Best Sensory Toys For Toddlers (2024 Update)

Experts state that the primary way children begin to learn is through play. Babies start learning immediately through singing, reading, and playing with their toys and activity centers. As they grow into toddlers, they continue to learn through their play, but they have more options available. Toddler play can take on many forms. One way for them to optimize learning while having fun is through sensory play. 

We’ve gathered the best sensory toys for toddlers below. Read through our reviews to see which one would be the best fit for your child.

Best Sensory Toys for Toddlers

If you are not into DIY or like to have a mix of both, there are so very many toys available to choose from. Here are some sensory toy options your toddler is sure to love. 

Learning Resources Mini Muffin Match Up Counting Toy Set

This little muffin tin comes with 76 pieces that promote counting, colors, matching, and adding all in one set. Its grab claw also enables the fine-tuning of your child’s fine motor skills by helping them to carefully grab one of the mini muffins at a time. The set has a mini muffin pan, 2 dice, squeezy tweezers, 12 double-sided sorting circle inserts, and an activity guide filled with fun games. 

The toy is non-toxic, phthalate-compliant, lead- compliant, BPA compliant, prop 65 safe, and has no mercury to keep your child safe. The muffins are about the size of a nickel and are best for children who no longer put toys in their mouths. 

Stacking Peg Board Set 

This stacking peg board set is Montessori based and often used in occupational therapies. It comes with 60 pegs, a red board to stack them into, and the pegs can be stacked on top of one another. This particular version of the set comes with an added bonus of a storage bag for the boards and small pieces. It also comes with a rainbow board for color association play and pattern making. It also comes with six stacking cups. 

Your child will have a lot of fun learning their colors while using their fine motor skills to pick up the pegs and stick them in the holes, either on the board or in each other. Placing the pegs into the holes will also help with your child’s visual skills and depth perception. If you have a child with sensory disorders or autism, this toy is a constructive play option.

The pegs can also be used for learning beginning math skills. Since the pegs are stackable, you can even start introducing height concepts to your child to learn how to determine which stack is taller and which one is shorter. 

Top Bright Wooden Lacing Beads for Toddlers

If you are looking for a sensory toy that can be used as a fine motor activity, the Top Bright lacing beads fit the bill. The set comes with 20 different beads of varying shapes and sizes. The string has a wooden stick on either end, making it easier for your child to string the various forms. 

Blocks included list numbers 0-9, while the geometric shapes teach your child about colors and fit. The set also has a caterpillar that goes on the front and a sunflower that rotates. The shapes build cognitive skills while the lacing activities allow your child to work on precision. You can use each element separately in learning games or all together. 

The wooden toys are ASTM certified with a safety buckle on the string to eliminate hazards. 

Musical Instruments Set

This wooden musical set is perfect for a budding toddler musician who wants to play, explore, and learn sounds. Music is known to be therapeutic for children and adults alike. What better sensory play than to feel the instruments in your hands while you explore what sound each one makes!  

The set comes with percussion instruments like bells, rattle drum, bell stick, a wooden fish rainbow column, triangle, sleigh bells, maracas, wrist bells, clapper, trumpet, and a wooden sounder. Also included is a storage bag to keep everything neat and organized. The instruments have bright colors to catch your child’s eye and engage them in play. The wooden toys are non-toxic, BPA free and CPC, and ASTM certified. 

Wooden Number Puzzle 

This wooden sorting puzzle is great for toddler boys and toddler girls alike. It comes in the traditional rainbow colors to work for either gender. It is available in a variegated purple, which is intended more for little girls. 

The board has shape sorting as well as numbers and pegs. This set will help your child with learning their colors as well as their numbers up to ten. The pegs have 55 different rings that can be sorted and stacked onto them, giving your child a great exercise in what is taller and what stack is shorter. The puzzle is made of natural wood with smooth edges for safety. The paint is non-toxic and water-based. 

VTech Latches and Doors Busy Board

Busy boards have long been recognized as fantastic ways to build baby’s and toddler’s motor skills. The board is filled with latches and keys that open various doors to reveal a family and their pets. The board is battery operated with music and sounds that interact with your child. It has two different modes. The voice mode teaches your child the numbers one to five while talking about the family and pets that each open door shows. 

The Vtech board also plays music, prompting your child to open another door. It plays the alphabet song, a number song, and a song about the house depending on which button is pressed. The board can be cleaned with a damp cloth as needed. The colors can vary slightly from board to board and not be exactly, as shown in the picture. This board is best for age 12-36 months and requires 2 AA batteries for continual use. 

What is Sensory Play? 

Sensory play is a form of activity that engages one or all five of your child’s senses. This form of play is more hands-on and allows your child to engage with the toy rather than the toy leading your child in engagement.

