Our Top Developmental Toys for Toddlers by Tiger Tribe
From flash cards and cool bath toys to activity sets that encourage development of fine motor skills, we LOVE products that help guide child development, especially for the under 3 brigade.
Our key criteria when developing toys for toddlers include:
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Has the capacity to be played with in different ways and multiple times
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Challenges a child to think, feel, do, and ask questions
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Contributes to the development of the child's curiosity, problem solving skills, creativity, and fine/gross motor, visual and sensory skills
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Engages the child's natural talents, interests and abilities
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Designed to exceed the most rigorous product safety testing. These tests include: ASTM, EN71, and REACH.
Here is a list of our top 3 most highly recommended developmental toys to help your little ones develop and grow!
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Suitable Age: 3m+
About: Our brand new jolly Roly Poly Koala loves being pushed, pulled or knocked over — always bobbing up for more fun. Koala’s rounded, weighted bottom will always spin him back upright for more play. And as he rolls around he makes a lovely tinkling bell sound, for additional sensory stimulation.
Benefits: This classic early childhood learning and development toy is ideal for babies and young toddlers. Koala’s wobbling action entices little ones to reach out and push. Even the most random “batting” action is rewarded with a gentle tinkling bell sound and the little koala popping up for more. Little ones begin to understand the connection between cause and effect. They see there is a connection between their actions and the world around them. And realise that they can make interesting things happen. Roly Poly Koala encourages curiosity and discovery, all the while helping to develop fine motor skills.
As they grow, they will begin to use two hands to attempt to catch by pulling a ball closer to their body. Kicking is an awesome activity for toddlers. At first your little one will walk into a ball to move it forward. As your child matures they will begin to lift one leg to kick. This requires balance and is a great challenge for toddlers and preschoolers. As their balance improves they will be able to kick the ball harder and farther and in a straight line.
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Suitable Age: 18m+
About: Designed and illustrated in Australia, our Flash Cards - Animal ABC help develop children's recognition of the alphabet as well as early vocabulary. The perfect ‘take anywhere’ pram and carseat accessory, these beautifully illustrated flash cards (26) are double-sided and come on a child-friendly plastic ring. The ring allows little fingers to easily flip and play. And can be opened by parents and clipped around pram poles and carseat straps to ensure the cards are never far away from your toddlers hands.
Benefits: Flashcard learning is a fun and vibrant way for early learners to explore the alphabet, new words and images. They are a great tool to get involved in the learning process with your little one, by providing a spoken word to accompany the picture.
Repeating words to children so they mimic them is the most natural form of early teaching… adding a pictorial clue offers great visual stimulation in addition to auditory learning. Toddlers also enjoy flipping through the cards themselves, practicing fine motor skills while they enjoy the engaging illustrations.
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Suitable Age: 1+
About: Watch your little one become a magical artist with Magic Painting World. Simply fill the magic paintbrush with water and reveal the gorgeous illustrations brought to life with every brush-stroke! Ideal for portable play (no messy paintbrushes, no water glasses to knock over) each set contains four gorgeous paintings for your toddler to discover with the water-brush. Let the painting dry and the picture returns to white, only to be revealed the next time you paint with water.
Benefits: This is a great activity for the development of fine motor skills, especially pencil grip. In order to learn to write or draw a child’s hand must be strong and coordinated enough to hold a pencil steady for a long period of time, and to be able to control it’s movements. The magic paintbrush is perfectly chunky for small hands to grasp and the magic that appears with each sweep of the water brush, encourages repetition. As technique becomes more controlled, toddlers can learn to ‘paint’ within the lines of selected animals.
Each illustration board also comes with a list of fun things to find and count as you paint, encouraging early numeracy skills, while matching and finding help develop early reasoning skills.