When choosing toys for your child, it is important to consider developmental age. This is especially important for children with disabilities*

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This article provides suggestions on choosing developmental age-appropriate toys

As many parents of young children have found, particularly when confronted with the towering racks at most toy stores, choosing quality, developmental age-appropriate toys can be a challenge. Not only are the "right" toys a matter of individual taste, but some are much more likely to enhance children's development and learning than others.

The best toys are those that actively engage children, physically and mentally. They can also be used in a variety of ways, depending on the child's interests, ability levels and imagination. According to occupational therapists, these are very important elements to look for in toys, regardless of a child's age or developmental stage.

A good rule of thumb when selecting toys for children with disabilities is to choose ones which utilize their abilities. For example, for children who are blind, toys that “cater to the other senses” are best. Ones with sound or smell are ideal.

Instead of using age as a guide, consider your child’s interests, capabilities and developmental age. “What their interests are is a biggie. How can we work with that to have the toy promote development, but still be fun for the child?

Like many ten-year-olds, Jordan Smith often races home from school to play Nintendo and other computer games. But, Jordan, who has cerebral palsy, does more than have fun with electronic games. He strengthens fine motor skills in his hands and improves his manual dexterity with the joystick, mouse and keyboard.

Simple toys are sometimes the best, such as building blocks. Jordan and his seven-year-old brother, Connor, who also has cerebral palsy, love building with Duplos. Their mother, Mary, says Lego pieces are too small for the boys to handle.

But Duplos helps them build hand strength and is great for their imagination and for developing language skills as Jordan and Connor chat about their anything that promotes development of physical capabilities, that isn’t work, is wonderful.

Computers are a big hit with most kids and can be adapted for children with disabilities. Yet great gifts don’t have to be expensive.

Simple bubbles “are a must-have” for children with a range of disabilities.

Often parents, grandparents, and others selecting toys chose ones with “glitz and busy-ness” and sometimes high prices. She finds that’s frequently a mistake because it’s often “overwhelming” for youngsters. That’s when they “just shut down,” give up on the toys and instead play with boxes, bowls, and other familiar things.

Try to look at toys from the child’s perspective. If the toy has a mirror, make sure the child can see it from his or her position.

In selecting items for kids with disabilities, consider the child’s developmental level of function. When children are playing, parents may have one definition of success, while kids have another. She says with a toy like stacking rings, parents often judge a child’s achievement by rings being placed in the right order, For kids, especially those with disabilities, fun and a sense of accomplishment are derived just from getting the rings on the stick.

Cause-and-effect toys are great for promoting a child’s development. The child does something—like push a button—and that causes something else to happen. Sing and Smile Pals by Vtech is easily activated. When the child pushes animal pictures, the dog barks, the cat meows, and the duck quacks. The Sassy Sound Shape Sorter gives musical feedback. For kids who are blind, sound is a great motivator. For kids who are deaf, it may be light or other visual responses. Musical feedback is also good for children with autism.

Vtech toys are usually accessible for youngsters with special needs. Valarie Anderson, who is blind, purchased that line’s Little Smart Phonics A to Z for her sighted granddaughter, Amandah. (With Little Smart, children can learn the alphabet by letters, sounds, alone or in words.) A delightful surprise for Anderson was discovering the Braille alphabet next to letter keys. So, Amandah sees—and feels—how her Nanny reads. Little Smart is also a super way for youngsters who are blind to begin learning Braille early.

Pennie Jevnikar, who has two daughters with low vision, attached rattles to the girls’ ankles with Velcro when they were infants “so they would know they have feet. Sighted babies see they have feet. Blind babies don’t.” Rattle socks with animal characters on them are also widely available for babies.

She says traditional board games like Snakes and Ladders are made in tactile versions. However, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) offers a selection of fun products for youngsters with vision disabilities. These include Braille and tactile Bingo, large print and Braille playing cards, checkers, tic-tac-toe, Braille Monopoly and Scrabble, and a bell ball.

For a child just learning to walk at age three, “a walker is not motivating.” But the Little Tikes shopping cart is “wonderful” as a push toy while practicing walking, especially when weighted with juice cans or sand bags.

Toys-R-Us publishes an annual Toy Guide for Differently Abled Kids. Toys in it are tested for ten developmental areas, such as language, tactile, and gross motor skills.

Many older preschoolers develop a beginning interest in sports. At this point sports don't need to be formal or competitive. Buy an inexpensive soccer ball to kick around the yard or make a bowling set from empty milk cartons or soda bottles and a ball.

Terry Smith, Jordan’s and Connor’s father, says that Connor relishes playing with soccer balls and basketballs. He explains that when Connor throws a ball against the house and catches it, he improves his hand-eye coordination and loosens up his muscles. “It’s a form of therapy… but don’t tell him that,” Terry adds, chuckling.

Choosing toys that will grow with your child. She says she can think of 200 ways the Fisher Price Barn can be played with as a child grows and interests change. The classic Fisher-Price Little People School Bus has been updated to be wheelchair accessible. It includes three passengers and a driver, plus a little wheelchair for any one of the passengers.

Dragonfly Toys offers 1,250 products mainly for kids with disabilities. Dragonfly Toy’s website creates a child profile based on auditory, gross-motor, vision and fine-motor functions, developmental age range and language abilities. The profile is then matched to appropriate toys. When a parent signs up for a Dragonfly membership, more detailed information is entered so that the best options possible can be selected.

