Selecting the best educational toys for your 2 year old can be a tricky task. With so many options available, it can be difficult to decide which ones are best suited to your child’s emerging interests and which will continue to support their development during such an important period of growth. As a pediatric occupational therapist, I’m always looking for new toys to use in my therapy sessions to promote different areas of development, and I’d like to share some toy ideas from my experience with you.
When making toy selections for 2 year olds, the best options are often simple, open-ended toys that leave room for your child to explore, be creative, and make decisions about how play time looks for them. Open-ended toys won’t limit your child to just one way to use them. Rather, they’ll support developmental milestones by allowing your child to navigate playtime in new ways each time.
Hands-on construction toys like play doh, finger paints, and craft supplies are all fantastic options that allow children to invent something different every day. Based on their own interests and imagination, they can decide whether the play doh will be rolled into a long, scary snake or whether it will be molded into a funny pretend bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Every child, no matter what they enjoy, can find new ways to create each time. These toys can also help develop fine motor skills, helping to prepare little hands for things like closing buttons and holding pencils.
Another great way to work on cognitive development is through encouraging pretend play. Toddlers and 2 year olds love imitating what you do, so pretend play kitchens, cleaning tools, and pet care kits are fun options that are sure to become fast favorites. Costumes and dolls are also fun to use for pretend play and allow children to imagine different scenes and scenarios. Something like a farm set can incorporate pretend play while also learning animal names and sounds. Here are 3 more types of toys to encourage imaginative pretend play.
Fine motor strength can also be built with creative toys like Suction Kupz, as children work to manipulate them and explore new uses, since there’s no right or wrong way to play with them. Click Blocks are another great option for open-ended play and fine motor skill development. The way they lock together also makes it easier for little ones to stack them, and they require some strength to pull apart, which helps to build hand muscles. For more advanced builders, classic wooden blocks are a great example of a toy that is simple and open-ended, and one that can grow with your child. Blocks provide lots of opportunities to foster many areas of development. They can teach a child about balance and promote hand eye coordination, as each one is placed carefully upon the other. They can encourage independent play, or they can be used in group settings to encourage sharing and turn taking.
Puzzles are another classic option with so many benefits. There’s an endless supply of puzzles on the market with knobs for little ones to grasp and pick up the pieces. This incorporates fine motor development, and more specifically the tripod grasp (grasping using the middle, index and thumb). When your kids begin to outgrow inset and basic shape puzzles, these puzzles can be helpful in teaching matching skills, problem-solving, and using both hands together to connect the interlocking pieces.
Cause and effect toys are also important for toddlers as they promote cognitive development by teaching kids that their actions can cause something to change in their environment. It’s the beginning of learning that pressing a button or flipping a switch can make something happen, so my apologies in advance for all of the fun your children will have turning the TV and every light switch in the house on and off. Here are some examples of Cause and Effect Toys.
The skill of sorting also begins to develop in 2 year olds. Although they’re not yet ready to begin sorting by color, shape, or size just yet, they can begin sorting by object and matching similar objects together. By the time a child is close to 2 years old, she will have the hand eye and bilateral coordination to sort through large beads and string them together.
Many children collect lots of books and have a nightly routine of reading before bedtime. In addition to all of the benefits of fostering a love of reading, you can also use books with pictures and illustrations to help teach children to find, identify, and point out certain objects they see. You can foster those same skills with any photos, including those in magazines and even family photos.
Musical toys like tambourines, drums, and xylophones are great toddler-friendly options as well. These can help introduce kids to different sounds and rhythms and promote attention. They’re also a great tool to use when encouraging kids to play together (Who didn’t “make a band” with their friends when they were younger?), and a great tool for you to use to bond and play with your child. And who knows, you may just spark a love of music in your toddler and have a future performer on your hands.
Providing toddlers with sensory experiences is an important part of their development. In addition to using music and sounds, you can incorporate other senses by focusing on the feel of different textures, as well as experiencing the feeling of movement in different ways. Things like swings and baby slides help the nervous system develop and process sensory input. Here is everything you need to know about sensory toys and here are some sensory toy ideas for babies.
Perhaps more valuable than any toy you can buy, another great way to support your child’s development through play includes real life experiences, outings, and activities. Getting outside and setting time aside for physical activity, exercise, and movement is an important thing to keep in mind for active and energetic toddlers. I wrote a blog post on Active Toys for 2 year olds, where you can get some ideas to incorporate into your play routines. Incorporating something as simple as a ball even has its benefits. You can encourage coordination by having them throw and catch or aim for nearby target. There are also many different sized and textured balls to add novelty and motivation.
Building social skills happens naturally as kids play with you and one another. Here are 9 board games that you can play with your 2 year old to practice turn-taking, sharing, and more. Trips to play grounds, museums, parks, and zoos all allow natural learning to take place in a fun and engaging environment. In those settings, don’t forget to speak to your child throughout the experience. Ask questions about what they see, hear, and smell. Point out new and exciting things that they might be experiencing for the first time, and allow them to hear you use new words and provide definitions for new things they’re seeing. Don’t be afraid to use big words or explain more advanced concepts. You’ll be surprised at what they actually can absorb and will repeat later when you least expect it. More than anything else, getting out there with your child is a perfect way to spend quality time as a family and build routines, traditions, and memories together, and that’s learning that’s more valuable than any toy can provide.