The Toy Bug: Educational Toys

Getting appropriate therapy and help for your child with Autism Spectrum Disorders can be very expensive, hard to access or can be complicated by your child's difficulty working with relative strangers outside the home.

So what can you do? One thing you can do is to find toys and games that you can use at home to help teach or reinforce skills that speech and/or occupational therapists would be teaching. This perhaps doesn't replace specialist help, but it can make a significant difference to your child's development.

The Toy Bug

The Toy Bug is an online store started by Jo (whose son you met in our last post). She started this store as a result of her own efforts to locate toys used by her son's therapists, or toys that could keep Lachie's attention and help with his development. Her aim is to ensure that other parents benefit from her experience and efforts.

In short, Jo has done the hard work for you. You just need to pop over to her site to scroll through her range of toys and equipment to find what may best suit your child's needs.


Here are some places you might be most interested in looking at on her site:

Lachie's favourites: I love this as it provides some hints about what a child of his age and characteristics might find most enjoyable.

On Sale: Because we all love a bargain :)

Reward Charts and Planners: Routine and explicit, visual clarification of routines and expectations are so important for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. These charts and planners are a great resource - and could be used in homes and in the classroom.

Books: Because she sells Dave is Brave :)


Donations for Camp Autism:

If you are looking for educational and sensory toys, then there is an added incentive to buy from the Toy Bug. The Toy Bug is donating 10% of its April sales to Camp Autism, an organisation that runs holiday camps for families and children with autism.

(Camp Autism website ... a post about this coming soon)