9-12 Month Baby Toys: The Only Baby Toys you Need for 9 -12 Months (and the Toys to Avoid) - Babies Development

As an Occupational Therapists parents often ask me what 9 -12 month baby toys I recommend.

This article covers the best toys for a baby 9 -12 months.

These baby must haves are great developmental toys for babies which help develop fine motor, gross motor and communication skills.

In addition to covering the best toys for babies under 1, you will also learn what baby toys you should avoid at this age.

9-12 Month Baby Toys: The Only Baby Toys you Need for 9 -12 Months (and the Toys to Avoid)

When working as a pediatric occupational therapist, I often get asked by parents what toys they should buy.

So in this article, I'm gonna cover the toys that you should be getting for your baby when they're nine to 12 months of age, 'cause it'll work on their gross motor, fine motor and communication skills.

And I'll also tell you which toys to definitely avoid.

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And remember, there's that free PDF document in the description box below, which covers your baby's developmental milestones that you can be expecting in the first year of life.

So what toys are great at this age? One of the great toys that I recommend is a shape sorter.

So again, you might start with the lid off.

I wouldn't be expecting them to be able to put a shape into the shape sorter until 12 months, and that's generally the circle that we aim for first.

So they're putting that postings or they're dropping the toys into the shape sorter.

The other thing that's really good at this age are ring stackers, and at this age, what you're expecting is that they're pulling off the rings really easily, and by 12 months, they'll start to put the rings on in any order, which is amazing.

At this age, you also wanna start thinking about getting some pop-up toys.

So this is a pop-up toy.

What's great about this is it helps with your baby's development of their pointer.

So they'll be able to, and their pincer grip, 'cause they'll need to grab that and slide it down, or they'll point.

What's really good is that you might, as an, parent go along and open all these up and what your baby will do initially is start to pull the lids down with, using their pointer, so they might use their whole hand, but then you model to them with their pointer and they'll start doing that as well.

At this age, another great toy are toys on a string.

So we're wanting to work on that grip, so this string enables them to do it.

The other thing is it's a really good one, so when your babies walking around or crawling, they'll start to pull the toy on the string, so it's quite motivating for them, but we're wanting, it helps with that development.

So you can get lots of different string, toys on a string.

I would just make sure the string's relatively long, because if it's too short, it's really hard to pull the toy along.

At this age, board books are also a great investment and that's because we're wanting to work on that pointer, so the touch and feel books are really great.

So these ones are quite particularly good.

So you can point with that finger and then they'll also work on their pincer grip by turning the pages, but it's a great way for you to communicate with your baby as well, because you can read the words in the book, or you can point out items in the pages, and then they'll also start pointing out, and maybe mimicking those noises.

Another great toy at this age, are the puzzles with kind of knobs on them.

And that's because it works on that pincer grip so they can pull the puzzle piece out.

Again, you're not expecting them to put the puzzle back in, you're just wanting them to pull it out.

There are some puzzles that are really great at the moment that are out there that actually play music when they remove the puzzle piece, so I just got one from Eldie, but it was quite enjoyable for the, my baby, and he continues to use it now and he's two.

I also really like blocks at this age, so smaller blocks like this are fantastic.

You can often get them in the shape sorters, but at this, 12 months of age, you wanting your baby to be able to put one block on top of the other.

Before then they're going to be dropping into containers and there'll be banging it together.

They're really really quite fun.

Other toys that you might wanna think about are the stacking toys.

At this age, I would just be expecting your baby to kind of knock them over and have lots of fun, that way they might be able to put one block on top of the other, but that's it.

But these will be great in future, when they're getting a bit older and their skills are more developed.

So another great toy you'll be looking at at this age are trolleys and there's two different trolleys out there.

There's the one way it's kind of a wooden trolley where you can put blocks and stuff in the front of it.

I really like those.

That's actually my preferred trolley when using it with a baby, and that simply because you could put a weight in the front of it, so it doesn't kind of roll away on them when they are learning to push the trolley.

The other trolleys, which is the kind of plastic ones that often come with like these musical components on the front.

They're really handy for this musical component because it does work on giving your child that fine motor exposure so it works on that pointing.

You can open doors, you can put your finger in one of the holes and move it around, or you can spin the dial.

It is really engaging for your babies.

The only thing is I find the plastic trolleys really like slippery.

So they're quite lightweight, and they're more likely to kind of slide out from your bub when they're walking with it.

So the wooden trolleys have a tray at the front, which I generally put kind of a rice bag in to weigh it down, is more successful for my bubs, because we've got floor boards, but if you've got carpet, then those plastic ones are great.

So what toys should you avoid at this age? I would recommend avoiding the baby play station.

I know you place your baby in there to have some time where you, they're contained and you know they're safe, but it actually places them at risk of sustaining injuries when they're in the equipment.

And the other thing is it encourages that pointing of the toes if they're not able to kind of have their feet flat on the ground when they're standing in the stations, which isn't really great for their calf development or any kind of muscle development, particularly their core, because it's not working on their core strength.

The other toy that I would avoid at this age is the baby walkers.

So they're being linked with increased risk of sustaining injuries if they're accidentally left or like fall down a flight of stairs or they get access to things that they normally wouldn't have, and also developmental delays, because if they're placed in that, they're not working on those skills that are required for walking or standing.

So those are the toys that I would avoid at this age.