Building a Baby Registry Part 2: Toys

Believe it or not, newborn babies are already working on building foundational cognition, motor, sensory, and language skills that will help them talk, walk, and interact with the world around them! 

Toys for babies in the first year of life should encourage tummy time, social awareness, stacking, object permanence, spatial relations, use both sides of the brain, and promote overall speech, language, motor, sensory, cognitive, and memory development. 

Toys can include mirrors for tummy time, crinkle and sensory toys to explore the world around them, and black-and-white images to stimulate the optic nerves. Here are some of our favorite toys for early development:

Oral Toys

Oral play gives babies an opportunity to exercise their facial, mouth, and tongue muscles properly. Oral play with teethers gives babies an opportunity to strengthen and improve range of motion in their facial, mouth, and tongue muscles, provide a variety of rich sensory experiences; and normalize an infant’s response to various textures. All of these skills are necessary to support breast and/or bottle feeding as well as help prepare baby for the transition to solid foods as well as improve hand-eye and hand-mouth coordination! 

Toys pictured: Beckman Tri-Chew, O-Ball, Comotomo Teether, Y teether, Teething straws, Mombella Elephant, The First Years Massaging Action Teether, Star Power Massaging Teether

Tummy Time Toys

Tummy time is one of the most important activities for early development. By spending time in a prone (or “belly down”) position, babies work to strengthen the arms, neck, and chest muscles in their upper body. Tummy time promotes the development of proper spinal curvatures and helps to prevent plagiocephaly (also known as “flat head syndrome”). Tummy time also helps strengthen the muscles that will lead to head control and trunk stability, as well as rolling and crawling when babies reach toward interesting objects. 

Even though tummy time is important, many babies fuss or cry during tummy time. Giving a baby motivating and engaging toys can help them tolerate and enjoy this activity.

Toys pictured: Splashin'kids Inflatable Tummy Time Premium Water Mat, Baby Einstein Glow & Discover Light Bar Musical Activity Station and Tummy Time Toy , teytoy Tummy Time Mirror

Grasping Toys

Grasping is an important milestone because it paves the way for babies to play, finger feed, write, draw, and many other essential daily skills! When babies are around 3-4 months old, their vision and focus improves which allows them to work on hand-eye coordination. Babies start practicing grasping around this point by grasping an object placed in their hand for a few seconds and attempting to bring it closer to their face/mouth. The O-Ball in particular is great for babies to learn to pass objects from hand to hand. 

Toys pictured: Classic Baby Beads, Natural Skwish Rattle, Toy Winkel

Stacking Toys

Stacking toys can be great learning tools for babies 6 months of age and up. Although these toys seem simple, stacking toys activates a baby’s right brain and left brain simultaneously, helping them refine both creative, visual perception as well as analytical, and problem-solving skills. Stacking toys can also help babies improve skills including fine motor skills, cause-effect, hand-eye coordination, depth perception and spatial relationships, problem-solving, and balance. 

Toys pictured: Fat Brain Toys Tobbles Neo, Lovevery Drip Drop Cups, Spinning Stacking Toys, Sassy Stacks of Circles Stacking Ring, Litand Soft Stacking Blocks for Baby (Amazon) 

Sensory Toys

Babies develop new connections in their brain and learn through play. Sensory play can help babies learn more about the world around them and can support language and cognitive development as they learn to respond to different stimuli and environments. Babies can enjoy simple sensory play by exploring different objects and surfaces through touch, and hearing how different materials create varied sounds.

Toys Pictured: Taggies Touch & Feel Soft Cloth Book with Crinkle Paper and Squeaker, Lovevery Sensory Strands, Baby Sensory Tissue Box, Melissa & Doug Flip Fish Baby Toy, Fat Brain Toys Dimpl

Tube & Container Play

In infancy, babies begin to understand that things fall out of a tube and stay put in a container, which is a concept they will explore until just before they turn 2 years old. In fact, research suggests babies who play with tubes and containers have a more advanced understanding of “containment,” or when something will or won’t stay inside something else. Another benefit of container play is that toys aren’t needed! Babies will enjoy repetitively putting objects in and taking objects out of any clear container you have at home. 

Toys Pictured: Lovevery Transparent Tube Tower, NuttyToy Pop Tubes

Cause-Effect Play

Cause-and-effect play is a necessary prelinguistic skill and an important part of language development. When a child realizes that their actions have an effect on their environment, it helps support language development as a child’s desire to communicate comes from knowing that their actions, or words, cause a change. Children need to understand cause-effect relationships before they can look at you and point to a desired toy they or eventually use words to request it.

Toys Pictured: Playskool Ball Popper, Bubbles, Battat Pound and Roll, Poppin Pals, Fisher Price Piggy Bank, Fisher Price Fishbowl, Fatbraintoys Spinagain

Imitation Toys

Imitation is the main way that children learn to speak, which makes it an incredibly important skill for babies. Encouraging your baby to imitate actions with objects is a great way to introduce this skill. 

Toys Pictured: Lollipop Drum, My First Baby Band set, iPlay cars, FatBrainToys Bilbo, Imitation Book

Pushing/Pulling Toys

Toys that work on pulling and pushing are wonderful for developing baby's gross motor skills, balance, and coordination. These toys are also a great way for babies to learn about cause-effect and problem-solving skills. 

Toys pictured: Montessori Ufo Silicone Pulling Toy, Hape Frog Family Pull Along, Hape Butterfly Push and Pull Toy

Wrist/Foot Rattles

Rattles are not just a fun toy for babies to play with - they teach many important skills including visual tracking, coordination, attention span, cause-effect skills, and reach-and-grab movements. Rattles help support language development by teaching babies to track sound. Sock and wrist rattles can also help babies find their body parts and improve hand-eye coordination. 

Resources:

MacLean DJ, Schuler M. Conceptual development in infancy: the understanding of containment. Child Development. 1989 Oct;60(5):1126-37.

Dag NC, Turkkan E, Kacar A, Dag H. Children's only profession: Playing with toys. North Clin Istanb. 2021 Aug 20;8(4):414-420. doi: 10.14744/nci.2020.48243. PMID: 34585080; PMCID: PMC8430366.

Gadre MS, Deshpande VR. Impact of Early Exposure to Play Materials on Motor Development in High-Risk Infants: A Randomised Controlled Trial. J Mother Child. 2023 Jul 6;27(1):64-71. doi: 10.34763/jmotherandchild.20232701.d-22-00025. PMID: 37409658; PMCID: PMC10323968.

Zero to Three. n.d. “Tips for Choosing Toys for Toddlers.” https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/tips-for-choosing-toys-for-toddlers

Miller, L. & M. Gibbs. 2002. Making Toys for Infants and Toddlers: Using Ordinary Stuff for Extraordinary Play. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House.