The Best Gifts for Preschoolers
Sometimes the most challenging people on your gift list are the littlest members. You may be trying to figure out age-appropriate gifts, what gifts a child may already have, and wondering what will truly spark their interest. If you’re a parent, you often try your hardest to find the gifts that will build cognitive learning skills rather than add to the plastic junk in your home. We know the feeling!
In this guide, we will share the best gifts for preschoolers as recommended by Speech-Language Pathologist, Kyra Minichan. Not only will these gifts be a hit with preschool-aged children, but they will also help build their cognitive skills for learning.
12 Best Gifts for Preschoolers
- Magnatiles– Magnatiles are great for early language development: Learning Colors, 1: 1 correspondence for number sense, visual-spatial learning, and creative play.
- Squiz– Squiz are one of Dr. Minichan’s favorites. They are an easy toy to incorporate with mini-learning lessons. For example, you can play a listening game with them to build auditory memory skills, prepositions, multi-step directions, and following directions. Each time your child gets it right, go wild as if they have just run a marathon! If playing with two kids, whoever scores the most points wins. Here are some examples: “Give me the blue, orange, and red ones. Put the blue one on top of the orange one.” “Before you pick up the red one, hand me the orange one.”
- Fat Brain Dimpl toy– The Dimpl toy is a great toy to give an infant sensory exposure. As they get older, it is a great toy to offer to keep a toddler’s attention during activities that they may not want to sit still for, for example, “storytime.”
- Suction Spinners – This is a great toy to stick on the fridge or low-lying areas for your infant to practice eye-hand coordination as they reach and spin it.
- Happ Pound & Tap bench – This is a great toy to develop eye-hand coordination and can be used as a mini learning lesson to practice following directions, such as “Hit the yellow ball” or “hit the blue ball two times.”
- Nutty Toys pop tube sensory toy – Dr. Minichan likes this toy for all ages. It is a multi-sensory toy that can be used in various ways. It can be a fidget toy, but more importantly, it can teach letters and numbers. You can move the tubes to create letters or numbers and practice spelling words as they get older.
- Learning Resources Spike The Fine Motor Hedgehog – This is a great toy that lets a child use fine motor skills while building sorting skills, counting, and colors, and it can also be used to help reinforce following directions. For example: “Put the purple peg in.”
- Wooden sorting and stacking toy – This toy builds on colors, shapes, counting, fine motor skills, and visual-spatial skills.
- Poke-a-dot book – Dr. Minichan loves these books. When a child can interact while listening to stories, comprehension increases, these books come in a wide variety of topics and are packed full of mini-learning lessons.
- Fat Brain toys activity tree – This little gem is full of cognitive skill development. Through play, the child learns cause and effect through sensory play and enhances fine motor skills through various options.
- Montessori busy board– This toy provides all-in-one learning and is such a natural way for your child to practice all the things. It has everything from tying shoes, buckling, and unbuckling to zipping. This is an easy way to transition a child toward independence in dressing and daily living.
- Shape sorter – The shape sorter is an early introduction to spatial reasoning. This toy helps develop that skill and can also be used to enrich language learning by learning colors and shapes.
Brain Toys for Preschoolers
The right brain toys have the power to build core foundational learning skills. With this helpful preschool gift guide, you can select the perfect gift for the toddler on your holiday gift list. With decades of experience ass a Speech-Language Pathologist, Kyra Minichan at The Cognitive Emporium helps parents pinpoint the barriers their children are facing. To start finding a solution for your child’s specific situation, schedule a 10-minute call by clicking here.
