0-12 Months:

Babies birth to twelve months should be exposed to a variety of sensory inputs, such as sounds and sights, so that they can learn to respond to the world around them in an organized manner. They are also learning to use their hands purposefully and they are beginning to understand cause and effect by exploring and manipulating the objects in their environment.

TinyLove Developlay Activity Center (www.buybuybaby.com)

Developlay is a versatile two-sided toy that can be attached to the crib or placed on the floor. It plays gentle, pleasant music, and has a wide variety of opportunities for pulling, pushing, spinning, and grasping. The blue side offers large activities that are simple for young babies beginning to learn basic control of the hands. The green side has more complex activities that require separation of the fingers, a pincer grasp, and using the fingers in varied ways to help strengthen the muscles of the hand. It features both vibrant colors and simple, contrasting black and white.

JOLLYBABY Sensational Play Park Discovery Gym and Playmatwww.toysrus.com)

This toy includes a playmat, tunnel, and water mat. Flaps on the mat make it appealing for tummy time and toy arches on top make it ideal to stimulate reaching. Added features provide a variety of sensory stimulation. Your baby will love the sound and feel of the crinkly mat and tunnel, and enjoy the wiggly sensation of playing on the water mat. The unique crawl-through tunnel offers additional play opportunities, such as playing Peek-a-Boo.

Infantino Block Party Zebra (www.amazon.com)

Dump and fill toys are great for children this age. This toy features a zebra wagon that can be pushed and four soft, crinkly, textured blocks that will entice your baby to sort, stack, put in, and take out the blocks.

12-24 Months:

Children 12-24 months engage in rudimentary problem solving and can begin to perform mental trial and error. Imaginative play is just beginning to emerge as children start to use one object in a creative way to stand for another.

Imaginarium 150 Wooden Piece Set (www.toysrus.com)

These blocks come in all different shapes and sizes to stimulate your child to construct towers and buildings. Your child can build his own creations, reproduce a building that you have made, or follow a pattern that you start. The cover of the container is a shape sorter. Cleaning up the blocks has never been more fun!

Slow-Roll Visual Tracker (www.lakehore.com)

Watching the balls twist and turn down the maze is great for visual tracking. Your child will be mesmerized by the varying speeds with which the balls roll- some run fast, and others go super-slow.

Measure Up! Cups (www.discoverytoysinc.com)

Nesting cups have always been great for sorting, stacking, and counting. Your child can enjoy scooping, pouring, and measuring in all different places. Scoop beans and rice in the kitchen, or fill them with water in the bath tub. Add some measuring spoons, and your child can “cook” some delicious recipes. After all the fine motor exploration, you can use these volumetrically correct, sequentially numbered cups to introduce important preschool concepts related to volume, size, color and measurement. Build recognition skills too with numbers, trilingual number words, and animal shapes.

Board books will hold up best to drooling and do not tear easily

Our top 4 picks for color, humor, language, and kid-appeal:

1. 1. Eric Carle
   2. Sandra Boynton
   3. Dr. Seuss
   4. Karen Katz

Blog written by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR

Chaye Lamm Warburg, MA, OTR, Director POTS