Vision-Friendly Gift List
To help pick out the toys that will enhance a child’s visual development, we’re offering up our 105 optometrist-approved children’s toy list – including 8 new additions! We started our vision-friendly gift list because we became increasingly concerned about the number of gifts that could potentially adversely affect a child’s visual development, such as computers and hand-held devices. We want to provide our parents with an alternative. Besides not enhancing vision development, overusing computers, hand-held video devices and gaming systems have been clinically proven to coincide with worsening functional vision, including poor focusing ability, eye-teaming, and nearsightedness. An Alternative to Gaming Systems While we’ve blogged numerous times on the damaging effects of video games, it’s a tough choice for parents. Kids want what kids want – and that tends to be anything with a screen. While you do want to put a smile on your child’s face, you also have to be careful about their health as well. We have two recommendations: 1. If your child has a functional vision problem, be sure to check with your developmental optometrist about the types of gifts you are considering buying. 2. When selecting a toy or activity, be sure to align the gift with their developmental age, rather than their actual age. These gift ideas are not just for kids with functional vision problems. They’re ideal for any child.
Building Toys:
Develop Eye-Hand Coordination and Visualization/Imagination
1. Kreo Sets
2. Mega Bloks\
3. K’NEX
4. Building Blocks
5. Legos/Duplos
6. Lincoln Logs
7. Tinker Toys
8. Erector Set
9. Magformers
(The “intelligent magnetic construction set for brain development,” Magformers include a variety of different magnetic construction sets.)
10. VEX Robotics
(VEX Robotics is a highly versatile construction system that allows students to build whatever they can imagine. It allows students a platform to immerse themselves in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math through the fun of building robots.)
Fine Motor Skill Toys:
Develop Visual-Motor Integration and Fine Motor Skills
1. Origami Sets
2. Rainbow Loom
3. Lite-Brite
4. Pegboard and Pegs
5. Coloring Books and Crayons
6. Dot-to-Dot Activity Books
7. Finger Paints
8. Playdough/Silly Putty/Modeling Clay
9. Chalkboard (24″ x 36″)/Easel
10. Bead Stringing
11. Sewing Cards (Craft)
12. Paint or Color By Numbers
13. Sand Art
14. Stencils
15. Bead Craft Kits
16. Models (car, airplane, ships, etc.)
17. Jacks
Space Perception Toys:
Develop Depth Perception and Eye-Hand Coordination
Within Arm’s Length:
1. Egg and Spoon Race
2. Jumpin’ Monkeys
3. Flippin’ Frogs
4. Ants in the Pants
5. Fishin’ Around
6. Operation
7. Pick-up Sticks
8. KerPlunk
9. Jenga
10. Don’t Break the Ice
11. Marbles
12. Cornhole Bean Bags
A classic! You can’t go wrong with a set of cornhole bean bags. We found these at the Cornholestore.com. (Naturally you’ll need a bean bag toss board to go with it!)
Beyond Arm’s Length:
1. Bowling Zombies
2. Oball (good for kids who have difficulty catching balls)
3. Ball (any kind!)
4. Pitchback
5. Toss Across (tic-tac-toe)
6. Ring Toss
7. Nerf Basketball
8. Dart Games (velcro)
9. Ping Pong
10. Cuponk
11. Elefun
12. Badminton
13. Frisbee
Visual Thinking Toys and Games:
Develop visual perceptual skills including: visualization, visual memory, visual discrimination, pattern recognition and sequencing. These skills are important for academics including mathematics, reading and spelling.
1. Color Code
2. Math Dice, Math Dice Jr
3. Rory’s Story Cubes
4. Amaze
5. Color Blocks and 1″ Cubes
6. Bejeweled Board Game
7. Tetris Bop It
8. Parquetry Blocks
9. Attribute Blocks
10. Make N Break Game
11. Jigsaw Puzzles
12. Card Games (Old Maid, Go Fish, etc.)
13. Dominoes
14. ThinkFun Bug Trails
15. Checkers
16. Chinese Checkers
17. Perplexus
18. Qwirkle
19. Battleship
20. Labyrinth
21. Blokus
22. Connect Four
23. Rush Hour/Rush Hour Jr.
24. Regatta
25. Perfection
26. Tactilo
29. Chicken Cha-Cha-Cha
30. Simon Flash
31. Bop It
32. Hyperdash
33. Blink
34. Set
35. Loopz
36. Racko
37. Sort it Out
38. Tangrams/Tangoes
39. Mancala
40. Q-bitz
41. Rubik’s Cube
42. Uno
UNO is a number and color matching game of cards that’s fun and easy for kids of all ages. UNO can be played with 2 to 10 players and it is appropriate for ages 7 and over. The player who plays first must match a card in their hand to the card on the discard pile. Play continues until one player uses all of their cards. A classic!