Therapy Toys for Underdeveloped Areas that Support Learning

This article provides recommendations for therapy toys that support important areas of learning development. Affiliate links are included for your convenience. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

There are many therapy toys that can support a child’s learning development. Each area of development can help a child learn in the following ways:

• Attention and concentration
• Copying notes from the chalkboard
• Writing letters and spacing letters
• Sitting at a desk in school
• Tracking words across the page

These are just a few, but there are so many other areas of development that help kids learn in school. Below are a few therapy ideas to get you started on helping kids develop areas of learning through play. 

Vestibular Toys

If your child’s vestibular system hasn’t developed properly, you may notice your child is constantly fidgeting in their chair and they can’t sit still. You may also notice the child has trouble listening to the teacher and they find it difficult to copy notes from the chalkboard. To help the vestibular system develop, you can try several activities or a few of these tools below.

Balance Toys

You may not think balance is important, but it’s one of the systems most connected to a child’s learning. Kids who often struggle with balance may have trouble with concepts like reading, writing, spelling and math. For better balance and development of a child’s balance system, try a few of the following toys below.

Core Muscle Toys

Core muscle supports a child’s body, especially when they are sitting at their desk in school. Kids who have a weak core often slouch at their desk or lay on their desk to support their body. To strengthen a child’s core muscle, try a few of these toys below.

Proprioception Toys

Proprioception can directly affect our attention, behavior, focus, balance, coordination and sensory integration. Many children need more heavy work activities to develop their proprioceptive sense. Here are a few ideas to try if a child needs more pushing, pulling, jumping and physical activity.

     

Hand-eye Coordination Toys

Developing hand-eye coordination can help your child with their fine motor development, handwriting, tracking (reading development), social communications skills, proprioception, motor planning, and visual perception. To encourage development of hand-eye coordination, here are a few items to try at home. 

      

Fine Motor Toys

There are many children with or without learning challenges who struggle with fine motor development. Fine motor development includes pencil grip, handwriting, and strength in the hands, wrists and fingers. Here are a few tools that can build a child’s fine motor development for stronger writings skills. 

                

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Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning challenges achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs