Could anyone help me with this challenge?

[Lilicat]

I was wondering if anyone would consider helping me with a challenge? Aside from his Leappad games I have finished buying for my older son. After celebrating this for a little while I decided to have a think about what to get him for his birthday. It isn't urgent (he isn't four till March) however he is very hard to buy for and I prefer to have a draft list in place.

I came up with a few things but they all seem to be things he would need an adult to help him with like Playmobil, he loves the tiny detailed pieces but as he can't be trusted not to put it in his mouth and he has a baby brother so I can't let him scatter it any where he wants so he needs a grown up to do it with. For that reason I am looking to balance his list with some toys he can enjoy all the time whether he has help or not.

He will be four on his birthday, he is autistic, has a severe speech and language delay and is development is delayed by approximately a year so although he would be turned four his development would be more like a child who had just turned three possibly a bit younger.

The criteria:

• He doesn’t do imaginative toys, he can’t make up games in his head or act out scenarios with toys. His main form of play is sorting through his toys and organising them his own way.
• He has only a very limited interest in cars and vehicles. He likes helicopters, rockets, aeroplanes and more recently buses (as long as no one expects him to get on one!). They aren’t a big interest though; his only real game is to put cars down slopes.
• He doesn’t do building things or any type of construction toy.
• He has a very limited interest in cuddly toys and would mostly ignore them.
• He is funny about new textures, so he would reject a toy that feels unusual to him.
• He can’t follow instructions that electronic toys give him, so if it said ‘next touch the red triangle’ he wouldn’t understand to do that.
• He doesn’t watch films and his attachments to TV programmes change constantly so we avoid character toys.
  
  
• He loves toy animals, the smaller and more detailed the animal toy the better.
• He loves toy sea life, like the animals the smaller the better.
• He loves small figures generally, we got him the Busy Books and despite having no interest in the characters he loved the tiny little figures. I really need something that is smaller and more detailed than Happyland/Little People but bigger than Playmobil.
• He loves numbers, shapes and letters; he is delighted with number and letter toys. Anything numbers or letters on really. The only thing I try to avoid on that is jigsaws as he just scatters the pieces, however if I run out of ideas I will get him a number/letter/shapes jigsaw.
• He got interested in spelling due to an iPad game and that is his new big thing, so if I could find him a spelling toy that he could understand it would be good.
  I have this on his list:
  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Melissa-Do...982307&sr=1-1&keywords=melissa+and+doug+spell
  He would need help though due to the size of the letters.
• He likes toy food but it has to be in a limited amount, he used to have loads and just scattered it. Now he has a more limited amount of ultra realistic toy food and he is happy with that, he likes to carry it around and tell me what it is.
• He loves to draw, not pictures though, he mostly likes to choose colours and see how they come out of the paper. He does occasional paint when he is in the mood but needs an adult to supervise.

If anyone had any suggestions they would be much appreciated.

This is his Christmas list (minus the books) if it is any help:

Leappad plus games
Tag Junior with books and flash cards
ELC wooden garage (nice steep ramps to send his cars down)
Playmobil personal jet
Giant rainmaker
Shark gift set
Leapfrog Count and Scan
Playmobil penguin set
Leapfrog Farm Mash Up

 

[Kiddo]

Maybe a shopping trolley and till? He could put his play food in the trolley and might like the numbers on the till.

 

[Lilicat]

Maybe a shopping trolley and till? He could put his play food in the trolley and might like the numbers on the till.

He has a shopping trolley, mostly so I can pack his food away, he just ignored it. A till is a good idea, thank you. Also my Mum would be delighted, she is a cashier and would say he is copying Granny.

 

[Mamafy]

An easel with magnetic board for numbers/letters/chalk

Asda do great books (thomas/mickey etc) that have 12 figures and a plastic playmat for £5.

There's a great wooden car ramps game. I think it's on netpricedirect.co.uk which he would love. Like a marble run only little wooden cars which are bigger than marbles. Xx

 

[Lilicat]

An easel with magnetic board for numbers/letters/chalk

Asda do great books (thomas/mickey etc) that have 12 figures and a plastic playmat for £5.

