My name is Aimee Ketchum and I am a pediatric occupational therapist and owner of Aimee's Babies, a child development company. I have over 24 years of experience working in pediatrics and aim to help all children have the same opportunities for development and growth. Toys and games are great for early child development and school readiness because learning happens during play.
In this article: Baby Infant Rattle Socks and Wrist Rattles, Fisher Price Maracas, and Sassy Tummy Time Floor Mirror
For babies
Baby Infant Rattle Socks and Wrist Rattles
These rattle socks and wrist rattles are great for teaching babies body awareness, cause and effect, and control over their bodies.
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Maracas are great for tiny hands to grasp. They begin to teach cause and effect. Because they are soft, they will not hurt when the baby hits their face with the maracas.
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Babies prefer to look at their parents' faces and their own faces in a mirror more than anything else. This floor mirror is perfect to entertain babies while in tummy time, which is so important for building neck and back strength and preparing for crawling.
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Sassy Stacks of Circles Stacking Rings STEM Toy
These stacking rings help babies to learn fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, color identification, and size discrimination (which is an early math skill and can contribute to early STEM learning). These also make great teethers.
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Halilit Baby's First Instrument Set
This Baby's First Instrument set is both fun and educational. Playing with instruments is a great way to teach babies to use their bodies. They'll also help babies learn cause and effect, fine and gross motor skills, and a sense of rhythm (which is an early math skill).
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The First Years Stack and Count Cups
These cups are fun for tiny hands to stack and nest. They are colorful and also great for water play. The cups have numbers printed on the bottom for tracing with fingers to learn number identification.
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Black and White Tummy Time Folding Book
This book can keep babies entertained during tummy time. Babies can best see black, white, and red so this book is ideal for young, developing eyes. It is also soft, flexible, and safe for babies to play with while in tummy time.
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Manhattan Toy Wimmer-Ferguson Mind Shapes Multisensory Shaped Blocks
These multisensory shapes are visually stimulating and engaging for babies. Because of the colors, it's easy for babies to see them. These also have auditory stimulation as they have crinkle paper, a rattle, and a chime inside.
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Manhattan Toy Wimmer-Fergusen Crawl and Discover Play Mat
This mat is very engaging for babies because they can best see black, white, and red. Babies also benefit from tummy time and this entertains babies while in tummy time.
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The shapes in this toy make it very educational. They are the perfect size for their tiny hands. Sorting shapes integrates a lot of early math skills, such as visual discrimination, matching, sorting, categorizing, shape identification, and trial and error. This also teaches problem-solving.
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For toddlers
Learning Resources Farmer's Market Color Sorting Kit
The fruits and vegetables in this kit are colorful and they are the perfect size for toddlers' hands. Sorting, matching, and categorization are important early math skills. This activity also teaches color and fruit and vegetable recognition.
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Edushape Sensory Puzzle Blocks
Blocks may be an old-fashioned toy, but they are still a great way for children to learn important skills. These sensory puzzle blocks teach children color and shape recognition as well as fine motor and visual motor skills. Stacking blocks requires precision and some understanding of spatial relations, an early math skill.
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Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog includes chunky, peg-shaped pieces that build fine motor strength and dexterity. The colorful quills help to teach color recognition, sorting, and counting skills.
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This Montessori Busy Board helps children develop fine motor skills and self-help/dressing skills by practicing the functional activities of zippering, buttoning, fastening, tying, and using their fingers.
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Children of the World Puzzle for Toddlers
This beautiful puzzle helps children with fine motor skills, visual motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and the perceptual skills needed to put a puzzle together. Puzzles also teach trial and error and problem-solving skills.
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Beacron 7-in-1 Wooden Montessori Whack-a-Mole Game
This Whack-a-Mole game includes a xylophone, whack-a-mole game, fishing game, sliding game, rabbit clock, and gear spin. This is very interactive and encourages hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, color recognition, and logical thinking.
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Hasbro Hungry Hungry Hippos Game
This Hungry Hungry Hippos game is so much fun for the whole family. Children learn to wait their turn, practice social interaction skills, build fine motor skills, and learn early aspects of math.
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This musical set encourages using two hands, eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and even some early math skills (counting out rhythms). The instruments can also encourage social interaction since many children can play along.
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For preschoolers
Tysan Counting Dinosaurs Matching Game
This Montessori Dinosaur Matching game helps preschoolers learn counting, colors, fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, spatial skills, sorting, and matching. This is also an early STEM activity, as it teaches the names of dinosaurs. The tongs are great for fine motor strengthening, too!
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This game helps children learn important concentration and memory skills. It also helps children learn to match and sort, which are important early math skills. We also love that this includes such a diverse array of beautiful faces. It is important that all children see themselves represented in their toys.
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Hasbro Hi Ho! Cheeri-O Board Game
Hi Ho! Cheeri-O is a game that encourages fine motor skills, counting, sorting, and social interaction. Games are great for young children because games help children learn how to take turns with others, wait for their turn and develop patience.
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Step 2 Rain Shower Splash Pond Water Table
Water tables help children so many important STEM skills, such as measuring size and volume, making predictions, studying the results, and trial and error. This is also a great sensory activity for children to experience the sensation of water. All of the accessories that come with this water table make it even more interactive.
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This game of Perfection teaches children to be quick with their eye-hand coordination while building important fine motor skills using the same grasp needed to hold a pencil. Plus this game is tons of fun. The shapes encourage some visual discrimination and spatial skills, too.
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This cube connects to a smartphone so that children can learn how to solve the cube as they work to figure it out through trial and error. This is great STEM activity as it helps children learn the fundamentals of problem-solving in a fun and interactive way! The app allows users to track progress, improve solve time, and race against themselves to get better.
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Dr. Aimee Ketchum writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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