Messy Bun, Get Parenting Done
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Developing fine motor skills in young children is important to future skills like handwriting, shoe trying and typing. Using a mix of creative activities and fun fine motor toys you can help your child to develop these important skills.
[Read more…] about 15 Great Toys for Fine Motor Skill DevelopmentDisclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. I hope you find some great new basement toys and thank you for supporting my blog.
A great indoor gross motor play area (in your basement or elsewhere) will help your kids grow their motor skills, increase balance and sports skills, help with sensory regulation, and allow you a bit of sanity. Below is a list of some of our favorite toys we keep in our basement. A lot of these toys were originally purchased for my oldest son who has Autism. They helped with his motor delays and sensory integration struggles but they have been equally successful and fun with his little brothers who are more neurotypical. One of the twins has hypotonia and a few of these toys were very helpful in him making progress on increasing his muscle tone.
Kids need to bounce. The motion and input are regulating to many kids and it will burn a lot of energy on rainy days. We love this 36 inch folding trampoline. I did not want a trampoline with a bar (I didn’t want to worry about one kid pushing another into it) but having seen my twins jump super high on this little tikes trampoline at their occupational therapist’s clinic there is definitely a lot to be said for having a removable bar. That’s a personal preference so I’ll leave both options here.
I love our ball pits. We started with what my husband calls our “sensibly sized” pop-up ball pit. We had this ball pit tent at our smaller town home. We kept it folded in the closet with the balls in a garbage bag and popped it up with my son needed to swim in the balls. Even if you don’t have a dedicated open space for your equipment lots of these toys can be stored in a closet and pulled out when you want them. Despite having a larger ball pit now we still pop this one out of the closet and use it all the time.
When we moved to the ‘burbs one of the upgrades was in ball pit size. We got the Fun and Function Air Lite Ball Pit. It was an expensive purchase but was absolutely worth it. This ball pit has been used countless hours for the last two years and has no no wear and tear on it. It has been used at a ball pit, a tent, a cave, a bounce house and more! I will warn you at one point or a few all the balls will end up out of the pit. Speaking of balls I have tested a few types and these packs of 200 are the best we’ve had.
If you aren’t familiar with crash mats they are basically giant pillows to crash into. You can jump on it, climb over it and wrestle on it. Climbing on and out from under our crash mat has greatly improved my twins’ muscle tone and balance and crashing into this mat is highly regulating for all my boys.
A giant ball has been a lot of fun. I originally meant to put it outside but it was given to us for the holidays so it went in the basement and hasn’t come out. The kids jump on it, roll on it and throw it at each other.
Do you remember scooter races in elementary school gym class? This is the type of scooters I’m talking about. The boys love scooting all over the place on these and they are great for their core strength and coordination.
Hopper Balls (Hippity Hop was the popular brand in the 80s) are another classic from my childhood that my kids are now starting to like as well. I particularly like the ones we got from Fun and Function and they have held up well.
The Ogo Sport is a fun toy that goes both inside and outside at our house depending on the weather. It is essentially two paddles (I like the ones with handles) and a squishy ball with a tail on it. It sounds a little weird but it’s a great toy for practicing eye hand coordination without smashing up your house too much.
I was actually not originally sold on this toy (it was a gift). Not because the step 2 train didn’t look fun but it really only does one thing: the train goes down the track. That said, I was wrong. The train does definitely only go down the track but the kids practice taking turns, ride on it together and it has helped my twin who has hypotonia’s muscle tone. When we got the train he was absolutely opposed to going down it. His core was not strong enough to make it comfortable to go down. We slowly worked on it and he gained the confidence to try it with support and now knows how to go down it.
We also have a mini slide in our basement. It was originally outside because our bigger play set was too big for one of the twins to comfortably used but I decided to test it out in our basement and it has been a success. If and how big a slide you want in your basement is a personal choice but having a small one allows the kids a chance to climb without a huge safety risk.
