MY TOP LEARNING AND SENSORY TOYS FOR AUTISM

Froogz suction toy construction set – Great for color matching, building, and strengthening. Sam loves to pull them apart (which takes quite a bit of strength) and sort them by color! These were a recommendation from his Occupational Therapist, and are great for building strength!

WHAT WE DO: Put 3-5 pieces together and hand them over. For a higher level, we’ll make 2 separate little structures and have him point to choose one. Then, he pulls them all apart and puts the single pieces back into the container. For another level up, we have him sort the colors into separate piles on the floor.

Pop piano – Provides auditory and visual stimulation, but requires active participation for both. Fun cause/effect toy that plays musical notes or silly sounds when the keys are pressed!

WHAT WE DO: This is a much more simple toy that we use to try and encourage independent play. We’ll put it out near where he’s hanging out and have it available for him to go over and play with.

Fat Brain spinning stacker – Chances are your kid loves things that spin. This toy creates a functional and appropriate way to get them that visual stimulation. Also great for turn taking, color learning and learning about different sizes of objects.

WHAT WE DO: Sophie really likes this one too so we practice turn-taking with this toy. They each have a few pieces and alternate putting them on. We also work on “which one is bigger” using this one by holding up two pieces and having him choose the larger or smaller one, based on what we ask.

Play-Doh Fun Factory – Most Play-Doh can be fun, but we like this specific set because of the “Fun Factory” piece that requires kids to push down with quite a bit of force to extract Play-Doh from the other end. This is one activity that Sam actually sticks with, because he likes the end result- long, fun shaped Play-Doh pieces!

WHAT WE DO: As I mentioned, we LOVE the “Fun Factory” piece that kids need to load with Play-Doh and then press down. Sam isn’t the biggest fan of filling it up, but if we do that part for him, he’s still using a lot of strength to push down the piece. He also likes the fun shapes that result from it. We let him pull them off and dangle them (read: stimming) for a few seconds as a reward.

Touch & Feel Books – This is one of the only things Sam will regularly sit down for. He likes just about any book, but touch and feel books are really his favorite. We love Pat the Zoo, Sophie The Giraffe books, and we just ordered this one because it says it has 30 touch and feel elements, which is a TON for one book!

WHAT WE DO: Not much different than standard reading best practices – labeling items, having him point to specific animals/pictures in the book, reading less words and moving quicker to keep his interest. Touch-and-feel books keep Sam’s attention independently more than just about anything.

Kinetic Sand– Kids loooove sensory toys, and this is one of the very best! It gives them the sensory feel they need, but also supports imaginative play, digging, scooping, building, etc. Love this stuff!

WHAT WE DO: We let Sam play with this as hands-on as he wants. Sensory exploration is important and we don’t want to restrict him much with it. We’ll encourage scooping and squeezing with this stuff.

Bean Bag– We have and love this one! It it a bit more firm than some, but is great for sitting, climbing or crashing. It feels like it will hold up for a long time too and this color cleans like a dream!

WHAT WE DO: not much here other than having it out and about and ready to use. Sometimes, when he’s feeling very “climby” we’ll move it next to the couch so he can crash/jump/fall into it.

Ball Pit and balls– This is something we got pretty early on for Sam just because we thought it would be fun. Later on, his Occupational Therapist recommended it (for deep pressure) and was happy to hear we already had one! We love this one with a little basketball hoop to add an activity to it! This size is a bit small for Sam, who is 5 now, but you’ll get a ton of use out of it for your little ones!

WHAT WE DO: We’ll have Sam sort colored balls into piles. We’ll work on overhand throwing with the balls, and teaching that we throw balls, but not other toys. When he throws other things, we grab one of these and show him, “look, we throw balls only” then throw one. Letting Sam play and lay in the balls gives him deep pressure from the balls in a way that’s hard to achieve in other ways.

