Must-Have Toys for the First 12 Months

The consensus amongst psychologists is that toys play an important role in the physical and mental development of babies. Introducing toys when babies are around 1 month old can help to stimulate their development as they discover the world around them through play. Toys can offer stimulation to the senses that they’re slowly becoming aware of – they offer colours, sounds, textures, and even something to chew! Playing with toys can help with hand-eye coordination, size and shape identification, colour recognition, and building self-esteem as babies learn to master toys. Toys also offer a great opportunity for babies and parents to interact – this bonding time is incredibly important for a child’s development, particularly in terms of their social and emotional skills.

When choosing toys it’s important to avoid toys with sharp edges. Additionally, most psychologists recommend delaying the introduction and limiting the use of electronic toys (basically anything that contains a battery). Firstly, batteries can represent a choking hazard. Additionally, there are developmental reasons why electronic toys aren’t recommended. The more a toy does, the less your child has to do to make the toy fun, which makes them passive. Electronic sounds and lights might seem like they’d be good because they’d stimulate a baby’s senses, but they don’t leave much room for your baby’s imagination and experimentation. Also, they can be confusing for babies who are learning cause and effect, because a light can flash for no reason, which confuses them when they’re trying to work out how the world around them works. It’s like them learning to roll onto their stomach. If you had a machine that helped them roll over, would that be good for their development?

When it comes to toys, sometimes simple is best. For example, many babies will ignore their toys and choose to play with an empty plastic bottle instead. And why not – it’s got texture, makes a noise when squeezed or banged, its chewable, and you can see through it. As long as its lid is removed, it’s a pretty safe toy. The first 12 months of a child’s life is an amazing time of discovery and, with the right opportunities and encouragement, a time of great development. Toys are a big part of this development, so we’ve chosen some of the toys we think every nursery should have.

Shaker toys

Perfect as one of the first toys for babies of around 1 month old, shaker toys are a great way to encourage babies to hold something and give it a shake. Whether it’s a rattle or rings on a hoop, shaker toys help with both gross and fine motor skills. Babies will utilise their gross motor skills when they reach out with their arm to grasp the shaker toy. They’ll then use their fine motors to shake the toy with their wrist. Some shaker toys are shaped like animals, such as colourful owls, and make a gentle noise when shaken.

Stacking toys

Stacking toys are also great for developing gross and fine motor skills, which babies will use when they pick up and stack them. As babies begin to stack the toys, they’ll develop their intentional grasp and release skills, and learn how to control and position their fingers. Stacking toys can improve hand-eye coordination and help babies understand cause and effect when the toys stay balanced or fall over. Popular stacking toys include blocks, rings, and cups.

Textured toys

Smaller babies in particular will love to grasp and explore the surfaces of textured toys. These could be sets of different shaped objects, each with a different texture, or a single toy with many textures in its different parts. Textured toys help babies develop their sense of touch, and those with bright colours and contrasting patterns can stimulate their visual development.

Sorting toys

Babies love sorting toys. These can be boxes with different shaped windows to post through the appropriate shape, or plastic bowls full of objects of different sizes, colours and shapes to sort. Sorting toys help with problem solving, perseverance, spatial relation, and important skills such as visual memory (‘where did I see that object I need?’) and visual discrimination (‘how are these objects similar and different?’).

Soft books

It’s never too early to make books part of your child’s life, and soft books are normally the first introduction for babies. They’re convenient as they can hang from the hood of your baby’s buggy, they’re chewable and easy to wash, and they’re easily transportable. Many books have coloured pages which make a noise when crumpled, so they can stimulate multiple senses.

Touch and feel books

For slightly older babies, touch and feel books are a perfect introduction to ‘reading alone’. Their simple stories are ideal for babies to explore with a parent or on their own, and the varied textures on the pages make every story a journey of discovery. Whether babies are touching a fluffy lion’s tail or feeling a crocodile’s textured skin, touch and feel books are a great toy for developing the senses of touch and sight as well as fine motor skills.

Play gyms

Every nursery should have a play gym. Play gyms have toys that hang from an overarching structure and they’re ideal for babies from 3-6 months, as their multiple activities are perfect for babies to explore as they relax on the gym’s cushioned mat. The various toys normally have different colours and textures, make different noises, spin or swing, and can be explored by hands or feet.

Musical toys

Although electronic musical toys aren’t recommended for smaller babies, there are many musical toys that are great for early development. Toys include maracas, bongo drums, tambourines and bells. All these toys are useful for developing gross and fine motor skills, as well as hand-eye coordination. They teach babies about rhythm, music and volume, and help to increase attention span.

Teething toys

Babies do a lot of early exploration with their mouths, so it’s never too early to introduce chewing toys that will later be useful when they undergo teething. One reason that babies put things in their mouths is that they haven’t sufficiently developed their fine motor skills to be able to squeeze, poke or stroke something with their fingers so they use their lips and mouths to explore objects. Another benefit of this ‘mouth play’ is that they introduce new germs to babies’ bodies and this helps develop their immune systems. And as well as being great to help with teething, these toys can be useful for self-soothing.

There’s no definitive guidebook when it comes to parenting, and no one-size-fits-all approach for bringing up children. New toys come onto the market all the time and some will claim to be the best thing ever for child development, whether that’s true or not. However, as a general rule of thumb, the best toys for a child’s development are those that encourage physical play, exploration, imagination, experimentation, and creativity. And as parents we should remember to make the most of playing with our babies, as that precious time passes so quickly!