Development toys not only entertain your baby but stimulate their senses and encourage their development as they get older.
Playtime is an essential part of your little one’ growth and development. The significance of play cannot be overstated since it affects everything from cognitive and physical development to emotional and social development.
Children of any age learn about themselves and explore the world around them through play. Development toys help to gain all necessary skills with an educational touch.
Moreover, it is vital for you to join in on the fun to create a parent-child bonding. Playing with your baby can assist them in reaching key physical milestones, develop their brains, encourage the development of language abilities, and teach them about emotions and social skills.
What are the best development toys for babies?
Your kid will begin to reach certain developmental milestones throughout the first 12 months.
Here I’ll pay more attention to cognitive, movement, and physical development milestones to help you choose the suitable developmental toys that is age-appropriate and show how play can help your little ones develop.
For more detailed information and research on age millstone, please visit CDC Milestones Moments
Infants 0-2 months:
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- Smile at people
- Turn head towards the sound
- She starts to track objects with her eyes
Tips on choosing the right development toys:
It is a good idea now to place a baby-safe mirror in your baby’s crib. Safe mirror encourages the infant to lift her head to look at the toy. Such activity will help to develop and strengthen neck and core muscles.
Playmat with bright colors will make tummy time pleasant for infant. Read more about play mat at HERE.
For parents who adhere to the Montessori system of child development, a great solution would be black and white Mobile Baby Crib. High contrast images and colors for early visual development engage your baby while she is in the crib.
Babies 2-4 months:
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- Reaches the toy with one hand, can hold it and shake it
- Can copy sounds and facial expressions
- Recognize faces
Tips on choosing the right development toys:
At this age, Baby Activity Gym will be a great thing to purchase. It has everything the baby needs at this age: a safe mirror for self-discovery, cloth books with pictures and different textures that help with cognitive and visual development, toys made of different fabrics for touching.
Babies 4-6 months:
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- She knows familiar faces and understands when she sees a stranger
- Responds to other people’s emotions
- Likes to look in a mirror
- Begins to say consonant sounds
- Shows a keen interest in a variety of subjects and attempts to get items that are out of reach
- Rolls things from one hand to the other
- Tries to sit without support
Tips on choosing the right development toys:
Support your baby with pillows and give her a toy . This exercise will help baby to balance when she looks around. Soft toys that make sounds will help babies to discover cause and effect.
You can introduce now musical and colorful book with the baby’s favorite rhymes. Your baby will love it! More information on how musical toys help in babies’babies’ development you can read here Best Musical Toys for Babies and Toddlers 2021
Babies 6-9 months:
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- Can seat without support
- Pointing at things with a finger
- When anything falls, keep an eye on its path
- Crawls
- Pulls to stand and can stand holding on
- Using the thumb and index finger can pick up small things
- Has favorite toys
Tips on choosing the right development toys:
Around six months old is an excellent time to think of purchasing a Seated Activity Center. It has a lot of features to practice essential fine motor skills like reaching, shaking, grubbing. Numerous Activity Centers are constructed with a 360-degree rotating seat to explore the world around and have stretched for bouncing. My recommendation would be an Activity Center that converts to a table for coloring and playing. Activity Centers like these can be easily used for another couple of years as your baby grows.
Babies 9-12 months:
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- She tries to say words she hears
- Attempts to make first steps
- Can stand without support
- Put think in and out of the container
- Things are explored at this age in a variety of ways, including shaking, throwing, and banging
- Can point the right picture or something when it’s named
Tips on choosing the right development toys:
Your baby will love to receive a Activity Table by this age, if you haven’t bought it yet! Activity Table encourage first steps, as kid wants to grasp objects that are attached on different parts of the table . It becomes much more fun and invites babies to keep moving with inspiring music. All kinds of musical toys that make some noises are also welcomed – hello drums and goodbye silence at home!
At this age, your toddler also will be able to stack blocks on top of each other. You may be ingterested to buy soft blocks to continue developing skills like fine motor, logical, creative and sensory skills.
What are the best developmental toys to buy for babies ?
High Contrast Black and White beiens Soft Baby Books
The infants are born with blurry vision, which increases gradually during the third month. Using bright and high-contrast baby books is an effective way to train and stimulate your baby’s eyes, activate their brain, and facilitate development in the retina and optic nerve. It has six bright, high-contrast colors, nine different patterns, and a safe mirror for a newborn’s eyes. When you flip the red flag and the heart-shaped object, it will be more fun for the baby.
This toy captures your child’s attention as soon as they start using it. Baby will love discovering hidden crinkle paper and bibi sounder inside the pages while also having endless fun. The bright colors and contrast background will catch your baby’s attention. Complementary patterns, such as black and white, help young babies develop their capacity to concentrate and focus. The soft book features a safe mirror that encourages a baby to look at the face of a human.
