Piaget’s first cognitive development stage, sensorimotor, is specifically for infants and toddlers who are learning through their senses and surroundings. There is a lot of learning that is happening at this stage through what they see, touch, smell, taste and hear.

It’s important for this to not be hindered while a child of this age is hospitalized. There are so many toys that we have for infants and toddlers and here are a few of my favorites!

I don’t swear by toys often, but this is one, Baby Einstein’s Take-Along Tunes, I SWEAR by.

Listen, if you need to get an infant asleep in a matter of minutes, this toy is your friend. This toy hits a lot of the senses for infants – it lights up different colors on the front, it plays lullaby music and it also creates musical vibrations for the baby to feel if held on the baby’s back. I find this to be most soothing toy for babies around nap time.

I hold the baby on my lap, chest-to-chest, and simply tap the baby’s bottom in rhythm to the music and hold the toy against the baby’s back so that they also feel the vibrations. I’m telling you – this concoction with the toy against their back sending the vibrations and tapping their bottom in a rhythm that follows the music is a lifesaver.

I’ve gotten a child asleep in less than two minutes with this method. Give it a try!

V-Tech’s Touch And Swipe Baby Phone and Fisher-Price’s Laugh & Learn Sis’ Remote are two of our top toys that we give to infants and young toddlers. Unfortunately these are two of our toys that most frequently “walk-away” with patients and families because, let’s face it, it’s a great toy. Rather than parents giving their child their actual iPhones to play with, I prefer these two because it teaches them numbers, letters, songs, and more that are specifically geared for their developmental level. I think we all know that the future generations will be super high-tech but I personally don’t find it necessary to immerse children in those technologies until they are old enough to understand it.

But if you have to give a child of this age a glimpse at some technology, look no further than V-Tech’s Brilliant Baby Laptop. This age is perfect for toys that have buttons that they can learn and master. Reading books is also important at this stage as it exposes babies to more words which will, in turn, help the child with their language development. If you don’t have time to read to your baby often, find books that will read to them such as V-Tech’s Musical Rhymes Book. Plus, it comes with buttons which is always a must for this age group!

What toys do you like for this age group?