Short clinic-oriented video transcript in which Mary Kostka (Ohana OT, Wenatchee, WA) tours developmental toys available at Target and explains how each supports motor skills and sensory needs. She highlights specific products (Magna Tiles, Magnestix, marble run/Marbleworks, Snap Circuits/Snap Electronics, Ansi Pants poles/connectors, tumbling mat, putty, fidgets, sensory-friendly clothing), gives usage tips (fine/gross motor, sensory input, grading activities), notes durability and price sensitivity for some items, and offers clinic examples and activities.
Hi, I'm Mary Kosko with Ohana OT and we are here in Wenatchee, Washington, and we are very fortunately located right next to Target. And I have been so excited about all the new developmental toys they're carrying. And so today I am going to show you some of our favorites that we love here at the clinic. Magna Tiles are one of my favorites. They are these little clear blocks that have magnets so that they can very easily attach. So if your child's kind of awkward or clumsy, they don't have really good sensation in their hands, they can be really successful. And the other thing I really like is with the magnetic force, they can feel what they're doing a little bit more, and the possibilities are unlimited. And. And they come in lots of different sizes, and they are a little on the spendy side. But the nice thing about them is that they will last for years and years and years. Unlimited possibilities with that. And here's another toy that I really like also really great for fine motor skills, the Magnestix. And so these are little magnetic balls and magnetic sticks. And again, you can assemble them in any way possible. And because of the magnetic feature, they give a lot of input to the muscles and joints, to the fingers, so that the kids are able to really feel what they're doing that have some sensory impairment and have a lot of success with it. Okay. The classic marble run. It's also, I've seen it called Marbleworks. Basically, you put all these different pieces together and the marble can go down again. Infinite combinations. Great for motor planning, fine motor skills. And it really occupies kids for a long time. It's really great for visual tracking of the eyes because they can watch the marble go around. Love this toy. Okay. Absolutely love this toy. We play with this every day in the clinic. The Snap circuits. You can also see it as Snap Electronics. There's different companies that make it. Basically, you. You snap these pieces into place and you can do all kinds of different electronic projects. So this, this toy I've been able to grade from kids that have very, very limited abilities to very, very high. And that's one of the things I love about it. So say they were very limited. I could just take their finger and help them push down to help it. To feel it click. And it's a snap. So they feel it just kind of make that little click when it goes in all the way up to my super high functioning kids that want to build something really complex. It's great for building up finger strength. And it also gives a lot of sensory feedback because of the snapping things together. So they can do all kinds of things. They can build a fan, a light, a Star wars sounding alarm kind of thing. These kits have different sizes, so like Legos, you can build up and up and up to different levels. We've even made a lie detector test out of ours with one of the more complex projects, which was really fun. Anyway, love this toy. It's really great for all ability levels. Here's another toy I just love. It's Ansi Pants. It's poles and connector set so you can build an unlimited amount of things. And the kids, it's pretty sturdy when you build them, they have different. I'm going to turn it over so you can see the different connectors, different size poles and all kinds of different connectors so you can build. Here's an example of some of the different things you can build. They also sell these, like little covers which you don't have to have unnecessarily. So what I really like doing with this is I like building little things that they can work on a lot of their agility with. So they can squat, they can go under, they can climb over, they can work on their one leg balance, so it works on gross and fine motor at the same time. So it takes a little bit of strength to put the pieces together and to pull them apart, which engages the core too. And like I said, you can build the projects in here, but you can build anything. And so we build a lot of obstacle type things for the kids to play with. All right. Haven't tried this one, but pretty excited about it. This looks really fun for balance and strength and agility. And anytime they add the music to the toys, the kids really enjoy that. So gonna have to buy this one. Try it out. I love that they have a reasonably priced little tumbling mat. This is only 39. Great for doing all kinds of things. Somersaults and handstands and anything. The kids want to do yoga, but it's. They really like having a soft padding when they're trying different things. So I love that. And they have amazing putty. Putty is great for all kinds of things. So I'm just going to talk about how we like to use putty in the clinic. So of course it can work on hand strengthening, especially developing a tip pinch for being able to hold a pencil. Well, I like to cut, press the putty down into the lid and have the kids write with pencil, write their words in the putty. That's a really great thing. You can hide things in the putty like beads or pennies and have them go on a treasure hunt. And that's really motivating to really use their fingers to pull it apart. And it's just really fun to play with. So get a lot of hours of play out of putting. I swear Target must have an OT on stuff somewhere in their buying for their buying because they are having so many cool sensory tools, sensory friendly products. One thing I'm really excited about is they just have a whole big selection of fidgets. And so fidgets are really great for helping you stay calm and stay focused for kids and adults. And so here's just an example of some of the fidgets that they have that are really cool. More putty also. So this one, you can swirl the things around the classic spinner fidget. Kush balls are always great. And there's a whole selection of these different cube ones that have, like, different little things that you can do with them. So I love fidgets. Target's been really great about having a line of clothing that's really great for sensory sensitive kids. So lots of tagless clothing and just shirts that have fun things to play with, like these sequins. And there's also ones with soft fur. It's really, really great for sensory kids.