Buying floor mats was another large purchase but well worth it. We have this type from Amazon on a couple of the walls so the train can run into them and also on the floors. These have the right amount of firmness and squish to both be useful when the kids fall on them but also when my husband drops weights on the floor.
I hope this helps you decide on some great toys for your basement or other play area! Check out my article on great fine motor skill toys for more ideas to help your child develop great motor skills and let me know in the comments what your favorite basement toys are!
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you for supporting my blog.
Fine motor skills are important to develop. From cutting with scissors, using utensils or learning to write these skills take time and patience to develop but they can also be fun. I have three children. I have a six year old with autism and twin neurotypical three year olds. These are some of their favorite toys that are also secretly helping with fine Motor skills.
Pop beads are a fun way to build hand strength and coordination. These colorful beads were hard for my little ones at first but they quickly got the hang of them and started making necklaces, snakes, dragons and other monsters.
Discovery Putty is a type of therapy putty with objects hidden inside. There are lots of different types with different objects hidden: animals, dinosaurs, trains, etc. so there is something for every kids interest. In addition to being a great way to grow grip strength and dexterity this type of activity can also be very regulating.
My kids love this scissor skills workbook (yes, they actually love what is really a workbook). It is full of fun pictures to cut. Because I have three kids I also got a fun set of extra scissors which led to lots more great scissor skills practice.
The Tape Activity book was a huge hit with my six year old starting when he was about four. He loved it so much we had to buy more wiki tape for it (an easy buy from Michaels or sometimes the dollar store). It is pretty simple in design. It has various pictures and youR child tapes over them. When Ross started using the book he still needed my assistance to help rip the tape but by the second roll he had figured it out.
This classic toy has lots of fine motor benefits. It builds hand strength and dexterity plus you can add in scissors and other tools to practice with those as well. My twins currently love to play pretend kitchen with their playdough.
Playfoam is a fun alternative to play dough (with the advantage that it doesn’t dry out). You can often find single color packages, perfect for small gifts, at the dollar store or bullseye section of Target. My kids also love the number and letter sets (picture/link below).
The Learning Resources Fine Motor Tool Set includes four tools; a tweezers, a baller, a scooper and a syring (those definitely aren’t their titles, just ours). We use this set with kinetic sand, play foam, water, and water beads.
My kids love kinetic sand! It is a very regulating activity to most children as well as being a great way to build hand strength and coordination. We pour the kinetic sand into plastic boxes and use it in conjunction with the fine motor set. They also make portable boxes of kinetic sand and colored sand as well.
Water beads are another great toy to use with the fine motor tools. They are little beads that get bigger and squishy when the are placed in water. My three year old twins love to place them in water, monitor them growing and then play with them!
Wiki-Stix are fun, flexible sticks of wax. They are great stocking stuffers or small hanukkah gifts (I’ve actually used them in goodie bags too). They build dexterity and also hand strength and endurance.
We were handed down the A to Z Magnatab and it has been a huge hit. It is a portable board with a magnetic pen. Users trace the letters and the pen brings up the magnetic balls. It’s great for in the car or quite solo play.
Magna Tiles are semi-transparent, colorful magnetic blocks. They require fine motor skills and control to properly put them together and they are so much fun to build towers, castles and more!
We were given a small tube of Wacky Links as a gift and they have been a hit with all three boys. They are flexible sticks that connect to fun shaped connectors. My kids build crowns, jewelry and of course, swords (because I have all boys and everything is a sword).
My oldest is obsessed with LEGOS but I’ve tried to find him a few other alternative blocks. Plus Plus blocks have been a fun alternative for creative block play (while working on motor skills). They come in two sizes. The basic size is great for my six year old and the larger size (“duplo” size) is suitable for my twins.
Those are my 15 favorite toys for fine motor skill development. What toys do you love? What did I miss? Tell me in the comments. Please contact me if you have any questions and I would love to have you on my newsletter. I also have a list of great basement toys and sensory tools you might be interested in and tips for surviving the holidays with your special needs child.
