(0-12 months)
By: Lee Fisher, LPA (Kids BRAIN, LLC)
With holiday shopping in full swing, many of you may be looking for toy suggestions for infants that promote positive development. If you are new to parenthood, you may also be feeling overwhelmed by all of the toy catalogues arriving daily. All of the ads of “must have toys” filling your Facebook feed can make it hard to know which ones are truly beneficial for your child and worth spending the money.
My first rule of thumb with developmental toys: simple is better. In fact, almost all items in my professional “bag of tricks” came from the Dollar Tree. Simple toys are less likely to overwhelm children and allow them to master skills independently. Below are suggestions for your holiday shopping.
0-6 months: At this age, everything goes in their mouth. This is one of the most common ways that infants learn. Toys at this age should be large enough to prevent choking and should be safe for them to put in their mouth. Toys with bumpy textures can help a child explore, but they don’t need to be overly complex. When my children were this age, these hooks were a personal favorite. They are very adaptable and functional as well.
Overall, because babies are more excited by faces than toys, time staring at your face would be their favorite gift. Since that’s a bit hard to gift-wrap, a baby-safe mirror is a good runner up.
Finally, a great floor blanket is perfect for tummy time and allows the child a place to build their neck and core muscles. This blanket is a favorite gift of mine and doubles as a picnic blanket as well.
Skip: Items such as the Bimbo are often thought to be helpful. However, when children are using them, they miss a lot of opportunities to build core muscles or develop gross motor skills. Giving children a safe place to build their gross motor abilities independently, with you cheering them on, is best!
6-12 months: A wide range of gross motor development happens at this stage. With each evolution from sitting to crawling to walking, there are new opportunities for cognitive growth as a baby’s view of the world and ability to discover it changes. Simple toys, left just out of reach of a crawler or walker can be an exciting reward for their efforts.
Gross motor development leads to development in other areas as well. For a child who can sit up, squeezable or wooden blocks are great for sensory exploration, fine motor skills and cognitive growth. This are a nice set of wooden blocks by Melissa and Doug, but Dollar Tree often carries some as well.
For pre-reading skills, language, cognitive and social skills, board books are a must at this age. There is pretty much no wrong choice. Books with simple pictures at this stage are best, but any story that you will read to them will be the one they prefer. Also, it’s common for books to wind up in their mouths, chewed on during teething times, or damaged. Don’t spend a ton on each book, and buy several! Dollar Tree is another good source for board books, especially for this age group.
Skip: Videos. Research has shown that babies learn language from people around them and not from videos. This is a crucial time in brain development for them to learn the sound components that make up their native language. They need to see and hear you talk as much as possible and time in front of a video is wasted time. Also, screen time can disrupt their sleep patterns, and who needs that?!
Have fun holiday shopping for them, and don’t stress about getting them just the right thing. Infants need far less than the catalogues make you believe. At this stage, their favorite thing is you! As a note, be sure to make note of acceptable ages and safety requirements for toys. Since infants explore using their mouths, toys that are too small can be choking hazards. Also, with any toy, adult supervision is key and beneficial!
