Holiday Gift Guide!

It's already December and holiday shopping is in full force!  If you're wondering what to get the special little person in your life this year, here are a few things you might find on an OT's list to Santa:

AGES 0-3:

• Touch and feel books
• Colorful rattles
• Oral motor teething toys
• Music
• Activity center (for TUMMY TIME!!!)
• Tubby toys for bath time
• Blocks
• Unbreakable mirrors
• Textured balls for sensory awareness
• Push toys such as a mini-grocery cart or toy stroller
• Pull toys
• "Pop" together beads
• Shape sorters
• Balls
• Hammering toys
• Ball pit
• Sorting toys

PRESCHOOL AGES 3-5

• EASEL!   (EVERYTHING on a vertical surface is great for fine motor development!!)
• Stacking/building blocks
• Crayons
• Finger paints (be brave parents!)
• Fiskar scissors and some things to cut---construction paper, ribbon, play-doh
• Paint and brushes
• Puppets
• Craft items/sets
• Musical instruments
• Play-doh and some rollers, cookie cutters, etc.
• Pegboards
• Stringing beads
• Lacing cards
• A piggy bank and rolls of pennies (kids put the pennies in the slot one at a time---great fine motor task!)
• Magna Doodle or Etch a Sketch
• Dry erase board (hang it on the wall for a VERTICAL surface and it's even better for development!)
• Stickers and sticker books
• Dress ups
• Water/sand table
• Sidewalk chalk
• Toy kitchen
• Toy workbench
• Sorting toys
• Sit n' Spin
• Tricycle
• Kaleidoscopes               
• Bean bags
• Puzzles
• Board games (Candyland, Lucky Ducks)
• Card games (Go Fish, Memory)
• Lite Brite

                           

AGES 6 and UP:

• LEGOS and other block sets for building
• Jump ropes
• Tanagrams
• Puzzles
• Beads and strings to make bracelets, simple jewelry
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  Arts and crafts
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  Stencils
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  Connect 4 game
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  "Just Dance" for Wii or similar video movement games
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  Musical instruments
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  Model kits to construct
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  Bike
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  Scooter
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  Balls
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  Dolls with accessories/clothing for practice with dressing/fasteners
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  Sand and water toys
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  Gardening kit
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  Lincoln Logs
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  Tinker Toys
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  Puppets
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  Sidewalk chalk
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  Ping Pong
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  Roller skates/roller blades
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  Basketball net
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  Sled
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  Board games (checkers, chess, Chinese checkers)
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  Dominoes

  

                                                   

                   

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Jen Dermody, OTR/L