Top Ten Gift Ideas for Blind or Low-Vision Preschoolers

Welcome to my gift ideas list for blind or low-vision preschoolers. As the mother of a blind child, I know how difficult it can be to find the best toys that meet the needs of your child and your budget.

Though all toys that I've listed would work for low-vision children, I've paid particular attention to shapes, textures, and purpose more than colors, because it is easy to find colorful toys for preschoolers. I've also included some toys for younger children because some parents of blind children may be dealing with developmental delay.

Remember, you are the best judge of what toys best suit your child's age group. I would like to note that the Lamaze toys for babies and toddlers have particularly bright colors, so if your child has some vision, I'd steer towards them. They also tend to offer tactile sensation and other goodies like music or some type of reward for playing with the toy.

Tactile Bars by Guidecraft

9 textured bars for your child to feel and move around. The toy is kind of plain visually, but seems really to focus on tactile sensations pretty well. I did see that Toys R' Us carries this. Better for blind children, because it's plain. Doesn't stimulate vision.

Bumble Ball

A tried-and-true favorite at my house. My daughter loved her bumble balls. They go through batteries, but the giggles are priceless and they come in bright colors so your child could potentially track or chase it.

Books with sounds, various publishers

We've all seen them, the books with the buttons on the side with sound effects to go along with the story. Most of them tend to be large print with big, colorful pictures, so that's going for them as well.

Braille Books by various publishers

AFB has great books for preschoolers with special attention to raised pictures, braille, and bright colors. Seedlings also has a fabulous selection of books for almost all ages, including board books. They take regular books and convert them to braille, so you can most likely find the titles you're looking for.

Wooden Shape Sorting Cube by Melissa & Doug

Brightly colored blocks of different shapes slide into the cube if placed correctly. Almost a staple of childhood.

Deluxe Band-in-a-Box by Melissa and Doug

10 pieces, various musical instruments with different shapes and sounds. A true winner with the preschool set, which loves to make as much noise as is humanly possible.

Roll-a-Rounds: Touch and Tickle Rounds by Fisher Price

A little on the young side, but they are brightly colored and heavily textured balls that will fit into preschoolers' hands pretty well. Six balls come in a set.

Lamaze: Octotunes by Lamaze

Squeeze the legs, it makes music! Not only is it great for children with low-vision, it's a sure crowd-pleaser around here with my sighted preschooler. She thinks it's hysterical. I love the Lamaze toys because they're so bright and colorful. If your child is low-vision, they would work very well.

Braille Blocks at braillebookstore.com

Alphabet blocks with letters in print and braille on them for your blind or low-vision child. Bright colors, wooden blocks for durability, another household staple...with a twist.

Discovery Ball by LeapFrog

The Discovery Ball comes with a stand so that the child who isn't mobile can always find it, but it comes off the stand for kids who are on the go. Kind of bright and colorful, educational as well.

I'm also going to include a few more selections for children with low vision.

The Lite Brite IlluminArt Easel by Hasbro

Has won several awards including Toy Of The Year 2004. Great for preschoolers with low vision because the pictures are illuminated. Flip it over for a traditional easel.

Move & Crawl Ball by Vtech

Lights and sounds make this ball a real winner with the young crowd. Comes with several games of varying difficulty.

The LittleTouch LeapPad by LeapFrog

More help to a low-vision child than a blind child, the LittleTouch LeapPad is geared toward younger readers just learning their ABCs and basic reading skills.

I hope that you and the blind or low-vision child you're buying for have a fabulous Christmas, and I hope my ideas helped!