Studies show learning is more productive and more effective when children are using their senses. This type of play and interaction is vital to their brain growth. Sensory play allows children to use exploratory methods while they are playing and exploring their environments. These methods can help with many different situations in children’s lives, from playing with others to getting comfortable with new foods. 

Alysia Marshall-Seslar, an expert in early childhood development, shares that children also seek out sensory play that engages their vestibular and proprioceptive senses.

Benefits of Sensory Play

There are many benefits to sensory play. It helps children build neurons in their brains, making more neural pathways. Creating these pathways allows children to perform challenging tasks. Sensory play also develops their speech, motor skills, problem-solving, cognitive growth, and socialization. By engaging all of their senses, memory develops and is enhanced. 

Suppose your child gets anxious or tends to get frustrated quickly. In that case, sensory play can ease their emotions, allowing your child to calm down. Sensory play also helps differentiate between different textures. Children can learn about things being soft, rough, cold, hot, sticky, or dry.    

Stimulating the Senses of Sensory Play

Sensory play aims at stimulating all of your child’s senses, making their playtime more productive. People often think of sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste when they think of the senses. Two other senses stimulated by sensory play are awareness and balance. The full seven senses are:  

• Sight: how our eyes receive light and interpret images. 
• Touch: how the receptors in our fingers respond to temperature, vibration, and texture.
• Sound: our ears perceive the airwave vibrations into the inner ear. 
• Taste: our tongues react to and interpret different flavors
• Smell: Noses take in air, and your olfactory sensors become stimulated. In turn, they share that information with your brain. 
• Body Awareness: our brain’s ability to converse with our muscles and ligaments giving you the ability for spatial awareness. 
• Balance: the ability to maintain your body’s equilibrium and hold yourself steady. 

It is essential to help your child grow and stimulate all of these senses as they are necessary for your child’s overall development. Proper growth and interaction with them has an overall effect on how your child interacts with the world. 

Safety

As a parent, you have different concerns for your toddler’s toys than you did when they were infants. You try to surround infants with softer toys that do not have any small pieces. With toddlers, you still want to take the weight and size of the toy into account. Make sure it is not too small since toddlers are known to put things in their mouths still while they play. 

You also do not want to pick a toy that is too heavy for them. Many toddlers will try to pick up anything even though it may be too heavy for them, leading to injury. 

Manufacturers always give an age or an age range on toddler toys. Be sure to take that into account when you are picking up a new sensory toy. What’s appropriate for a 3-year-old may have pieces that are too small for a one-year-old. Always check for sharp edges on the toy to ensure your toddler will not scratch themselves. 

Many sensory toys do not have batteries, but if it does, make sure it is not easy for your toddler to get to the screws. Toddlers are famous for trying to figure out how things work and will try to get in there and take the batteries out. Batteries themselves pose a safety threat if your child chews on them. 

If the toy is made of wood and painted, look into how the company processes and treats the wood. Manufacturers often use chemicals in processing that you would not want your child to put in their mouths. Also, make sure the paint is non-toxic and will not chip or peel off. 

Like with any toy, always watch your child while they are playing. Curious toddlers will find a way to get into just about anything, so a watchful eye can help prevent any accidents. 

Sensory Disorders

Many children can have sensory disorders, whether it be a sensitivity to sound, texture, or coordination related. Sensory sensitivity can vary in degree from slight sensitivity to severe. Sensory processing disorder is defined as the brain, not responding to the information sent to it by the senses. It seems not to know what to do with the information presented by all seven of the body’s senses. Loud noises can overwhelm a small child, or a specific material on their skin may be unbearable. 

It may present in some children as just being incredibly clumsy. They will continuously run into things and seem to have very little spatial awareness and control over their limbs. 

With anything, this can have varying degrees. Some children will want to get away from the sound or food, while others show no response to anything in their environments. 

Sensory Integration is a common treatment used to help children who display sensitivity to the world around them. They learn to interact with the world in a fun and playful way, teaching them to react to situations more appropriately. 

Depending on the child’s specific aversions, different methods are useful. Sensory toys can help show children who shy away from fabrics or other touch-related sensitivities by giving them a fun outlet to become more comfortable. 

Sensory toys can also help children who shy away from sounds by giving them a hands-on way of interacting with sound that is entirely within their control. This allows them to become more comfortable and have more appropriate responses when faced with sounds in their day to day lives. In this same way, sensory bins can assist with aversions to touch by allowing the child to play with different textures. 

Autism and Sensory Toys

Sensory processing disorder is often associated with autism, as many children who are on the spectrum have sensory intake issues. However, they are not necessarily one in the same. 

