Each year Autism Live curates a list of top toys and gifts in a wide range of categories and developmental levels to help you find the perfect gift to delight the children, teens and adults in your life who are on the Autism Spectrum. This year we have chosen toys in various price ranges to help you make the perfect holiday selection. We hope there is something to delight everyone on your list!
Best Educational Toy Winner
Math Wizards and the Secrets of the Dragons
Osmo®
Description
Master measurement with Math Wizard! Learn measurement at your own pace in a world filled with rare dragons. Explore the Dragon Reserve to complete your Dragon Guidebook. Measure and care for your dragons and watch them grow! Part of the Osmo Math Series covering 1st & 2nd grade math curriculum.
Autism Live Says:
Osmo has taken math concepts and made them fun! This is a real game changer. This is what we all hoped for, a game environment that teaches real life skills to young learners. Bravo Osmo!
Best Sensory Toy Winner
Fidget Toy Pack
Special Supplies
Description
This exciting fidget toy bundle for kids comes with 30 individual toys including stretchy strings, marble fidgets, DNA balls, mini and large tubes, little squishy pets, fidget tracks, and more. Kid-friendly sensory fidget toys can help young toddlers and teens reduce stress or anxiety, relieve overwhelming emotions, and find more mental clarity and emotional stability at school, home, or on the go.
Autism Live Says:
This is a wonderful array of fidget toys. If you aren’t sure what fidget toy is right for you or the child in your life, this is a great gift. Play with all of them to see what satisfies your/their need to fidget.
Best Card/Board Game Winner
Keys to the Capitals®
Golden Bell Studios
Description
Exciting board game fun for family and friends while learning state capitals, cooperation, and fun facts about states! This game is easy to play and comes with simple instructions.
Autism Live Says:
We love this board game for what it teaches and how it teaches. We also love it because it was the created by Tony Tinervia, a self-advocate on the spectrum. It was Tony’s lifelong passion to create this game, which he accomplished at the age of 62! Go Tony!
Best Puzzle Winner
Moon Spinner
Think Fun®
Description
Moon Spinner is a stunning lunar-themed brainteaser. Six multi-colored circles are ingeniously connected to form crescent moon-shaped patterns. Each circle can be rotated to reposition different sections of the puzzle. Like many classic brainteasers, your goal is to scramble the various colored sections, and then figure out how to rotate them back to their starting positions. Moon Spinner is truly revolutionary in how the circles interact with each other. This unique, addictive challenge will leave puzzle enthusiasts over the moon!
Autism Live Says:
This puzzle is a perfect educational toy. For learners who are stronger with puzzle skills it will help them learn the alphabet and for those who are good at the alphabet it will help with puzzle skills. We also love the construction and durability of Melissa & Doug toys!
Best Motor Play Award
Obstacle Course in a Box
Endless Games
Description
Like having Gym class at home, the Obstacle Course in a Box is full of fun physical challenges designed to keep kids active, fit and healthy! Race the clock, race your friends, race for fun!
Autism Live Says:
If the last year taught us anything, it’s that our kids need to be moving to help with self-regulation. Getting them to move is easier when we make it FUN! This game set is guaranteed to get them off their screens and moving. Use it in your living room, your backyard or a nearby park. Let the kids create the course and then enjoy the fun that will unfold!!
Best Book Winner
Balloons
By Rainbow Mosho
Description
Written and Illustrated by a 13-year-old girl on the spectrum, Balloons is a book about obsessive compulsive behavior. This poignant insider view is meant to encourage and inspire other children on the spectrum to accept and understand themselves and their challenges.
Autism Live Says:
We love everything about this book. The illustrations are beautiful and the subject matter is so important. We especially love starting a conversation with our kids about OCD in a loving way, lead by one of their PEERS!
Best Oldie but Goody Winner
Super Moon in My Room®
Uncle Milton Games
Description
What’s different about the moon tonight? It’s inside your room! Authentically detailed, Moon In My Room hangs on your wall and shines moonlight just like the real moon. Twelve different phase settings let you match what the real moon looks like outside tonight!
Autism Live Says:
We love so many things about The Super Moon in My Room! It’s great décor! It’s a great nightlight with a remote! We also love how realistic it is and the way you can set the phase of the moon yourself while learning all about the moon phases.
Therapist Recommendation Winner
Balloon Cars
KiwiCo
Description
Build and customize two balloon cars and get ready to roll with your own at-home race day! Add racing stripes and patterns to your cars with a hand-powered airbrush tool and stencils. Build out your cars and then, experiment and tinker with the wheels and balloon to see how fast they can go. Everything needed, from materials to illustrated directions, is included, along with explore!, a bonus play & learn magazine with additional experiments, activities, and recipes.
Autism Live Says:
Therapists love this KiwiCo project for so many reasons. First there is a build phase and depending on the skill of the builder, they can either build both cars or be engaged in parallel play- building one car while a friend or teacher builds the other! Then there is the play phase which allows for tons more learning opportunities. Work on cause and effect, or taking turns; the options are endless. The best? It’s all fun!
Parent Recommendation Winner
Mel Kids
Mel Science
Description
Explore how the world works with eco-friendly construction models and AR lessons. Choose the monthly subscription that is right for you and then enjoy each kit as it brings fun science projects to your door filled with educational lessons to ignite your child’s passion.
