross motor development? Look no further! Here are our Top Ten toys for children ages 12 to 18 months old, along with a direct purchase link to make shopping easier!

1. Alex Toys Little Hands String A Farm

This is a great toy to promote fine motor and bilateral coordination skills. You can also work on vocabulary, animal sounds, word imitations, and more! The wooden dowel rod makes this a great intro toy to lacing.

2. Melissa & Doug Deluxe Pounding Bench Wooden Toy With Mallet

This is a great toy to promote cause and effect skills. You can also learn colors and counting too! The pegs are not removable, so pieces won’t get lost!

3. Learning Resources Spike The Fine Motor Hedgehog

This toy helps build fine motor skills while working on color recognition, sorting, and counting skills. The spokes are stored inside the hedgehog’s back, making storage simple!

4. Melissa & Doug Jumbo Knob Wooden Puzzle

Melissa & Doug makes several jumbo knob puzzles. This is the perfect activity to encourage hand-eye coordination and visual perception skills.

5. Bubbles

Bubbles are an excellent reinforcement for almost all tasks. You can work on requesting ‘more’, imitating bilabial sounds ‘bubble, pop’, and isolating the index finger to pop the bubbles. Bubbles are also a great reinforcement for gross motor skills, including crawling, walking, and jumping!

6. Play Crawling Tunnel

These play tunnels can target so many skills, including: bilateral coordination for integration of both sides of the brain, proximal stability development through crawling, hand-arch development influencing fine motor skills, general strengthening and mobility through transitioning in and out of standing, development of visual skills as child looks ahead to crawl from one place to another, sequencing paired with a visual motor task like stacking rings or stacking blocks, environmental exploration, and vestibular and proprioceptive input through crawling and transitioning through various positions.

7. Ball Drop Toy

This ball drop toy enhances fine motor skills, problem solving skills, and cause and effect learning. The acrylic balls contain colorful beads and shapes that make fun noises when rolled.

8. Poke-A-Dot Books

We love these Poke-A-Dot books! They are hard back and last forever. These fun tactile books have buttons to push which increases your child’s joint attention! Count as your child develops fine motor skills while pushing each button and learning new vocabulary.

9. Toddler Musical Instruments

These musical instruments come in a fun carry case and help kids discover the potential and sensitivity in music and sounds, improve creativity, and develop hand and eye coordination.

10. Squigz

We love squigz! Children of all ages can use these and they’re easy to clean! Squigz help encourage fine motor skills, spatial reasoning, creativity, and experimentation. They suction to your windows, doors, floors, refrigerator, and more! Teach colors and counting while you’re at it!

We hope you enjoyed our top toy picks!

SaveSave