Provide a variety of toys and materials that are familiar, as well as toys that challenge your toddler's skills, such as push & pull toys, puzzles, sorting and matching objects.
Play and toys promote exploration and discovery.
Play gives children the chance to discover how things work and to practise new skills repeatedly. Exploring toys that allow children to figure something out on their own, or with a little coaching, builds their logical thinking skills and helps them become persistent problem-solvers. These toys also help children develop spatial relations skills (understanding how things fit together), hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills (using the small muscles in their hands and fingers). Examples of such toys include puzzles, shape-sorters, blocks, nesting blocks or cups, art materials like clay, paint, crayons or play-dough.
Toys with contrasting colours are fascinating to babies and stimulate their developing vision. As they grow, infants can use toys to explore object permanence and cause-and-effect relationships. They also need blocks to help them build motor skills and hand-eye coordination.