Our Favourite Gross Motor Cerebral Palsy Toys
Gross Motor skills formed the first focus of our cerebral palsy therapy for our daughters affected upper limb as she had very little awareness/function of that arm following her stroke. We (in consultation with her therapist) worked to try and encourage awareness and function through various methods, including of course toys, that were suitable for gross motor activities.
The toys that are suitable for your child will depend on lots of variables, but we generally focused on younger/baby toys initially as our daughter was still young (13 months or so), and they were generally bright and fun to help get her attention and entertain her.
Our Experience
Our daughter’s main issue was/is high tone in her arm, so it (now) affects her ability to open and close her fingers and her fine motor skills, as well as her gross motor skills and awareness initially. The initial goal was quite simply to bring awareness to the affected side, and try and encourage movement of any kind, small or large. Reaching, pushing, pulling towards, outwards movement, upwards movement, knocking things down – ANY kind of movements were encouraged. As she was able to sit we’d place the toys on the affected side and demonstrate the movements and also move her arm manually through those movements. We found that any movement, even if just us moving the limb helped. As always, adjust the activity and do ANYTHING to encourage success.
For Example
If you take The Fisher Price Stack & Explore Blocks for example, we used this for:
- Lining them up on the floor in a line and placing items under them
- Lining them up on a slippery surface and encouraging pushing/sliding them
- Stacking them into a tower with her non-affected limb and then using her affected side to knock down the tower
- Building the tower using two hands to hold the blocks, with a hand (or fist on her affected side) on each side
So many different progressions and difficulties with one toy that worked with reach, elbow movement, shoulder movement etc. Once you get your head around looking at other ways a toys can be used outside of it’s standard purpose, it opens up a world of opportunity.
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Fisher-Price Stack & Explore Blocks
These were one of the main toys we used initially as we’d already had them from when she was a baby and they were bright, colourful, fun, and light.
We got alot of use out of them using the activities mentioned above and were able to adapt them as she progressed. Building the tower for her or getting her to build it with her non affected hand and then knock it over with the affected arm to much carry on was a big hit to start. Different placement can work on forward, inward or external movements.
As she gained movement we then lined them up on the floor and would hide a toy or food under some of them and she’d have to reach and pull them back to reveal the item.
We would later use them for fine motor activities and dropping small items into them, matching the colours, grasping the open lip etc.
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Battat Pop Up Pals
The trusty old cause and effect toy with characters popping up or pushed down. This was a good toy once she gained some more precision to encourage initially for her to push down the characters into the closed position. A couple of the triggers to open the characters were a bit tricky, but a couple could be opened with a push.
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Baby Einstein Bendy Ball Rattle
Another simple, fun and colourful toy. This was great initially for a cause and effect toy by knocking/moving it to get it to make the sound from the rattle, then later for holding as it was easy for her to get her fingers in different positions.
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Suction Cup Spinner Toys
A really cute little cause and effect toy that was portable and easy to use. Suction cups meant you can place it on basically any shiny surface, so we’d use these attached to her high chair table, side of the bath, on sliding glass doors to encourage reaching etc.
Fun little toy that can then be used with fine motor skills with the popping sections if you progress that far.
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Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack Stacking Rings
A really simple classic toy with the added benefit of it rocking side to side with the curved base. Initially we’d encourage movement of the arm to try and knock it over, or putting the rings on a table and encouraging her to try and reach or pull/push them. Nice and colourful and light.
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VTech Learn & Spin Aquarium
This wasn’t a hugely versatile toy, BUT it was great for helping to encourage a “push down” function as pushing down the blue button makes the inside of the toy spin. There are also buttons on the front that make different sounds and could be activated fairly easily without fine motor skills.
We also had this toy of a similar concept but it wasn’t as colourful or fun, thought it did have nesting eggs and we could progress to use that for bi-manual activities. Toomies Jurassic World Spin & Hatch Dino Eggs
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Melissa & Doug 10 Piece Cardboard Nesting Stacking Boxes
YES, I know, another stacking/nesting toy. BUT, this one was a progression over the Fisher Price blocks posted above as there was a greater assortment of boxes and sizes, and there were a bit harder to stack as they didn’t have grooves to line up.
Similar concept and uses to the Fisher Price ones, but they were great for incorporating into high kneeling practice also to get her up and reaching on her knees.
Nice and light and made of cardboard, and the usual quality expected from Melissa & Doug toys.
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There really are alot of Gross Motor toy options, it’s all about identifying what goal you’re working on and either encouraging that use through full support of the limb, or encouraging them to engage that limb by correct placement of the toy.
Feel free to suggest a toy if there’s some you’ve found useful too!