Holiday Gifts for Spectrum Kids · Dec 1, 03:15 PM

I spent some time today pulling together a collection of gift ideas for kids on the autistic spectrum. Check it out! There’s a lot of fun stuff there—activity toys, art supplies and kits, blocks and other building toys, puzzles, hiding places, and train sets. I welcome you to leave a comment if you have any suggestions for other items to add to the list, or if you want to reminisce about the toys and games you enjoyed the most when you were young—or that you still enjoy now!

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Comments


  1. You are right on with the Brio stuff. When I was growing up as a kid with AS, I absolutely adored Brio – probably part of the reason I later got into HO scale model railroading.

    Another good idea is Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars – I would play with those on a map printed rug for hours. They are great toys that are fun for all kids. The massive toy car collection I accumulated over the years is still a source of fun for young children who come over to my parents’ house.

    Regards,

    -KJS — KJS    Dec 3, 07:11 PM    #

  2. Thanks so much for the great suggestions. I’ll add some Matchbox and Hot Wheels items to the list this evening!

    When I included the Brio items, I was thinking of a friend of mine who, when he was little, used to spend all day connecting Brio train tracks. According to his mom, “a perfect track wove itself through or around all of the furniture on the first floor, was multi-level, never passed the same place twice and never doubled back on itself, AND (this was hard) used every single piece of track. One leftover track was cheating.�

    He’s a very cool kid. — Kathleen Seidel    Dec 3, 07:29 PM    #

  3. Kathleen, you mean there are people out there who DON’T use every single piece of track?!

    Oh, the horror!

    Seriously, you have a great collection of recommended gift ideas there. And I second the Matchbox and Hot Wheels suggestion; when my kids were younger, they loved to take their toy cars out to the driveway and draw streets and parking lots, etc., with sidewalk chalk. — Bonnie Ventura    Dec 4, 08:37 PM    #