An OT’s Guide to Gifting with Your Child’s Development in Mind
The holiday season is the perfect time to find meaningful and fun gifts for the children in your life. The right toys can help children develop key skills like fine motor coordination, sensory processing, and social-emotional regulation. In this gift guide, we've curated a selection of toys that target specific developmental goals—whether you're looking for tools to improve your child’s hand strength, enhance sensory integration, or encourage creativity and problem-solving.
Here’s a roundup of the best holiday gifts to encourage kids to work on their Fine Motor Skills and Sensory Integration.
Fine Motor Toys: Building Strength and Coordination
Fine motor skills are essential for everyday tasks, from writing to buttoning clothes to using utensils. These toys provide hands-on ways for children to develop hand strength, coordination, dexterity, and visual-motor skills.
1. Discovery Putty
Target Skills: Hand Strength, Dexterity, Sensory Input
Discovery Putty is a versatile tool that provides children with the opportunity to stretch, squish, pull, and mold, helping to strengthen their hands and fingers. With its different colors and textures, it engages children in sensory exploration while also building hand strength and fine motor control.
Why It’s Great for OT: Discovery Putty promotes grip strength, dexterity, and tactile awareness—all important for daily tasks like handwriting and self-care.
2. Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty
Target Skills: Hand Strength, Focus, Coordination
Similar to Discovery Putty, Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty comes in a variety of textures and colors, with some even offering magnetic properties or color-changing effects. It provides tactile input and can be used to strengthen fine motor skills through rolling, stretching, and squeezing.
Why It’s Great for OT: This is a fun and engaging tool to support hand strength and focus. It's also excellent for fidgeting and sensory processing.
3. Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game
Target Skills: Hand-Eye Coordination, Fine Motor Skills, Social Interaction
The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game is a great way to work on fine motor skills in a social setting. Children use a plastic squirrel to pick up and place colored acorns in the right tree holes. It helps improve grasp and release, hand-eye coordination, and cognitive skills.
Why It’s Great for OT: It’s great for bilateral coordination and hand strength, and also encourages turn-taking, social skills, and strategic thinking.
4. Lite Bright
Target Skills: Hand-Eye Coordination, Creativity, Fine Motor Skills
Lite Bright allows children to use tiny pegs to create pictures or patterns on a light board. This classic toy is fantastic for fine motor precision, as it requires children to pick up and place small pegs into tiny holes.
Why It’s Great for OT: Lite Bright enhances fine motor control, visual motor integration, and creative expression—all while having fun creating beautiful works of art!
5. Squigz
Target Skills: Fine Motor, Hand-Eye Coordination, Creativity
Squigz are colorful, suction-based pieces that children can stick together to create structures, shapes, or anything their imagination desires. The tactile feedback and opportunity to work on grasp and release make it an excellent choice of gift.
Why It’s Great for OT: Squigz promote hand strengthening, bilateral coordination, and problem-solving skills. They also foster creativity and can be adapted for kids with different skill levels.
6. Hi-Ho! Cherry-O
Target Skills: Fine Motor, Cognitive Skills, Counting
This classic game helps children develop fine motor control and hand-eye coordination as they play. The game involves rolling a die and practicing both pincer grasp and decision-making to pick cherries trom the trees on the board.
Why It’s Great for OT: Hi-Ho! Cherry-O promotes grasp and release skills, bilateral coordination, and early math skills. Plus, like most other board games, it encourages social interaction and turn-taking.
7. Alphabots
Target Skills: Fine Motor, Hand Strength, Letter Recognition
Alphabots are fun, interactive robots that children use to match letters and sounds. As children twist, snap, and connect pieces to form the robots, they’re also building hand strength and finger dexterity. This fun robot toy doubles as a great tool for teaching children their letters!
Why It’s Great for OT: Alphabots integrate fine motor skill development with early literacy skills, making them an ideal toy for encouraging learning and growth.
8. Marble Run
Target Skills: Fine Motor, Problem Solving, Visual-Spatial Skills
Marble runs are an excellent tool for engaging children in creative thinking, problem-solving, and fine motor tasks. By building their own track and sending marbles down it, children work on precision, visual-spatial awareness, and hand-eye coordination.
