Any parent who has ever tried to shop for their young child’s birthday probably knows that when it comes to toys, there are SO MANY to choose from. How do we know which toys are developmentally appropriate and will help to foster our child’s development? Below, we have outlined typical milestones that occupational therapists tend to look at for children ages 2-5 based on the standardized Peabody Developmental Motor Scale, 2nd Edition. Following each of these sections, we have outlined some toys that we tend to enjoy using in therapy with these age-groups to help foster development. If you have any questions regarding development, please be sure to contact our office for a free developmental screening or talk with your pediatrician regarding a full occupational therapy evaluation.

2-3 year Milestones.

By the age of 2, your child should be able to:

• Stack 4-6 blocks in a tower
•  Tolerate having messy hands
•  Draw vertical lines
•  Correctly place three shapes into a puzzle board
•  Use a digital pronate grasp

From ages 2-3 your child should begin to be able to:

• Stack 8-10 blocks in a tower and make more complex designs
• String large beads
• Draw horizontal lines and circles
• Snip the edge of a piece of paper with scissors

Toys that may benefit this age group and promote milestones include:

• Blocks and Large Stringing Beads: learning to stack blocks and string large beads promotes increased fine and visual motor skills, both of which are foundational for activities such as drawing and handwriting. Classic wooden blocks can be used, but it may also be beneficial to increase the child’s learning by using blocks with letters or numbers to start teaching these to your child at an early age. Lego Duplo’s are another type of block that resemble large lego’s and are easier for young children to connect. Lastly, many companies create fun stringing beads that include fun shapes or even animals. 
• Small Crayons: Often times occupational therapists are fans of broken crayons. An alternative to breaking crayons can be smaller crayons found on Amazon. Small or broken crayons help promote a more mature grasp pattern for coloring as there is not enough room on the crayon for the child to use their entire palm to hold the drawing utensil. 
• Shaving Cream or Whip Cream: This may sound silly, but engaging with your child in supervised messy play is a huge benefit for children. Putting shaving cream or whip cream on a baking tray and drawing snowmen or shapes such as lines and circles can help your young child feel more comfortable with messy sensory play. 
• Scissor Scoops: Many companies create various scoopers that encourage learning the foundational skills to cutting without yet getting involved with the sharpness of real scissors. These can be used in a sensory bin full of dried beans to practice scooping. It’s best to encourage your child to keep their thumb on top to promote good cutting habits! Engaging in scissor activities such as snipping along strips paper to make “snow” and gluing it onto paper to create a wintry scene is another way to help your child practice their snipping skills!

For a list of these 2-3 year old toys and more that we recommend, please visit our Amazon List by clicking here!

3-4 year Milestones.

By the age of 3, your child should be able to:

• Stack 8-10 blocks in a tower and make more complex designs
• String large beads
• Draw horizontal lines and circles
• Snip the edge of a piece of paper with scissors

From ages 3-4 your child should begin to be able to:

• Cut across a piece of paper
• Lace a string through at least three holes
• Draw a cross
• Begin to demonstrate a tripod handwriting grasp
• Button and unbutton large buttons

Toys that may benefit this age group and promote milestones include:

• Blocks and Lacing Toys: At this age, blocks continue to be important for both fine and visual motor skills. Children may start making more complex designs such as a wall of four blocks or a “train” (three blocks in a row with one on top at one end). The same blocks with letters and numbers can be beneficial, but you can also start incorporating slightly more complex Lego Duplo sets at this age. Lacing cards such as animals, vehicles, etc. are another great toy for increasing fine and visual motor skills that are a prerequisite for drawing and handwriting. 
• Triangular Crayons: Melissa and Doug’s Triangular Crayons are a fantastic way to promote a tripod grasp, as they have three sides! If you really want to promote the tripod grasp, break these crayons in half. 
• Water Wow: These coloring sets use water as ink to practice drawing and coloring. As the water hits the page, fun images start to appear. This is a fun, no mess activity to help your child start practicing drawing various shapes. 
• Games: There are so many games that promote some of these fine motor skills! Some of our favorites include Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel, Honeybee Tree, and Apple Picking. Another fun game is Learning Resources’ Big Feelings Pineapple. This toy resembles Mr. Potato Head but has a poster with different emotions that children can match. Not only does this toy encourage the manipulation skills needed for activities such as buttoning, but it can also help a child begin to understand emotions!

For a list of these 3-4 year old toys and more that we recommend, please visit our Amazon List by clicking here!

4-5 year Milestones.

By the age of 4, your child should be able to:

• Cut across a piece of paper
• Lace a string through at least three holes
• Draw a cross
• Begin to demonstrate a tripod handwriting grasp
• Button and unbutton large buttons

From ages 4-5 your child should begin to be able to:

• Cut simple shapes such as circle and square
• Draw more complex shapes such as square and triangle
• Demonstrate a tripod handwriting grasp
• Writes some letters and numbers

Toys that may benefit this age group and promote milestones include:

• Lego Toys: At this age, children can start working to create more complex Lego designs and find sets that relate to some of their favorite characters!
• Doodle Boards: These are inexpensive writing tablets that allow a child to draw colorful pictures before erasing with the push of a button! Children can practice using their tripod grasp, drawing shapes, and writing the letters in their name.
• Magnetic Tracing Board: These boards have arrows to teach children proper letter formation and small magnets come up to form the letter as the child traces. As an added bonus, many of our patients find pushing the magnets back into the board to be soothing!
• Fun Scissors: There are many scissors created for children that have animals and other characters on them to help children remember a thumbs-up scissor grasp. If the child keeps their thumb up, the character stays facing up!
• Games: Once again, there are many games that benefit children at this age. The games listed in our previous section are certainly still applicable, but other gun games to promote these skills might include Yeti in my Spaghetti, Noodle Knockout, and Fruit Stand Avalanche.

For a list of these toys and more that we recommend for 4-5 year-old kiddos, please visit our Amazon List by clicking here!