Shopping for Toys? Not all toys and activities are created equally!

Birthday and holiday shopping for a young child can be stressful especially when they are very particular about what they engage in.  Before even getting in your car or going on the internet to shop, I suggest a few things to prepare.

1.  Rethink the toy if it has a battery.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are some wonderfully fun toys out there that make fun sounds and even light up.  Most children can benefit from a few of these but we really want our young children to be using lots of hands on play tasks  for building and also lots of pretend play.  When playing with play animals and vehicles, we want kiddos to make the sounds instead of relying on the toy to do that. Take inventory of what your child already has and make changes as needed.  One idea is to keep a few, donate a few, and pack away a few to be brought out later. 
2. Look for a balance and variety of activities.  Observe your child to determine which toys are being used the most and which ones stay on the shelves.  Do you see any patterns to what they are playing with.  Are they all vehicle related toys, puzzles, building toys, or books?  Children definitely have their favorites and sometimes it’s a favorite character, or vehicle that they like.  We can sometimes get so focused on that one thing, that we lose sight of the variety of toys they may have.  A variety would be:  books, blocks, balls, dolls/characters, linking toys, puzzles, vehicles of all sizes, tub toys to include pouring containers, plastic animals, beginner musical instruments, play dough, potato head . . . and the list goes on.  You don’t need 10 vehicles or 5 different kinds of linking toys, but variety is the key for building tolerance and language!  
3. Are you able to practice functional language as you play with the current toys?  These are some suggestions for activities and toys that are great for practicing functional language:  dolls/characters and their accessories, tea set, phone, play sets that include people and animals, kitchen sets to include plastic foods, puppets, vehicles with people, plastic animals to include dinosaurs and sea life, musical instruments, and a variety of tactile play such as play dough and play sand. 
4. Sometimes less is more.  That doesn’t mean that you should donate half of what you have, but it may mean scaling it down a little.  I often suggest to families to make the play environment more visually tolerable.  If you have 10 puzzles, 25 books, 4 riding toys, 12 cars/trains, and 6 balls, you can easily cut that down by at least half, by packing the toys away and bringing them back out as “new toys” when you are ready.  This has helped many families increase their engagement times with their children as the environment is more sensory friendly.  
5. Consider making smaller “kits” of toys.  Many times toys, blocks especially, come in very large bags/boxes.  I suggest starting with 10-12 blocks when socially engaging with your child.  Fifty or more blocks are overwhelming to clean up and are not usually all used at once, at least not for toddlers.  Look for small sets or go in with another family and share a bag of blocks.  Put all but 10-12 blocks away until your child is ready for more.  When I use my potato head, I use the same simple pieces at the beginning until we start working on making choices.  Just have a few pieces that are needed with the potato, and put it in a container.  
6. Let family members know in advance that you would like to be more “battery-free”.  I have observed over the years that people love giving gifts with lots of “bells and whistles”.  I guess it’s because they are considered more fun and definitely get great reactions when they are unwrapped.  Again, there are some really fun ones out there but our goal is great social engagement and language.  Honestly, the majority of the time, the battery operated toys are quite expensive.  The relatives might be happy to hear that you are going more “battery-free”.  It may be difficult to make specific suggestions, but I bet if you let everyone know that you want to focus on toys for building language and give some suggestions, everyone will be on board.  
7. Consider a variety of textures and uses for your toys. Blocks are not only great for building towers, but they can be a house for little people, or a cave for animals.  Stuffed animals and soft blankets are good for comforting and calming. Choose a few favorite stuffed animals and get rid of others or pack them away for now.  Many times they just get thrown around and parents find themselves constantly putting them away.  Again, observe to see if your child uses the stuffed animals for comfort or play.  If not, pack some away for now.  Tactile/textured books provide sensory input and are a great introduction to kiddos who aren’t fond of books yet.  Make a photo album with family and familiar people.  Use it at first for naming family members and then work up to using phrases as you model telling who is in the picture and what they are doing.

Remember to take some time to observe your child, take note of what you already have, what your child plays with and what he doesn’t, and the kinds of language-building toys you have.  Now take a breath and stay focused.  You don’t have to spend a lot of money, just spend wisely!

Here are some suggestions to get you started!

Have Fun and let me know how it goes!!!