50 Best Toy Ideas for Kids with Autism or Developmental Delays (including non verbal)

The following is from my son’s BSC. I asked her what she felt are some of the best toys for kids with autism, intellectual disabilities or developmental delays, and she just started spouting off suggestions. From there, it evolved from a conversation and thankfully she was willing to turn it into a blog post!

She added a personal note that I’m not sure she wanted to be included, but I felt it should be, because I agree with the sentiments. I also want to add that many of these toys have the rich, saturated colors that are preferred by kids with CVI or cortical visual impairment for other benefits.

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Best Toys for kids with Autism, Intellectual Disabilities and other Developmental Delays

I hope that your readers find this list helpful and not overwhelming. I feel like I could literally walk through a toy store and pull items off the shelves and talk through the good and bad about that particular toy per a specific child’s needs. I tried to keep these toys general, entertaining and educational all in one. This list is geared towards younger children with developmental delays or older children who are functioning on a lower level than their peers. I would suggest not reading too much into age ranges or what gender a toy is geared towards.

At the end of the day, who cares if an 8 year old boy plays with baby dolls when there is so much to be learned in the process and no worries when your little girl is having the dinosaurs stomping through the farm, eating all the sheep or if she’s hammering away at something special with the construction toys. Your kids are hard at work building and acquiring skills as they learn about the world.

Every year Toys R Us used to publish a shopping guide for children with special needs and every year I cringe when I see this list that may be driving the choices for toys that parents make. Not that it’s the worst list, but there’s no real help about why and how. Now that I have children of my own, I have a real appreciation for the thought, energy and hard earned dollars that go into buying toys. With this perspective, I have made a point of talking to all of the families I work with this year about holiday shopping and hopefully helping them in any way I can in picking out toys that serve as many needs as possible for their children, while not draining the holiday fund completely for things deemed “educational” (which typically carry a heavier price tag). Furthermore, educational toys do not have to equal “no fun”. There are plenty of toys out there that are multipurpose, fun-fulfilling toys that are complete with a functional purpose that won’t leave you feeling that you may have wasted your money.

Gifts for Children with Autism or Developmental Delays

I have been lucky enough over the years to work with some amazing co-workers. Without the teachers, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists and school psychologists who have shared their toy/play skills wisdom along the way, I would not be as helpful in toy areas. Also, to share credit where it is due, these toys are all inspired by the developmental assessments VB MAPP by Mark Sunberg and the ABLL’s R by James Partington. That said, this is not an autism specific list. This list of toy suggestions is for any child that may be developmentally delayed, visually impaired or other disabilities.

Disclaimer: I am not endorsing any of these brands or toys specifically. I just hope they inspire you to look at toys differently and that they help you pick out what is right for your children based on their interests, strengths and areas of need.

Best Puzzles for Autistic Toddlers

Fine motor needs are one of the easier skills to work into things you would typically play with. Every kid should be attempting puzzles and puzzle possibilities are endless. There is a range of skills that are addressed in puzzle play. From simple puzzles like a large knob, single inset puzzles to a foam puzzle set, where one foam piece goes into one small square. With this particular toy, you have tackled fine motor skills, cognitive matching skills and it also served the purpose of a simple compliance talk to be completed.

With this puzzle, children with autism and other developmental delays can work on:

• fine motor skills
• matching skills
• simple task to complete

Foam Puzzles

Foam puzzles are great for:

• fine motor skills because of the little bit of extra effort that foam affords you
• give you something to talk about because some of the animals are identifiable (a few are hard to make out) which gives you more possibilities in the way of purpose and function

Pop Beads for Sensory and Fine Motor

Pop beads are a great fine motor toy for both putting together and taking apart. Again, you can incorporate skills that involve colors and shapes depending on the set that you find. Another nice feature is that they are reasonably priced, durable and usually in a decent container.

Pop beads are a great toy for:

• fine motor skills
• putting together and taking apart
• can incorporate skills that involve colors and shapes
• reasonably priced, durable and usually in a decent container

Lacing Beads and Cards

Beads for stringing/lacing are also great for fine motor needs. When selecting your beads for lacing, I would suggest that you think “function” and “multi-purpose”. For example, beads to be stringed are great for fine motor skill and can usually be found on an IEP compliments of your occupational therapist. When you select your beads for stringing, pick ones that can be used different ways. You can use beads for sorting by color, shape, item, etc. Also, there are beads that have pictures on them or beads that are small objects and this will help prompt communication skills and language acquisition. Your child can request or identify beads by attribute, item, etc.

You can use beads for:

• sorting by color, shape, item, etc.
• some beads have pictures on them or beads that are small objects
• the child can request or identify beads by attribute, item, etc.

Real life toys to mimic every day life help develop language and cognitive skills.

“Real Life Toys” are toys that mimic every day life. Using real life versions of toys is a great way to promote language development, cognitive ID skills, pretend play skills and more. You can find all sorts of animals and dinosaurs that are tons of fun, and provide so much opportunity for skill building.

Using real-life versions of toys is a great way to:

• promote communication
• identification skills
• pretend play skills or life skills

Also, adding items to toys/activities you may already have such as kitchen items or baby doll items can make them educational.

• With kitchen items and baby dolls, there are a lot of functional imitation skills you can work on (with real-life objects, doing real life things), on top of the pretend play skills you are developing and the ID skills you are building with these toys.
• There is a lot of vocabulary that is functional and important to be used with these toys.
• You are now exposing and talking about everyday items and the actions that go with these toys with your child.
• Add some more food or a tea set to that kitchen.
• Consider getting your child’s baby doll a stroller, crib or highchair.

When you are adding food to that kitchen, keep an eye out for items such as the following:

Each of these can be found on Amazon at decent prices. They are great for pretend play in the kitchen, but they will allow practice with:

• fine motor skills
• communication
• cognitive skills
• colors
• shapes
• real life items
• matching and physically putting things together
• used as a tabletop activity for more intense teaching
• skill acquisition

Games for Taking Turns and Socialization

When it comes to games, you should pick a focus. Do you want your child to:

• be involved with their siblings in some way
• learn/practice turn taking
• improve cognitive skills

When it comes to games, you should pick a focus. Do you want your child to be involved with their siblings in some way, learn/practice turn taking, improve cognitive skills? If you ask yourself what you want out of a game, it may help you make a better choice when selecting games. Games like Honey Bee Tree and Crocodile Dentist are great for turn taking and require minimal skills to participate.

The Memory Game is good for:

• cognitive and communication skills
• can be used outside the context of a game
• have your child match pictures as a tabletop activity
• to be done independently, or if your child is not currently able to match a picture to picture, you can use the Memory cards to work on this important matching skill