Therapists evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of children by looking at how they perform in various skill areas. Therapists think of how to help a child by using the areas that are strengths to engage them in practicing areas that are weak. The main skill areas that a therapist might look at are: gross motor skills (those that involve large movement), fine motor skills (those that involve small movements of the hands), visual perception (perceiving with the eyes), visual motor (eye hand coordination), sensory regulation (acceptance of how things feel, smell, look), cognitive (thinking) as well as social and emotional skills.

The toys chosen within therapy sessions are those that require the child to utilize skills that are in his area of weakness. These are the skills that need to be remediated and these are the skills that he will not typically practice on his own. Like all of us, we do not gravitate towards activities that are hard for us because we do not view them as fun. A child will not naturally engage in play within his area of weakness because it will be hard and will not be considered fun. This begins a vicious cycle. If a skill area is not practiced it will become more of a weakness. We can help our children by engaging them in an activity that is attractive to them because it incorporates an area of strength but also helps develop a skill by requiring the child to use the skills that are weak.

Any toy can then be considered therapeutic or educational if it is accomplishing the goal of getting the child to practice the skills in which he is weak. This web site is setup with the toys separated into categories by the primary skill area that it encourages. Each toy description includes primary and secondary skill areas that it requires as well as important features such as the time it takes to play and how much reading and math is required during play. In “finding the right toy” our hope is to accomplish the mission of “helping parents help their kids through play”.