The Dragonfly Toys website is also loaded with tips. These include how blowing bubbles can help develop self-feeding skills; swimming-pool safety for kids with spina bifida; how to make a computer mouse accessible for a child with a physical disability or who is cognitively young; and how to help youngsters with low muscle tone or strength learn to crawl on a gently slanting board with a toy as a motivator.

We suggest that families overlook glitzy, electronic toys (many of which can only be used in one way) and computerized games (which don't require children to be physically active) in favor of more basic toys that help enhance the gross motor skill development of young children.

Gross motor skills are those that come from the physical activities that kids do naturally-running, jumping, crawling, climbing. The stretching and strengthening of muscles in early childhood lead to other refined motor skills, such as grasping and pinching-skills needed to hold a crayon or pencil or cut with scissors. They also allow children to hold themselves upright, make eye contact and sit for lengths of time when learning such skills as reading and writing once they reach school age.

Developmental age 1

You are your child's first, and most fascinating, plaything. Every time you coo, tickle or snuggle your children you are teaching them about a range of human emotions and interactions in ways that no colorful plastic clown could ever do. Between three and six months, the roster of favored toys may include rattles, a host of teething toys or brightly colored stuffed animal friends. But by and large, babies spend their first year content to learn about the world through their association with their parents, with siblings and with themselves.

Around the first birthday, a child's world begins to expand. Now children are mastering use of their hands to grasp and release objects. A perfect example of this is the child who can ceaselessly pick up and drop Cheerios from the tray of the highchair. They are also beginning to understand the people and objects in their world by grabbing, pounding, mouthing, tearing, etc. Many may be pulling themselves up to stand with support from mom, dad or furniture.

At this point, store-bought toys pale by comparison with all of the other objects that are up for grabs (literally). However, some objects that are favored by children at this age include boxes with lids and chunky objects that cannot be swallowed to put in and take out of the boxes, toys that include pegs to be hammered through a hole or balls that roll down a chute.

Search your recyclables for unbreakable wide-mouth containers and toss in a few blocks or balls that fit easily inside. Toys that can be taken apart, such as stacking toys and wooden or plastic puzzles with oversized pieces, are also appropriate though children won't be able to put them back together yet. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, safe toys for babies are those 1.68 inches in diameter or larger.

Developmental ages 1-3

At around 12 to 15 months, children's ability to grasp objects and manipulate them becomes more advanced. They are making the connection between cause and effect ("If I yell really loudly, Mommy will come running!"). Here begins the fascination with making noise by banging on pots and pans and repeatedly opening and closing cabinets and drawers both to see what's inside and to hear the noise they make.

"What is really cool with kids at this age," says Hammaren, "is that with a little imagination you can make almost any of the items that you use everyday developmentally appropriate and fun." Along this line, Hammaren suggests creating a drum set from an empty oatmeal canister and a wooden spoon. A sturdy set of chunky wooden blocks that come in various shapes and sizes and toys, such as stacking rings, where one object fits in sequence after another, are also good additions to the toddler toy chest.

As they near their second birthday, many toddlers enjoy kid-sized versions of the tools that mom and dad use everyday. Toy brooms, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and gardening tools are wonderful props for playing at being grown-up and can give children's muscles a workout too.

Once toddlers hit age two, they can distinguish simple forms and shapes. Now is a perfect time for shape sorters and wooden puzzles (the type in which a shape, often with a peg attached for grasping, is fitted into one of a few spaces in a frame).

At this point most children have developed strength and control over their bodies and no longer need to use their arms for support. This frees them to explore with their hands and arms like never before. Balls become favorite playthings for many children. Try large beach-type balls for rolling and catching. Large wooden or colorful plastic stringing beads are great for enhancing hand/eye coordination. You can make your own set using empty thread spools and a couple of long shoelaces with knots tied in the end.

Developmental ages 3-5

By developmental age three, most children are masters at running, climbing and jumping and are beginning to show interest in other, more structured types of play. Children at this age will begin scribbling and cutting. Some non-destructive ways for children to practice their cutting skills include snipping along the edge of a piece of paper to make a grassy border for a collage or cutting Playdoh(tm) or cooked pasta tubes into pieces. Paper, finger paint, chunky crayons and blunt tipped scissors are good choices for craft supplies.

Many preschoolers love to don a cape or crown and pretend to be a favored superhero or a member of royalty. Though store-bought costumes can be beautiful, they are also pricey. Find a sturdy box to fill with items from your family's closets and jewelry that you no longer wear. Oversized scarves can become turbans, skirts and belts; old sunglasses and hats are great for going incognito. Just remember-never give children items such as ties and thin scarves that can be wrapped tightly around their necks and cause strangulation or that include beads or other trim that can be removed and swallowed.

Hammaren suggests that parents resist the urge to stock up on "educational" toys with the goal of jumpstarting children's learning. She says that at this age a good set of building blocks is still a wonderful toy that can be played with in many different and imaginative ways. They are also more likely to teach math skills than expensive electronic toys that work only when you push certain buttons or when they have charged batteries in them. Dolls are also great basic toys that can be used for role playing, making up stories and other verbal exchanges and practicing emotions.

Other toys that teach valuable school readiness skills include:

See 'n Say

Water play

Lacing cards to encourage hand/eye coordination

Dot-to-dot games or books that provide practice with numbers and teach sequencing

Riding toys

Legos and Duplos to add an imaginative element to block play

Simple board games and card games that require children to take turns help develop their social skills

While pondering your toy choices, one final website to log on to is Exceptional Parent. It has an excellent section on toys for kids with disabilities that includes reviews of many toys by parents and professionals.

Whatever choice of toys parents make, “play is the most important thing you can do with your child. It’s really how kids learn about their world and how to interact with other people.”