AN ALTERNATIVE HOLIDAY GIFT LIST THAT’S OPTOMETRIST-APPROVED

By Dr. Kellye Knueppel

This post is sponsored by The Vision Therapy Center, which has offices in Brookfield, Fond du Lac, and Madison, Wisc. 

As most parents know firsthand, children spend a lot of time — often way too much time — staring at digital screens. And while it’s not realistic to prohibit all screen time, there are ways to encourage activities that don’t involve a smartphone, computer, or TV. 

To that end, I’m excited to share a list of more than 100 optometrist-approved children’s games and toys with no screens in sight! 

Having Fun While Engaging Functional Vision Skills

The vision-friendly gift list below includes toys to promote your child’s visual development, especially their functional vision skills.

Functional vision is how our entire visual system — the eyes, the brain, the visual pathways — works together to help us interact with our environment. 

One other note about the list: When choosing a toy or game, be sure to match it with your child’s developmental age, rather than their actual age. To help narrow down your choices, I’ve included the developmental age appropriate for each toy. 

I encourage you to research these gift ideas and maybe even see them in action on YouTube. Okay, on to the list! 

Building Toys

These can help develop eye-hand coordination, visualization, and imagination.

• Building Blocks (Ages 1+)
• Mega Bloks (1+)
• Lincoln Logs (3+)
• Tinker Toys (3+)
• K’NEX (3+)
• Magformers (3+)
• Legos/Duplos (4+)
• Erector Set (8+)
• Roller Coaster Challenge (8+)
• VEX Robotics (available for all developmental ages)

A great overview of VEX Robotics and all it has to offer.

Fine Motor Skill Toys 

The following can help develop visual-motor integration and fine motor skills.

• Finger Paints (1+)
• Kinetic Sand (1+)
• Pegboard and Pegs (3+)
• Coloring Books and Crayons (3+)
• Dot-to-Dot Activity Books (3+)
• Play-Doh/Modeling Clay (3+)
• Chalkboard Easel (3+)
• Large Bead Stringing (3+)
• Lacing Cards (3+)
• Lite-Brite (4+)
• Silly Putty (4+)
• Rainbow Loom (5+)
• Jacks (5+)
• Origami Sets (8+) 

Space Perception Toys

These gifts can help develop depth perception and eye-hand coordination.

Within arm’s length:

• Don’t Break the Ice (3+)
• Ants in the Pants (3+)
• Egg and Spoon Race (4+)
• Fishin’ Around (4+)
• Flippin’ Frogs (5+)
• Pick-up Sticks (5+)
• Marbles (5+)
• KerPlunk (5+)
• Jumpin’ Monkeys (5+)
• Operation (6+)
• Door Pong (7+)
• Jenga (8+)
• Pindaloo (9+)

Beyond arm’s length:

• Elefun (3+)
• Frisbee Rings (3+)
• Dart Games (velcro) (3+)
• Nerf Basketball (4+)
• Box & Balls (5+)
• Frisbee (5+)
• Ring Toss (5+)
• Toss Across (tic-tac-toe) (5+)
• Oball (6+, good for kids who have difficulty catching balls) 
• Ping Pong (6+)
• Badminton (8+)
• Bowling Zombies (8+)
• Cuponk (9+)
• Bean Bag Toss (all ages, just modify distance)

Visual Thinking Toys and Games 

The next set of gifts can help develop perceptual skills like visualization, visual memory, visual discrimination, pattern recognition, and sequencing. These skills are especially important in subjects like mathematics, reading, and spelling.

• Color Blocks and 1” Cubes (1+)
• Wooden form board puzzles (2+)
• Gears!Gears!Gears! (3+)
• Jigsaw puzzles (3+)
• Dominoes (3+)
• Tactilo (3+)
• Old Maid Card Game (3+)
• Bingo (3+)
• Go Fish Card Game (4+)
• Parquetry Blocks (4+)
• Tumble Trax (5+)
• Tangrams/Tangoes (5+)
• Color Code (5+)
• Attribute Blocks (5+)
• Make N Break Jr. (5+)
• Checkers (5+)
• Blokus (5+)
• Rush Hour Jr. (5+)
• Perfection (5+)
• Mathlink Cubes (5+)
• Smart Games IQ Puzzler Pro (6+)
• Guess Who (6+)
• Mancala (6+)
• Chinese Checkers (6+)
• Set (6+)
• Math Dice, Math Dice Jr. (6+)
• Qwirkle (6+)
• Connect Four (6+)
• Battleship (7+)
• UNO (7+)
• Spot It! (7+)

Check out this video for a quick way to understand how Spot It! is played.

• Cat Crimes (8+)
• Bop It (8+)
• Blink (8+)
• Racko (8+)
• Q-bitz (8+)
• Laser Chess (8+)
• Rubik’s Cube (8+)
• Color Cube Sudoku (8+)  
• Kanoodle (8+)
• Rory’s Story Cubes (8+)
• Amaze (8+)
• Shadows in the Forest (8+)
• Bejeweled Board Game (8+)
• Tetris Bop It (8+)
• Labyrinth (8+)
• Connect Four Shots (8+)
• Perplexus (8+)
• Rush Hour (8+)
• Kanoodle (8+)
• Sort It Out (12+)

Memory Games

These can help develop visualization and visual memory.

• Guidecraft Memory Caps (3+)
• Chicken Cha Cha Cha (4+)
• Loopz (7+)
• Hyper Dash (7+)
• Simon (8+)

Balance and Coordination Toys and Games

The following can help develop gross motor skills, laterality, and bilateral coordination.

• Sit and Spin (1.5+)
• Hoppity Hop (3+)
• Foam pogo jumper (3+)
• Walkaroo Stilts (4+)
• Hula hoop (4+)
• Jump Rope (5+)
• Slip ’n Slide (5+)
• Pogo stick (5+)
• Twister (6+)

If You Suspect a Vision Problem …

Helping your child’s visual development with toys and games like the above is important. But if you suspect your child has an actual vision problem, you’ll want to act now. 

A good place to start is by taking The Vision Therapy Center’s free online Vision Quiz. This could be your first step toward diagnosing the problem and getting the help your child needs. 

Click here to take the Vision Quiz.

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About the author: Dr. Kellye Knueppel is an award-winning developmental optometrist specializing in vision-related learning problems, sports vision, and rehabilitative optometry. She is board-certified in vision development as a Fellow of the College of Optometrists. Since opening The Vision Therapy Center in 1995, she has dedicated herself to helping people overcome their visual problems.