ARTC describes autism as a neurological disorder. This is often displayed as difficulty communicating, interacting socially, and has restrictive, often repetitive behaviors. 

Autism can come with a particular insistence on specific objects, possibly rocking back and forth, clapping their hands, fidgeting, or even banging their heads. These behaviors are known as stimming in the autism community. 

Social interaction can be incredibly difficult for some children with autism, and for others, it is near impossible. Since autism is a range, children can be anywhere from a slight speech delay to entirely nonverbal. 

Sensory aversions are common among children with autism making it a common thread with children who have sensory processing disorder. Another common thread is sensory toys can be helpful to both groups. Some benefits are: 

• brings focus, calm, and relaxation 
• allows the child to play naturally and with a higher level of comfort
• develops skills such as planning, negotiating, and sharing, thus improving their social behaviors
• builds their coordination
• grows their gross motor skills and allows children to understand rules and activities
• improves their brain pathways by stimulating their senses
• allows children to develop and increase their ability to talk with other kids and adults
• sensory toys tend to be less distracting, therefore increasing focus

Depending on your child, having toys that do not have loud sounds and flashing lights most familiar with traditional toys will set them up for success. Sensory toys can be as simple as having clay for your child to build with or slime for them to squish around. 

These calming activities can bring a sense of focus and accomplishment to a child with autism. It can even be an activity such as painting with water on the ground. An exercise that engages the senses and helps your child feel more comfortable with the elements around them. 

How do I Know if my Child has a Sensory Processing Disorder?

Sensory processing disorders can be diagnosed when your child is an infant. It can first present itself in a baby as being exceptionally fussy when exposed to lights, sounds, or fabrics. As children get older, it may show as things like:

• Clothing being too itchy or scratchy
• Lights are too bright
• Sounds are too loud
• A gentle touch is unbearable
• They have a difficult time with food textures
• Too klutzy or they have poor balance
• Fear of things like swings
• Poor reaction times to movement, noises, or lights
• Behavioral issues surface

It is also possible that a child’s sensory issues will present themselves as undersensitive. In this case, look for:

• Inability to sit still
• Daredevil behavior
• Does not understand social behaviors
• No understanding of personal space
• Constantly chews on objects like hands or clothing
• Needs continual visual stimulation
• Sleep issues arise
• Not able to see things like being dirty or a running nose

If you notice any of these signs in your child, speak with your child’s doctor. They will likely refer you to an occupational therapist who will assess your child through situational observations and questions. Through this, they will make the proper diagnosis. 

Frequently Asked Questions

The world of sensory toys can be confusing, especially if you are choosing toys based on your child’s specific needs and sensitivities. Many products are available in varying ranges. If you are trying to expand your child’s interaction with their senses or if you are trying to help them get more comfortable many questions can arise. We have narrowed down some of the more common questions and rounded up the answers. 

What are Sensory Toys Used For? 

Sensory toys are used for many different things. They stimulate all of your child’s senses, therefore expanding their neural pathways and increasing learning in a more complete way than traditional toys. They are considered a more natural way to play and interact. Sensory toys are fantastic for creative play. Children are encouraged to use their imagination and play with sensory toys as they often have no boundaries. 

These toys are also great tools for children who are hypo and hyper-sensitive. Sensory toys promote a feeling of calm and give your child a level of control.  

What is the Best Age for Beginning Sensory Play? 

Sensory toys can be used for play from day one. Babies in the 0-4 month range often play with sensory toys. Many soft toys have multiple textures combined with mirrors and rattles to stimulate all your babies’ senses and build their motor skills. Toys usually have bright colors, make sounds, or are shakeable. Even soft books are available for babies to play with, which assists in developing language and speech. 

Continue sensory play with your toddler and bigger kids. Things like blocks, magnets, books, puzzles, and others that promote imaginative play are great options. 

What are Some Sensory Activities for Toddlers? 

Some great toddler sensory activities are sorting bins, sensory tables, blocks, magnets, puzzles, and musical instruments. These toys can be wooden or plastic, as long as you have various textures, sounds, and surfaces. 

Sensory bins can be filled with small blocks, age-appropriate beads, cotton balls, or even items like noodles or beans! Water beads can go in plastic bags along with slime. Water is another great activity facilitator. It can be used in a bin, in a water table, or to paint with. Play sand is fantastic for stimulating your child’s touch receptors and helping them learn about colors as well as the texture. 

If DIY is more your style, you can make your own sensory blocks out of fabrics, cotton, ribbons, yarn, or whatever else you may have on hand. You can also fill a water bottle full of buttons, beads, and other items that will make noise to create your own noisemaker. Check out How Wee Learn for more DIY toddler sensory activity ideas. 