There's a great wooden car ramps game. I think it's on netpricedirect.co.uk which he would love. Like a marble run only little wooden cars which are bigger than marbles. Xx

He has an easel and magnetic numbers, he loves both but he would prefer to line up his numbers than stick to them to anything. He was very unimpressed when I stuck a few of them to the fridge, he hid them all from me

We have the books from Asda (the Busy Books) they are brilliant, he doesn't even care what character they are he just wants to the figures. If I spot one he doesn't have already I will pick it up for his birthday.

I will check out the car ramps game, that sounds brilliant, thank you so much. Have you ordered from that site before? Are they reliable?

 

[kmumtobe]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00004WKQD/ref=mp_s_a_1_23?qid=1376985828&sr=1-23&pi=AC_SX110_SY165

Has he got one of these sets? They're fab for sorting and if you look through there's animals, bugs, vehicles, maybe there's fish or something.. Also seen theres scales could work for numbers and sorting together. Only thing not sure on your size or the texture requirements as they're a bit rubbery.

Eta sorting fish! https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000296LPM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1376986017&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165

 

[Lilicat]

Has he got one of these sets? They're fab for sorting and if you look through there's animals, bugs, vehicles, maybe there's fish or something.. Also seen theres scales could work for numbers and sorting together. Only thing not sure on your size or the texture requirements as they're a bit rubbery.

Eta sorting fish! https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000...AC_SX110_SY165

We have sorting fish! Sorry I know the fact I buy a lot of toys doesn't really help the situation It is a great suggestion though because he loves them, he tends to tip them over the floor and pick them up one by one saying 'Look! a fish, I like a fish' to every single one which is hilarious.

I might look in to some of the other sets though if I can cope with 72 of something else scattered all over the floor.

 

[AP]

Alex loves threading, theres some nice Melissa and Doug sets shes taken to quickly. Would he like that? I feel your pain - we have this issue every christmas and birthday

 

[Mamafy]

Yes hun I ordered from them last year Very good quality wooden toys and good delivery xx

 

[Bambi1985]

You say he likes playmobil, have you looked at the Playmobil 123 range? The pieces are slightly chunkier so wouldn't be a problem with the younger one.

There are always loads of the busy books in my local tkmaxx so maybe try there for ones he diesn't have.

 

[Scoobys mummy]

This is the car track,I think


I got it from amazon but it was net price selling it if that makes sense

 

[Lilicat]

Thank you for all the great suggestions I appreciate the help.

I feel better placed with some ideas now. I just had this massive panic that I had nothing to get him for his birthday.

I had the same panic in March about Christmas. I feel much happier with a draft list of ideas.

 

[Nikkinoonoo]

Does he watch tv or films. What about a car dvd player for journeys?

 

[meldmac]

What about the playmobil 123 Noahs ark? They also have an interactive farm and other sets too.

 

[Kate&Lucas]

What about musical instruments? You can get nice sets. They don't require any imagination, just lots of noise

 

[Lilicat]

What about the playmobil 123 Noahs ark? They also have an interactive farm and other sets too.

We have this, he loves it. Well, he loves the animals, he removes them all from the ark and sets them up his own way.

With regard to a TV for the car it is a great idea but it wouldn't get used very often, we only do one really long trip a year, most everything else is very close and William is happy in the car.

Musical instruments are great but he is only enthusiastic for a little while, he would be really excited on the day of his birthday and then ignore them for weeks.

Sorry I forgot to update, the farm visited the Children's centre yesteday and as well as the animals they had some activities set up including a toy farm. William really liked the toy farm, he didn't play with it in an imaginative way but more in his own way. He liked it though and was excited about hiding the toy animals in the different buildings.

So we now have an idea of a main presents for his birthday:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

It means he will have more toy animals as an accessory, he will love more toy animals.

I will be using some of the great ideas on here to fill the rest of his birthday list, thank you so much I love feeling more sorted.