Magnets– Sam loves Magna-Tiles! They keep him engaged for quite some time and are great for developing building skills! We also love picture magnets that the kids can stick onto a fridge. They’re great for practicing turn-taking, animal identification and motor skills!

WHAT WE DO: With the Magna-Tiles, we practice taking turns while building things with Sophie, or with one of us. We also sort by colors and practice choosing with a point by holding up two pieces and having him point to the one he wants.

Monkey Noodles– This was a Christmas gift for Sam and was his absolute favorite! He loves dangling things but also plays with these in a functional way by stretching and pulling them. Great for grip and hand strength!

WHAT WE DO: We don’t do a whole lot with these. We approach this toy with a different strategy. Sam prefers to stim with these. We use them as a reward, or more often, as a highly preferred toy to get us through something we need to do. Example: we’ll bring these to the grocery store, or a restaurant to break out if he starts to get antsy. We’re big on finding a few items that are almost guaranteed to be interesting enough to get us through any given situation.

Wooden Puzzles – I linked our favorite alphabet puzzle, but there are SO many you can find here. We prefer the puzzles without pegs on each piece, as that gives Sam something to “stim” with and takes away from the constructiveness of the activity.

WHAT WE DO: My first tip is to store the puzzle pieces in a separate little bag (more on that later). We use these to encourage independent play. We love to see Sam complete an entire puzzle all on his own. Sometimes, we work with him to identify colors, animals, vehicles or whatever the theme of the puzzle pieces is. We also work on cleaning up with these and have Sam put the puzzle pieces back in the bag when we’re done.

Skoolzy Pegs – This is the toy that we used to perfect Sam’s ability to match colors! It’s also great for strength- those first pegs require strength to get in the foam board. This toy (especially with included bag) provides a great opportunity to work on cleaning up as well.

WHAT WE DO: this toy is perfect for color sorting! For color matching, to make sure we capture his interest right away, we push in one of each color in a different (spaced out) spot on the board. Then, we sit him down and give him one piece at a time. He looks at the piece, then the pegs on the board and stacks the color on the matching piece! For a higher level, we now hold up two pieces (say one red and one green) and ask him to take the green one. This is also just a fun toy to learn about stacking and falling down too!

Wooden Lacing Beads – This is another toy that Sam’s Occupational Therapists have recommended on multiple occasions. This toy works on fine motor skills better than most!

WHAT WE DO: Since Sam likes to dangle objects in front of his face (again, stimming), we use this as a reward in this activity. When he successfully strings a bead onto the lace, he gets to dangle the string with the new bead for a few seconds. Then we repeat until the string is loaded! Higher level activities here can be shape or number identification, or counting the beads as you go.

Wind up toys – Now we don’t actually own these and let me explain why. Sam’s Speech Therapist has these and brings them to every session. They use them to work on his PECS with his iPad. It’s been our strategy (and we recommend it) to NOT buy the most preferred toys that he uses in therapy or at school. If something is effective and he likes it, the natural reaction might be to buy that toy. In Sam’s case, he would spend a lot of time with it at home and the toy would lose its effectiveness in a learning setting.

WHAT WE DO: Again, it’s not us in this case, it’s Amber, his Speech Therapist. She uses them almost solely to practice his PECS. Sam loves to watch them go after she winds them up, so she gets him to request “more” or “go” with this iPad. She also uses them for animal identification and to strengthen his cleaning up skills.

Fidget Cube – Or other little handheld fidgets. Just make sure they’re safe with regard to choking or pinching hazards. We use these as emergency toys when we get in sticky situations. Example: Zack brought an assortment of fidget toys with him when he had to take Sam to urgent care for an infected cut on his finger. They made the 2 hour wait quite a bit easier.

WHAT WE DO: Not much here! We break them out when we’re in a dire situation and hope for the best! The major strategy behind this type of toy is to not allow access to them unless you’re in an “emergency” type of situation. A situation where you NEED something to occupy your little one- even just for a short time.