By Francesca Resurreccion
Looking for the perfect holiday gift that’s both fun and beneficial? As a pediatric physical therapist, I’ve curated a list of toys that align with key developmental milestones, helping babies build strength, coordination, and motor skills to help them grow and explore in meaningful ways.
0-3 months: During this stage, I focus on visual tracking, tummy time, and pre-rolling exercises. I recommend playing in all positions: on the tummy to strengthen the neck and back, on the back to encourage abdominal strengthening, and side lying to support midline hand placement and overall muscle development. Here are some toys to enhance sensory experiences, tummy time, and abdominal strengthening.
Tummy Time Wedge This wedge can be very helpful for babies to tolerate tummy time especially if they may be experiencing some reflux. Not only is this wedge great for tummy time, but it can also be used for side lying play to strengthen your little one’s chest to assist with rolling.
Light Wand This toy is ideal for improving visual tracking, strengthening eye muscles, and laying the foundation for skills like reaching, rolling, and exploring their environment. It also helps keep babies engaged during tummy time for longer periods.
High Contrast Toy with Mirror A fantastic option for visual tracking, this toy keeps babies engaged during tummy time while providing sensory stimulation.
Easy-Grasp O-ball Using the O-ball while your baby is on their back encourages them to bring their hands to midline, helping strengthen arms and chest in preparation for rolling. You can also use it while your baby is on their side to further build upper body strength, which is essential for rolling.
High Contrast Socks These socks encourage your baby to bring their feet to their hands, a precursor for rolling. You can prop your little one’s bottom on a wedge or your shins to help bring their feet into their visual field, assisting with abdominal strengthening.
4-7 months: At this stage, I focus on refining rolling and work on sitting. The following toys help strengthen your little one’s ability to prop sit by targeting the back and abdominal muscles.
Bright Starts Light & Learn Drum I love this toy to assist with prop sitting. Propping your little one’s hands on the drum will help strengthen his shoulder girdle and his back which will eventually help with independent sitting. Additionally, this toy visually stimulating to help keep your little one engaged in sitting longer.
Suction Cup Spinner Once you have a confident prop sitter, you can upgrade to vertical play! Place these suction cup toys on a full-length mirror to encourage your little one to reach up to work on their balance in sitting. Helpful tip: keep the spinner at or slightly below eye level, if it’s placed too high, toy little one may fall backwards. Once they’re comfortable sitting and reaching, they’re one step closer to independent sitting!
Squigz! Similar to the suction cup toys, you can use Squigz for vertical sitting play. Once you place the Squigz on a wall or mirror, you can place beads on them to encourage reaching while sitting. You can encourage your little one to reach and pull the Squigz off the mirror or wall to work on balance in sitting and abdominal strength.
8-12 months: This is a very fun block of time in terms of gross motor development. This is the stage where your little one is very active and is eager to explore. During this time, the milestones I focus on are: crawling, pulling to stand, cruising
Fisher-Price Paradise Pals Topical Fun Pop-Up To encourage crawling, you can place this toy in front of your little one and to the side to encourage them to pivot on their tummy. Pivoting in their tummy is a precursor to crawling. To work on pulling to stand, you can place this toy on top of a diaper box and encourage your little one to pull to kneel with support on the diaper box. Once your little one is able to pull to stand on low furniture, you can place this toy a few inches away from them to encourage them to take side steps towards this toy.
Activity Center This is a great toy to assist with pulling to stand and cruising. Once your little one is cruising confidently along the activity center, you can place this toy next to the couch and encourage your little one to cruise from the activity center to your couch.
12+ months: The primary milestone during this stage is walking! Walking typically occurs around 12-18 months. All the milestones leading up to this point—such as crawling, pulling to stand, and cruising—help develop the strength, balance, and coordination necessary for walking.
VTech Sandy Snacks-a-Lot I love incorporating this toy into sessions by placing the Axolotl on one chair and the snack on another, 6-12 inches away. This encourages cruising between objects, helping build confidence in standing and taking steps.
LeapFrog 4-in-1 Learning Hamburger Like the Vtech Sandy Snacks-a-Lot, I like to put all the different pieces on furniture of varying heights and at varying distances. To strengthen your little one’s legs, you can start them off standing with their arms supporting them on a couch or chair and place one of the hamburger pieces on the ground to encourage them to squat and stand up.
Stepping Stones Stepping stones are great as they encourage weight shifting and stepping up, which helps strengthen their leg muscles. This increased strength and coordination are essential for supporting independent walking.