Autism Live Says:
Parents love these amazing kits and the way they arrive at the door on a consistent schedule. Some like to keep the kits as an activity for those days when you need something special, others use it as a reward incentive. Kids love the very inventive kits and all the activities that come with. We love the fun videos demonstrating how to use the kits!
Top Toy Winner
Ultra Dash
Playmonster®
Description
Move fast when the colors flash! Set out the targets to design your own course however you want! Use the tagger to choose from 3 game modes: beat the clock, target tally and relay race! Whatever color your tagger flashes, race to that color target and “tag” it; tagger detects targets and scores on accuracy! Game play cues are all visuals and sounds – no language barriers.
Autism Live Says:
We love the way Ultra Dash gets kids up and moving. They can play solo competition or work as a team! This game will have everyone laughing and moving while developing critical thinking, spatial memory and problem solving skills!
Boredom Buster Award
Craft-tastic® Surprise Balls Kit
Ann Williams
Description
Bring some cheerful fun to your friends with charms, notes and little gifts wrapped in these cute surprise balls you make and design yourself! This fun new kit includes everything you need to create 5 surprise balls. The surprises to go inside are included. It creates smiles all around!
Autism Live Says:
Everyone loves surprise balls but now your child can make them themselves! This is amazing craft fun but also teaches fine motor skills, planning, cause and effect and perspective taking! We love that!
Best Art/Craft Winner
Craft-tastic® Artist Box
Ann Williams
Description
How do you challenge children to listen to their inner artist? You give them a variety of materials and then you ask them to do something original. The 7 fun challenges inside this kit will inspire kids to use their imagination, think for themselves and solve problems creatively. Will they be the next Monet, Warhol or O’Keefe? There’s no telling what their creative side will come up with!
Autism Live Says:
We love that this kit comes with tons of fun supplies AND guided activities to help get a young artist started. Doing an art project with your child is a great way to connect and foster self-esteem, this kit makes it easy and fun!
Best STEM Toy Winner
Lux Blox Fidget Flexers
Lux
Description
Experience the world of Lux through the patented revolutionary snapping hinge technology. Users are able to build structures which curve, bend, move, and fold! Modeled after nature at the molecular level, Lux connects not through sticking or stacking like other building sets, but through linking pieces together. Each durable building block piece connects on all 4 sides allowing for more flexible builds to create toys where any part can move. The amazing motion and satisfying “click” sound keep kids focused and enabled to flex their minds. Freely construct the fidget flexers or add on additional pieces to make your build even bigger!
Autism Live Says:
We love Lux Blox and the way it encourages minds to build, plan, solve and create! These new Fidget Flexers are also a perfect size kit to start creating. We love watching kids create with these unique building blocks; no two creations are alike, but they are all super cool.
Best Speech Builder Winner
Gib Gab
Fat Brain Toys®
Description
Can you gib faster than they can gab? Pick a category from one of the cards and then press the center button to switch it on. The lights on the game board light up, half yours, half theirs.
Quick! Say a word that matches the category and then press your button. When you do, your lights begin to move toward your opponent. Now they’ve got to think fast, say a word, and press their button to get their lights moving back toward you! You can set the lights to move either 2 seconds per light, 1 and 1/2 seconds per light, or if you’re really feeling ambitious, just one second per light.
Do you have the knowledge and memory skills to keep your opponent’s lights from ever reaching your end of the game board?
Autism Live Says:
How much do we love Fat Brain Toys for making a speech toy that is fun?!? Shhhh! No one needs to know this is a speech toy! It can be our little secret! But it is! Part of growing speech is learning to categorize, using memory and recalling things. Gib Gab makes it fun!
Best Social Skills Builder Winner
Rainbows & Storms
Griddly Games
Description
Create-Your-Own Board Game Kit with this Award-winning STEM game. Create and play with others or work together to build a game as you go! Children have the opportunity to place over 300 adhesive shapes and colors on their board to envision their own rules, chance cards, and ultimate strategy for success.
Autism Live Says:
We love the idea of creating your own game and having the ability to put it into practice almost immediately with this clever kit. Don’t we all know a game enthusiast who deserves the opportunity to create the game of their dreams, or a kid who would really benefit from having the ability to set their own rules? Now they can!
Employment Empowerment Award
Exact Change
Discovery Toys®
Description
Teach children to count money with a fun game the entire family can enjoy! Exact Change combines an excellent teaching lesson with fun, fast paced action that the entire family will love. The goal is to play all of your cards first. You can discard cards by matching the color of the last card played, by matching the currency value (e.g. play a penny on a penny), or by making EXACT CHANGE. Making exact change allows you to discard multiple cards that add up to the value of the last card played. For example, if the last card played shows a quarter, you can make exact change by playing two dimes and a nickel- allowing you to discard three cards in one play! Exact Change is a favorite of teachers.
Autism Live Says:
This is a great game for teaching about money and counting back change. All of our kids need these skills for life and to be ready for work. Why make it boring? Exact Change makes it fun for the whole family!
We at AUTISM Live
wish you the
Happiest of Holidays!
After all of your shopping is done, if you find that you have more to give, please join us in making a donation of any size to Autism Care Today (ACT). This wonderful organization gives grants to families for things like iPads, insurance co-pays, sensory equipment, GPS devices and more. Your donation could make another family’s holiday wishes come true.