People often ask how to find toys for autistic children. It is not an easy task to buy the appropriate toys for them since there are too many factors to take into consideration .
There are millions of toys in local or online stores to search through. As the online purchase becomes more practical than ever, Amazon enhances itself as one of the most comprehensive online stores to buy the toys for autistic children. We are here to make it easier for your search as we explain how to find autism toys on Amazon.
What to Know before Buying Toys for Autistic Children
Most people can struggle to find an idea toy for an autistic child if they don’t know the child very well. The following list is the factors to consider if you don’t hope the toy just collect dust in the house.
- What is the developmental age of the child? The cognitive ability of the child plays a big role of what toy to get. If the child is 5 year-old with severe autism, you might not want to get a toy recommended for kids aged 5-8.
- Does the child put everything in the mouth? Although choking hazard is warning to young children regardless, autistic children demonstrate more of the problem if the toys might not be safe for them.
- Is the child interested in particular types of toys?
- Will the child grow enough gross and fine motor skills (if not already has them) to use the toy?
The more you know the child, the better choice you will make when buying a toy for him/her.
Amazon Toy Store
Amazon is the world’s largest online store, and its toy store has massive selections from global sources. Millions of toys are very competitive in quality and price. It displays vast different brands and labels, from international major toy brands to newly created private labels.
Amazon toy store offers a great online shopping experience through the huge array of products, low prices, fast shipping and excellent customer service. Most of the toys are offered for free return which ensures the quality and likability of the toys.
95 million Amazon Prime members can enjoy unique benefits of lighting speed free shipping with Amazon toy store for most of its products.
It is very convenient as you can do one-stop-shop on Amazon from toys to anything else that you look for.
How to Search Autism Toys on Amazon
Amazon does a good job in cataloging their products, although it is hard to clear-cut toys since most of them are recommended for a range of ages and they can be played by both genders. It seems much harder when identifying the toys for autistic children as attention span rule doesn’t apply well with them. Attention span expectation is a one of the key factors for toy manufacturers to recommend the age group for the toys.
Based on how much you know the autistic child, we make the following suggestion of keywords for the search bar when you are on Amazon website.
Search by Child’s Interest
If you already know what the child exactly likes and he/she is allowed to play with it, you will have an easier job in replacing or upgrading it to another one. Let’s say, the child likes to draw on Magna Doodle drawing board which most likely needs to be replaced a few times before he/she is no longer interested in it.
If you search “magna doodle” on the search bar, you will see all different kinds of magnetic doodle drawing boards or similar products that might include the one he/she already has. It is necessary to buy a different one even just in a different color since autistic children are not flexible to accept new things. They will learn to adapt to different things if you intend to change it up and help them build the flexibility for their brains. The longer you keep buying the exact same one the harder to change them to like different ones later on.
If the child likes to play Play-Doh, you just need to type in” playdoh” in search bar and you can get him another set with different or more colors/features when the old ones dry up.
Search by the Purpose
You hope to find a toy that helps improve finger strength of your autistic child. You would search“finger strengthener for kids and you see a container of TheraPutty that looks like Playdoh one the first page of search. Your child likes to play with Play-Doh. TheraPutty is the closest item for your child to grow interest quickly after the Playdoh, and TheraPutty provides more purposeful training for finger strength.
If the autistic child is very sensitive to light, sound or touch, and you want to find some toys to improve the condition. Search “sensory toys for autistic children” on the search bar. You will find sensory bins with sand and water beads, sensory body hug, sensory body pod and different kinds of fidget toys. Pick something that the child can transition from the toy that he/she has interest in it already. You have a better use for the new toy. If you don’t find anything look familar, follow through our top picks of sensory toys for autism.
Search by Age
This is more complicated when searching the toys for autistic children by age.
Almost all the toys are recommended for the developments ages instead of chronological ones. Simply say, most toys are made for neuro-typical children. Kids with neuro-developmental delays like autism will have different developmental ages than typical children.
Toys that are recommended for 3-6 year-old children may not be suitable for 3-6 year-old children with autism.
You will find more satisfactory toys for an autistic child if you subtract 2-3 years of the age from the actual age of the child.
Let’s say you are looking for toys for a 3 year-old autistic boy. After you type in “toys for 1 year old boy” on the search bar, you will see more toys that promote visual developing bright colors which are more beneficial for a 3-year-old autistic child, especially if he is newly diagnosed with autism that might have missed some early developmental milestones.
Similarly, if you are looking for a toy for a 6-year-old autistic girl, you will have more pleasing result after you search “the best toys for a 4 year-old girl.
In soon future, we would like to list all the top choices of toys for different ages. Stay tune with us.
Learning Toys for Autistic boys
If you need to find learning toys for autistic boys with different ages or you want to have a learning toy that can last for a few years for an autistic boy, you will search ‘learning toys for autistic boys”.
You can tell that Amazon does a good job to organize learning toys for boys, but it is really hard to target for autistic boys as we understand that most toys are not made for autistic children only.
We have to use our knowledge, judgment and experience to identify the ones that have better chance for autistic children to grow and sustain interest.
On this search, you will need to consider the level of the difficulty to manage small pieces besides choking hazard.
If the toy is for one autistic boy, you will narrow down to the toys that are not too hard to start over like Fire 7 Kids Tablet.
If the toys are for a group of boys, you will choose the toys that have fun activities that they can learn to share or to play together.
You will have a better idea to pinpoint your search if you check out our top choices of learning toys for autistic boys.
The Best Toys for Autistic Children
The best toys for autism children are the toys that help autistic children learn and keep them engaged for an extended period of play. They can be the toys that need the adult supervision, although toys that allow the autistic children play independently are more popular in most cases.
This search is more for classrooms, camps or groups that have a mix of children with different ages and genders. The toys that are not gender-typical are better choices.
Search “The Best Toys for Autistic Children” on Amazon and you will see a good variety of sensory toys on the first page. Sensory toys are more considered as toys for autistic children, but this is far from the only and best choices. We know Amazon has a lot of other toys that can be great for autistic children. They are hidden because Amazon doesn’t know how to recognize them.
We believe you will enjoy our list of the best toys for autistic children on Amazon.
Last but not lease, toys should serve more benefits for autistic children. We are on the mission to pick them out and connect them with the families and friends of autistic children.
We appreciate it greatly if you can share your experience and thoughts with us.