This soft book is completely safe for your baby, as it is made of non-toxic materials, has strong stitching, and is hand washable. The soft book has a side handle, making it easy to hold when carrying or attach to a baby’s stroller or crib. Also, various materials can help foster a baby’s sensory and tactile stimulation.
Recommended age: 0+ months and up
BABY K Foot Finder Socks & Wrist Rattles
We all know that the rattle is an essential part of child development. But instead of buying traditional rattles, I used foot and wrist rattles with both of my daughters. I love this price affordable but handy developmental toy! I would definitely recommend it to all parents and caregivers.
The contrasting patterns and bright colors help stimulate visual and color cognition development. Parents will be pleased to learn that these baby toys will keep their children entertained for hours on end because of their attachment to adorable crinkling bug friends.
Educational newborn toys help with brain development and fine motor skills while also encouraging gross motor skills to be built. Your baby will be enticed to grab and kick because the cute ladybug and butterfly will stimulate their hand eye coordination.
From the moment your baby is born, the whimsical characters from our wrist rattles keep them engaged and happy. The helpful friends include spiders, butterflies, ladybugs, and bees, and they will play with your baby no matter where they are in the car seat or stroller.
Baby foot rattles, or ‘jingling baby rattles,’ are a fantastic choice for parents who want to provide their babies with enhanced sensory development.
Recommended age: 0-1 year
VOCH GALA Inflatable Tummy Time Water Mat
In my post about Activity Centers, I already described different options of play mats and play gym. I would like to share with you my new finding – a fantastic Tummy Time Water Mat. would you agree that it’s not exactly the standard mat we’re used to seeing?
This Tummy Time Mat passed rigorous water leakage and durability tests to be completely leak-proof. You can be confident that your baby will stay dry while having fun.
A baby water play mat can help your baby develop their back, leg, arm, neck, hand, and muscle mass, as well as increase their sensory and fine motor skills.
With this design, a whistle was attached to the back of the water mat to give the experience of tummy time extra oomph. It also can make the shark pattern on the mat emit a squeaky sounds when your baby presses it.
The floating animal will give your child a fantastic visual of the natural ocean so that your child can become captivated by the bright colors of the great white shark.
It has all benefits for your baby to meet milestones.
Recommended age: 0 months +
Bunny Egg Multifunctional Teething Toy
Food-grade silicone, free of phthalates, lead, and toxic chemicals, is used in its entirety.
This bunny egg has a unique design, which makes it easy to hold. Ultra-soft silicone massage effectively relieves the tender gums of teething babies, keeping their teeth and gums clean and healthy.
A unified design utilizing only one element suitable for washing can be sterilized in a steam autoclave or boiling water (top rack).
Don’t forget to pack some homemade beaded silicone holder chain as it is both fashionable and functional. It helps keep the baby’s favorite toy within reach while maintaining cleanliness and acting as another teething toy for the baby.
When the baby goes out, we’ve taken the extra step of providing a food-grade hygienic storage box for the teether so it stays clean and can be easily transported.
Recommended Age: 3 months +
What are the best developmental toys for toddlers?
teytoy Baby Music Shake Dancing Ball Toy
All teytoys balls encourage toddlers to jump, hop, dance, and crawl by themselves and explore new things.
This soft ball develop all necessary baby’s senses. Colors and patterns with low contrast make it easy for babies to concentrate. The baby’s developing tactile sensitivity is engaged by multiple textures and materials. Chunky-sized bumps is easy to grasp and transfer from one hand to another, which exercises hand eye coordination and creative imagination.
Recommended age: 1 year +
Battat – Pop-Up Pals
These cute plastic pop-up animals are realy fun for any toddler!
Each button to have a unique way to open. It is easy to push back down all flaps with little hands.
This development toy for toddlers improves hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills while learning about concepts like cause-and-effect.
Recommended age: 18+ months
TOYVENTIVE Wooden Activity Cube
Fun, educational, safe, and family-approved activity cube is one of the best development toys for toddlers.
This glorious toddler educational toys set is created to help kids foster their ability to count while also teaching them to spot colors, patterns, and shapes in an engaging, exciting, and fun way. Play Ideas ebook is excellent for helping parents teach their children these concepts while having fun.
Craftsmanship, sturdy wooden construction, premium paint, non-toxic paint, and safety features combine to make this the premium educational toy choice of the parents.
With this development toy, your toddler will be occupied for a long time while developing his senses and coordination. It has several items, including a maze of wooden beads, an abacus, a gear-driven clock, and a shape sorter. You can save money by buying one toy instead of buying five different ones. As you know from my previous posts, I love all-in-one toys, and this 5-in-1 I highly recommend!