Why It’s Great for OT: Marble runs encourage strategic thinking, motor planning, and bilateral coordination, all while improving dexterity and grip.
9. Legos
Target Skills: Fine Motor, Creativity, Problem Solving
Legos are a timeless toy that encourages both creativity and fine motor development. Children can use their hands to snap pieces together, building structures both simple and complex. This is a great way to build strength and dexterity in your child’s small hand muscles.
Why It’s Great for OT: Legos are great for promoting finger isolation, hand strength, and cognitive skills. Plus, depending on how they are used they can encourage creativity or provide practice following multi-step directions.
10. Friendship Bracelet Kits
Target Skills: Fine Motor, Bilateral Coordination, Planning
Friendship bracelet kits allow children to weave and knot colorful threads or string beads to create bracelets for themselves or others. The repetitive motions of weaving, knotting, or stringing beads help improve fine motor skills, while also encouraging creativity and patience.
Why It’s Great for OT: This activity is perfect for improving bilateral hand coordination, sequencing, and hand strength. It’s also an excellent way for kids to express themselves while practicing essential motor skills.
11. Pop Tubes
Target Skills: Sensory Regulation, Hand Strength, Bilateral Coordination
Pop tubes are flexible, colorful tubes that expand and contract, making a fun sound as they "pop." They are great for sensory input, and children can also practice fine motor skills by stretching, bending, twisting, and connecting the tubes.
Why It’s Great for OT: Pop tubes support hand strengthening, bilateral coordination, and sensory regulation, making them perfect for kids who need calming sensory input.
Sensory Toys: Supporting Regulation and Sensory Integration
Sensory toys are fantastic for children who need support with sensory processing, self-regulation, or calming. These toys provide important tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular feedback, helping children stay focused, calm, and regulated.
1. Lycra Tunnel
Target Skills: Sensory Regulation, Proprioception, Vestibular Input
The Lycra Tunnel provides a comforting, enclosed space where children can crawl through and experience deep pressure input. It’s perfect for helping children with sensory-seeking behaviors engage in proprioceptive and vestibular activities.
Why It’s Great for OT: The Lycra Tunnel supports body awareness, self-regulation, and sensory processing, offering both calming and energizing effects.
2. Doorway Swing
Target Skills: Vestibular Input, Balance, Coordination
The Doorway Swing is a wonderful tool for children who seek vestibular input. It can be attached to a doorway or swing set, offering children the chance to rock, swing, and build core strength and balance.
Why It’s Great for OT: The swinging motion helps improve balance, posture, and coordination, while also providing calming sensory input.
3. Instant Snow
Target Skills: Sensory Processing, Tactile Exploration, Creativity
Instant Snow is a magical sensory experience. When mixed with water, it forms a fluffy, snow-like substance that children can touch, mold, and explore. This tactile play promotes fine motor skills while offering soothing sensory feedback.
Why It’s Great for OT: Instant Snow engages children in sensory exploration and can be soothing for children with sensory sensitivities.
4. Pop-Up Tunnels
Target Skills: Proprioception, Motor Planning, Coordination
Pop-up tunnels encourage children to crawl and move through them, providing important proprioceptive input and improving coordination. These tunnels are ideal for active, sensory-seeking children who benefit from vestibular and proprioceptive activities.
Why It’s Great for OT: Crawling through tunnels enhances body awareness, coordination, and motor planning while offering a fun sensory experience.
5. Crash Pads
Target Skills: Proprioception, Sensory Regulation, Balance
Crash pads are soft, padded mats designed for children to jump, fall, or crash into. They provide deep pressure input, which can be calming and grounding for children who need sensory input or have difficulty self-regulating.
Why It’s Great for OT: Crash pads help children engage in proprioceptive activities, promoting regulation and balance while providing a safe outlet for active play.
6. Sit and Spin
Target Skills: Vestibular Input, Balance, Coordination
Sit and Spin is a great way to provide vestibular input. Children sit on the base and spin themselves in a circular motion, improving balance, coordination, and motor control.
Why It’s Great for OT: This toy helps improve core strength and balance, and the spinning motion offers sensory input that can be soothing or energizing, depending on the child’s needs.