If you are hoping to increase your child’s coordination or balance, toys like a trampoline and balance bicycle or tricycle can promote better balance and coordination. 

How do I Know if my Child has a Sensory Processing Disorder?

Sensory processing disorders can be diagnosed when your child is an infant. It can first present itself in a baby as being exceptionally fussy when exposed to lights, sounds, or fabrics. As children get older, it may show as things like:

• Clothing being too itchy or scratchy
• Lights are too bright
• Sounds are too loud
• A gentle touch is unbearable
• They have a difficult time with food textures
• Too klutzy or they have poor balance
• Fear of things like swings
• Poor reaction times to movement, noises, or lights
• Behavioral issues surface

It is also possible that a child’s sensory issues will present themselves as undersensitive. In this case, look for:

• Inability to sit still
• Daredevil behavior
• Does not understand social behaviors
• No understanding of personal space
• Constantly chews on objects like hands or clothing
• Needs continual visual stimulation
• Sleep issues arise
• Not able to see things like being dirty or a running nose

If you notice any of these signs in your child, speak with your child’s doctor. They will likely refer you to an occupational therapist who will assess your child through situational observations and questions. Through this, they will make the proper diagnosis. 

How do you calm a child with sensory overload?

There are many methods to calm down a child who is experiencing sensory overload. A few ways to calm your child down are to look for signs in your child before they reach their meltdown point. You can teach them age-appropriate self-calming techniques, such as counting to ten, listening to music, and reading a book. You can work with your child on a strategy for when they have a sensory overload incident to see what will work best for them. 

Sensory toys are another calming method. Things like favorite stuffed animals, blankets, or pillows can help foster feelings of calm and familiarity. Even items like soft balls to squeeze or a doll whose hair they can brush can facilitate peaceful feelings. 

Outdoor play can also help your child. It gives them fresh air and new surroundings, and they can choose what type of play they want. Sometimes even going on a walk will help calm your child down. Exploring nature can work wonders on a child’s mood and give them an outlet for their feelings. The change of scenery can also help, depending on your child. Other times the answer can be as simple as lying down and taking a nap to help quiet your child’s mind and bring on a sense of calm. 

Will a Child Outgrow Sensory Issues?

According to the Star Institute, the answer is complicated. At the moment, they do not have enough evidence to show that the condition can be grown out of. They have also found strong connections between the condition as a child and similar tendencies as an adult. 

The best course of action is to address sensory disorders with your child with your child’s doctor’s help. It is an excellent idea to ascertain what you are working with and have support in exacting the best course of action. Sensory disorders are still being studied, and doctors are still working on solutions, and no child is the same. Teaching your child coping mechanisms and proper responses when they become overloaded will help them throughout their lives and give them a fuller childhood. 

Are Montessori Toys Best for Sensory Play? 

Montessori toys pride themselves on simplicity. They are basic and do not overwhelm your child with flashing lights and excessive noise. Toys are simple shapes and are generally primary colors made of wood. Montessori toys are also more realistic. This helps your child develop their imagination in a real way instead of growing it out of fantasy. Toys show actual cause and effect that is tangible to your child. Bells will ring when touched, and balls that are dropped into games will roll, much like real life. 

Some parents steer toward Montessori toys because they are made of natural materials and thus are better for the environment. Materials used in these toys can range from wood to metal, giving your child a feel for different surfaces and even temperatures. 

Montessori also focuses on being constructive while playing. These toys require your child’s full attention and participation to make something happen. Whereas many plastic battery-operated toys have the attention grabber sound or song to pull your child’s attention back in. 

If your child gets easily overwhelmed, Montessori toys may be the best choice for you. They offer a more limited range of options, making it less likely for a child to get confused and frustrated on which one will be best to play with. This also allows your child to completely engage and get involved in the toy.

They will earn more and get more out of the toy if they stay engaged instead of quickly moving from toy to toy. For children with sensory issues, limiting overstimulation can help foster a sense of calm and encourage them to play and explore. 

Final Thoughts

There is no doubt that developing your child’s senses helps them perform to their full potential later in life. Whether you have DIY sensory toys in bins on a table or you choose toys specifically designed to enhance your child’s balance, ability to interact with touch, or fine-tune their motor skills, you are already ahead of the game. 

Allowing your child to choose how they interact with toys expands their horizons and sets them up for future success. Children who build better neural pathways are shown to grasp new concepts faster and easier than their counterparts.

If you are picking toys to help with a sensory disorder, focus on ones that cater to the sense your child is having the most difficulty with. If your child has difficulties with sound, a musical set will help them learn about different music and noises in an environment they control. Most importantly, have fun learning and playing with your little one. 

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