Sensory toys are designed to engage one or more of your child’s senses, including touch, movement, sound, sight, oral input, as well as proprioceptive and vestibular systems that support body awareness and balance. They’re more than just fun; they can help children calm their bodies, regulate their emotions, and focus their minds.
Skip Ahead: Our OT’s List of the 28 Best Sensory Toys
Children with autism, ADHD, developmental delays, or sensory processing differences often benefit from these kinds of toys. But honestly, all children can benefit from sensory play in some form! In this guide, we’re sharing 28 of our favorite sensory toys, handpicked by NAPA paediatric occupational therapists to help your child feel more regulated and grounded.
Some kids are sensory seekers. They crave movement, sound, or pressure and are constantly looking for more input. Others are sensory avoiders. They might be extra sensitive to textures, noise, or even bright lights. However your child responds to the world around them, one thing is certain: their sensory system is working hard behind the scenes.
Sensory regulation is about helping your child find that just-right balance. It’s about giving them the tools they need to feel calm, focused, and ready to play, learn, or connect. Every child experiences the world in their own way. And for many families, sensory toys can be an incredible tool to help support that experience.
Providing your child with intentional toys that support their specific sensory needs can help them manage big feelings and respond to stress in a healthy way, thereby promoting emotional regulation.
You don’t need a closet full of toys. What matters most is finding the ones that work for your child. Start by observing how your child plays. Do they seek movement, love messy textures, or hum to themselves constantly? Or do they avoid certain sensory experiences?
Once you have a sense of what they’re drawn to or what they might benefit from exploring more, you can choose toys that match those needs.
Broken down by type of sensory input
These are great for toddlers and kids who are always moving, crashing, bouncing, or climbing. The proprioceptive system gives you information from your muscles and joints, while your vestibular system gives you information about where your body is in space. These two systems help us process movement. Kids who can’t sit still or always seem to be finding new ways to use your furniture as a jungle gym will greatly benefit from opportunities for more input into their joints and safe opportunities to move in different ways. The toys below are just a few ways to give them the input they’re seeking!
These items can give your child’s proprioceptive and vestibular systems the input they need by bouncing, rolling, or even getting squishes by lying down and having the ball roll over them.
Giving your child a safe place to get high-intensity input into their joints can help reduce any unsafe sensory seeking they may be engaging in.
There are so many ways to use a scooter board to provide your child with opportunities for sensory input. By lying down and using their arms or legs to push themselves forward, they are getting proprioceptive input into their joints and muscles. By spinning or sliding, they can get vestibular or movement input.
Obstacle courses with a balance component are a great way to provide both proprioceptive and vestibular input through movement. Look for toys with different textures for added tactile (touch) input through your child’s feet!
Swings are the ultimate vestibular activity, providing changes in your child’s body position to stimulate their sensory system. In most children, linear swinging (swinging back and forth) can produce a calming effect on their bodies and sensory systems. Rotary swinging (spinning) can be alerting to a child’s sensory system, helping them to wake up and increase their energy.
A sit-and-spin is another great way to get high-intensity rotary (spinning) input. This is great for the child who seeks out a lot of vestibular input.
Yoga games are a great way to work on your child’s proprioceptive and vestibular processing. Having them work on imitating a position from a picture can help them get a better sense of how their body moves and where it is in space.
Weighted objects can help provide your child with extra proprioceptive input into their muscles and joints. This often produces a calming effect, which can support their ability to stay seated for longer periods of time. Weighted balls can be used in place of regular balls (throwing, catching, rolling back and forth, etc.) for added input.
Tunnels are another great way to get your child moving and change their body position. They can be incorporated into obstacle courses or provide a dark and quiet place for your child to take a break. You can have your child push a weighted ball through a tunnel, place the tunnel over pillows or couch cushions (such as the Nugget® Play Couch), or look for a Lycra, compression, or spandex tunnel for increased proprioceptive and tactile input.
These toys are perfect for kids who either crave messy, hands-on play or who need support tolerating different textures. The tactile system is responsible for how we process touch. If you have a child who always seems to be getting messy, pinches, scratches, or can’t get enough splashing in the tub, these toys may help give your child what they’re seeking! On the flip side, if your child has a hard time with messes, exploring foods, or seems distressed by unexpected touch or uncomfortable clothes, these toys can provide a great opportunity to challenge their tactile system and gradually increase their tolerance for different textures and touch.
Kinetic sand is a medium-intensity tactile exploration toy. Help your child build sandcastles, learn how to scoop and dump, or just squeeze and explore to provide input in their hands or feet.
Many fidget toys, including pop tubes, stretchy snakes, stress balls, and pop-its, are great ways to provide tactile stimulation on the go! They allow your child to squeeze, pull, poke, and pinch various textures for mindless exploration that can help give their sensory systems extra input to help them stay focused and calm during class, car rides, family outings, and more.
Bristle blocks are a great way to introduce building and creative play while providing tactile input through the bumpy textures.
