Gift Guide for 1 Year Old

Developmentally Appropriate Gift Guide for

1 year old

A Ball

Why? Balls are good for trajectory and transporting schemas, good for gross and fine motor skills and social development. They teach early turn taking, verbs and provide past, present and future tense language exposure e.g. “You threw the ball”, “I’m going to throw the ball” “the ball is rolling”. For 1 year olds who are just starting to walk or are still crawling, it can give them something to chase to encourage development of gross motor skills. Between 1 and 2 toddlers may start to run or rather walk briskly and kick and throw balls.

Balls are excellent for open-ended play – truly, every child should have a set.

Pound A Ball Tower

Colored Wooden Gems

Montessori Egg, Ball & Cube Set

Track A Ball Rack

Stacking Bowls/Cups

Why? Stacking bowls are great for fine motor skills, encouraging toddlers to fit them together, stack them up, turn them over or hide them underneath each other. They will keep toddlers engaged and entertained. They can be enriching for a child going through the enveloping and transporting schema. And are great for exposure to colours, sizes, and prepositions vocabulary, eg “You put the small purple cup inside the big green cup” or “You put the small blue bowl on top of the big red bowl”. Between 1 and 2 years children will enjoy stacking and knocking over objects. They may also use these in positioning schema play. It allows them to experience a lot of developmental play – including developing hand-eye coordination and problem-solving skills, motor control, and if you play with your baby, even developing their language.

Colored Nesting & Stacking Bowls

2-tone Nesting & Stacking Bowls

Rainbow Nesting Boxes

Bamboo Stacking Rings

Rainbow Sorting Bowls

Pram or Walkers

Why? Prams are great for transporting schema for all sorts of toys and good for imitating household tasks like taking their baby for a walk. This is also great for gross motor skills of lifting, lowering, pushing and pulling. It’s also good value as it will be an attractive toy for years to come. A good solid, stable pram, like a hardwood pram, can be used for stability by 1 year olds who may still be falling frequently. Around the time they start walking all kids, girls and boys, ABSOLUTELY LOVE pushing around toy prams/strollers.

Wooden Classic Walker

A Doll

Why? Dolls are great for 1-2 year olds who will enjoy pointing to and identifying body parts such as eyes, nose, mouth, ears, belly button, feet, and hands. 1-2 year olds tend to enjoy imitating household tasks. A doll can be used to imitate parenting tasks, such as bathing baby, settling baby for a nap or sleep, and feeding baby. Great for transporting and enveloping schemas as toddlers will enjoy wrapping the doll, playing peekaboo, pushing their doll in a pram, and carrying their doll from container to container. Dolls also help with early empathy development and language development so are great for all children.

Miniland Dolls

Alimrose Dolls

Things on Wheels

Why? Toy vehicles are great for toddlers in the rotation schema. Toddlers can find tipping a small toy vehicle or ride on vehicle upside down and spinning the wheels fascinating when they are in this schema. Toys with wheels are good for exploring concepts such as gravity and friction. They can also be used for lining up (positioning schema), wrapping up (enveloping schema), or be surrounded by a barrier, such as a toy fence or wall of blocks (enclosure schema).

Wooden Vehicles

Wooden School Bus

Musical Instruments

Why? Fun musical sounds can help stimulate a child's developing senses. It is also great for getting your baby's attention in times of non-stress.

Mini Rainmaker

Wooden Tambourine

Wooden Xylophone

Wooden Drum