apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Interesting points, I guess. BUT... as a parent of a son with autism, I think that my job is to help him work at being who he is among the regular everyday things. Including toys. Things that make him wince (loud sounds such as dinasours that really roar.) would be modified by us to help him out. He would still play and love that toy. It just wouldn't roar or whatever.

Saying "look for toys that stimulate their senses" is like saying every autistic child needs their senses stimulated. It is very much opposite in our case. I wouldn't say that you need to be concerned so much with the placement on the spectrum when buying toys as much as developmentally or what the child is interested in.

Every kid despite illness or ability is so different that using guidlines to help buy toys still may lead you in the wrong direction. It would be best to ask the parent (if you don't know the child very well) where the child's interests lie. If you don't like doing that then do a gift card.

Today is actually my son's 4th birthday so I can tell you what really works for us. Max is a tiny engineer and loves building toys of all sorts. He also has really advanced perceptual skills (like noticing visual details, patterns, copying designs, memory matching, etc.), something that's pretty common among kids with his diagnosis. Our relatives asked what he would really enjoy and we weren't shy in giving suggestions. He was given a set of Wedgits, a marble run (by Quadrilla), a board game called Sequence, and a straw-and-connector set. He absolutely loves them all and I know they'll be played with every day. He also received some dress-up clothes (pirates!), which will encourage imaginative play (though his grandma got them just because she knows he thinks pirates are neat) and a set of triangular crayons. The crayons really are a therapy toy to help develop a proper writing grasp.
Other ideas for kids who enjoy visual perception activities: Where's Waldo? books, Tangrams, or Blokus.
For gross motor development: a mini trampoline (like Jump Start), a balance board, a Spin Around, or a platform swing.
Sensory toys: play-dough and other art supplies like finger paint and glue, anything with interesting textures (make a sensory box with some corrugated cardboard squares, some bits of faux fur, some shiny crinkly paper, etc.), a sand/water table.
Many kids with autism (even older ones) have trouble with pedals, so the pedal-free bikes like the Skuut, or Prince Lionheart 7600 would be great. I know that some would say that a child who can't pedal needs a regular bike so he can learn, but my son hates his regular tricycle because he knows he can't use it properly and feels self-conscious. A balance bike teaches them the most important skills they need to ride a bike (balance and steering) without the child needing to have great coordination or leg muscle control. They are popular now for all kids, so I think it would actually help my son to feel more normal and to work on the skills he'll eventually need when moving up to a regular bike.

Also... I completely agree with the first poster. I'd say to let the child's personality, instead of their special needs, influence what you give them. The gifts my son was given (other than the triangular crayons!) weren't meant to be therapeutic - they were just meant to be fun. And of course, he shares his love of construction toys and pirates with most 4-year-old boys! Sometimes kids with autism have really specific, deep passions for a particular topic (e.g. astronomy or trains) and I don't see anything wrong with feeding that passion. (Some would disagree with me.) At the same time, it's really important for kids to have something to share with their classmates - having seen a popular movie, playing a popular video game, or knowing some facts about comic book characters (or whatever the latest craze is) can be really important in creating connections with peers.

I don't have an autistic child, but I've worked with a number of kids with Asperger's, and I remember hearing that a lot of kids with Asperger's enjoy the Thomas the Tank Engine toys, books, and ephemera because the facial expressions are so clear and defined. It's easy to determine the emotions of the characters, which is a big deal for kids who struggle to read social cues. I was thinking of this when my son (who, as far as we know, is a typically-developing two-year-old) pointed out one of the trains that had a big smile and yelled "Happy! Happy!"

I learned so much from your comments, thelittlestmonster, zoeintoronto, and secret star. Thank you for sharing. Your detailed responses help me in a practical sense for gift-getting, but also for reminding me the importance of keeping in mind the individuality of each child, autistic or not, rather than relying solely on generalized tips for gift-getting. (i.e. by age group, gender, etc.)

Secret Star, I was thinking the same thing about Thomas the Train. I've also taught many children with Aspberger's. My daughter narrates expressions: Thomas cross now, Thomas happy AGAIN!

Zoe, when your son gets a little older you might want to check out Zome toys. I used it in my advanced math classes and the kids were amazed by them, as was I. It sounds like they'd be right up your son's alley.
http://www.zometool.com/

Thanks ksg!

I agree with the first poster. (I'm a therapist who works with a lot of kids diagnosed on the autism spectrum.)

If a child is very sensory-seeking, s/he might be drawn to toys that are very stimulating, but won't be able to use these purposefully. A lot of kids will sit there and tap rapid-fire on whatever makes a toy produce the sound, rather than using the toy purposefully. A toy that motivates a child like this could be used with a parent, having the parent teach the child that s/he needs to use a sign or a word to request the toy, then is allowed to press the button once. But it wouldn't be a great toy for this child to have for unstructured play, because the family would usually want to discourage the obsessive/self-stimulating sort of play.

For a child who is sensory-avoiding, this sort of toy would get ignored during free play, but could also be useful one-on-one for the parent to activate the toy, then help the child to use a strategy for self-calming in order to tolerate the sound/lights/whatever.

For all kids, with a disability or not, I recommend that 99% of toys for kids don't have batteries. It's much more important for brain development for a child to learn how to stack, sort, etc. than to push a button and make something make a noise. If a truck makes "vroom vroom" noises, then the child doesn't have to make any. If the truck also comes with a realistic car wash, car dealership, roadway, towtruck, etc., the child isn't as likely employ symbolic thinking to drive the car under the bedskirt and say it's a carwash, ask for some qtips to "paint" the car, etc.

The simplest toys are really the most educational, despite any dubious claims by leapcrap or whoever.

(BTW, most of the disability rights movement encourages people-first language, in which the construction would be "child with autism" or "child with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum." The child is a child first, and has a diagnosis after that.)