We love how versatile sensory bins are, while also tapping into nearly all your child or toddler’s sensory systems! All you need is any container and the sensory materials of your choosing – think dry mediums like rice and pinto beans, or wet/messy textures like water beads and shaving cream. Toss in some materials from the kitchen like utensils and containers to also incorporate fine motor and self-help skills – scooping, pouring, mixing! Did we mention you can make sensory bins “taste-safe” by swapping out water beads and shaving cream for things like cooked spaghetti and oats!?
Tactile tiles are a great way to introduce a variety of textures to your young child or incorporate tactile input into daily activities and therapy exercises. You can include them in obstacle courses, place them under your child’s feet during seated tasks, or place them under hands while working on weight-bearing through arms to encourage open hands.
Slime is a rich sensory tactile exploration activity for your child who always seems to be getting messy. The slime-making kits add another element by encouraging your child to follow instructions, explore a variety of different textures, and see how they come together to form something new!
Thinking putty or discovery putty is another medium-high intensity tactile exploration activity that simultaneously works to strengthen the muscles of your child’s hands. Squeezing, pulling, pinching, and finding objects hidden in the putty are all great ways to explore!
Play-Doh is one of the most popular tactile sensory toys to introduce to your child. It is medium-low intensity input that allows for a lot of open-ended play. It is also a great way to gradually introduce sensory play to your child, as it will not stick to their hands, and there are many different tools they can use to begin exploring the texture if they’re not ready to touch it with their hands.
These toys are helpful for kids who love lights, patterns, or spinning visuals. Toddlers or children who crave visual input often hold their iPad close to their face, sit near the TV, or become fixated on fans or other spinning objects.
The Spin Again Toy provides calming, repetitive visual input as your child watches the gears spin down the tube. They can stack the gears in any order to watch the colors move together in different ways.
Whether you’re trying to build a sensory room, need calming sensory strategies at bedtime, or want ways to add visual interest to your home, light projectors are a simple, low-cost way to add calming visual sensory input to any space.
Let your child’s imagination grow and bring bedtime stories to life with added visual input! These types of toys are great for both visual seekers and those who are sensitive to light, as they can be played with in very low light settings.
Whether premade or homemade, sensory bottles are a simple and effective way to engage your child’s visual system. These calming visual toys also work beautifully as self-regulation tools. Try using one as a visual cue during transitions or when your child needs a moment to reset.
This is a great way to add extra visual input and interest to coloring and writing activities. It can be used for the child who gets overwhelmed by visual input by allowing for coloring and writing in a lower light environment, or help increase attention and engagement for those children who need extra sensory stimulation!
Marble run toys are a really fun way to work on visual tracking, visual attention, and provide added visual input for the child who needs a more dynamic/moving element to their toys. Due to small parts, these toys should always be used with close parent supervision.
Many children seek out sound input, but may not be able to access it on their own. You may hear your child making noises to themselves frequently, always wanting to listen to loud music or TV, or tapping and banging on objects at home. These toys are great for kids who hum, tap, or seek out repetitive sounds.
Tonies® are a great toy to increase your child’s independence in meeting their auditory sensory needs. They can access stories and music just by placing a small figure on the top of their Tonies box.
While musical instrument toys can be overstimulating to some, they provide an accessible way for children with all abilities to access auditory (and often visual) input. This provides opportunities for learning through cause and effect while receiving high-intensity auditory input.
Many children seek out a lot of oral sensory input, which can lead to unsafe mouthing of objects, biting, and thumb sucking. Oral sensory toys and tools can provide safe opportunities to get input into their jaws, gums, and tongue and reduce the need to mouth unsafe objects.
Chewies are a great, safe way for your child to get input into their jaws. There are a variety of textures, strengths, and shapes to increase accessibility and provide the right amount of input that your child needs.
This is a vibrating tool that comes with a variety of different heads to provide high-intensity oral sensory input. It can be placed on your child’s cheek, tongue, or lips, or just allow your child to chew and explore as they want.
Blowing bubbles is more than just fun, it’s a powerful oral motor activity that can help organise and calm busy little bodies. Bubble play also supports motor planning, visual tracking, social interaction, and speech development. If a traditional bubble wand is tricky, try using a bubble blower for easier access. And yes, there are even edible, scented, colored, and glow-in-the-dark versions to make it extra exciting. From physiotherapy to occupational, speech, and feeding therapy, bubbles are a favorite tool across the board. Ask your therapist how they love to use them in sessions!
Every child’s sensory needs are unique, and the right toys can make a big difference in how they play, learn, and feel. Whether your child seeks out movement, craves calming input, or needs support with emotional regulation, sensory toys offer meaningful ways to help them thrive.
Sarah Epstein is a Paediatric Occupational Therapist who’s passionate about empowering children and families through sensory-informed play. She believes every child deserves to feel seen, safe, and supported.
At NAPA, we take a personalised approach to paediatric therapy. Our team of expert therapists provides physical, occupational, speech, and feeding therapy for children of all abilities. With clinics in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, we’re proud to help families around the world. Want help choosing the right therapies for your child? Contact our team to schedule a complimentary discovery session.
