At 18 months old, your child has reached the toddler stage, and as a parent, you’ll want to provide them with toys that aid in their development. While an 18-month-old may still find some fun in baby toys, you will discover that in order to keep your child interested and learning, you must make sure you have toys designed for toddlers.
There are various kinds of toys that are suitable for this age range. The first kind of toy to consider is those that encourage physical activity, like balls, push toys and ride-on toys. Second, toys that promote cognitive growth, such as puzzles and building blocks. Third, toys with sensory features, such as musical toys and play phones. Lastly, toys that encourage imaginative play, like dress-up clothes and play kitchens.
Here are the best toys for your 18-month-old that align with their interests and developmental milestones.
Our Top Picks
- Best Baby Doll Toy For 18-Month-Olds: Manhattan Toy Wee Baby Stella
- Best Montessori Toy For 18-Month-Olds: PEBIRA Stacking Toy
- Best Activity Toy For 18-Month-Olds: Playskool Sit ‘n Spin
- Best Open-Ended Toy For 18-Month-Olds: The Block Set by Lovevery
- Best Stem Toy For 18-Month-Olds: MindSprout Pound a Ball Toy
- Best Fine Motor Skills Toy For 18-Month-Olds: Melissa & Doug Safari Zig-Zag Tower
- Best Outdoor Toy For 18-Month-Olds: Fubbles Bubbles No-Spill Bubble Tumbler
- Best Ride-On Toy For 18-Month-Olds: Radio Flyer Busy Buggy
- Best Sensory Toy For 18-Month-Olds: Excellerations Pop Beads
- Best Bath Toys For 18-Month-Olds: Nuby Floating Purple Octopus
- Best Pretend Kitchen Toy For 18-Month-Olds: Fisher-Price Garden to Kitchen
- Best Musical Toy For 18-Month-Olds: Fisher-Price Classic Xylophone
- Best Developmental Toy For 18-Month-Olds: TOYVENTIVE Wooden Kids Baby Activity Cube
- Best Car Toys For 18-Month-Olds: ALASOU Baby Truck Car Toy
In This Article
HappyBabyHub’s Best Toys For 18-Month-Olds Picks
Manhattan Toy Wee Baby Stella – Best Baby Doll Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- The magnetic pacifier is a thoughtful touch
- Simple and soft
- Huggable
- Machine washes well
- The pacifier is not secured to the doll
With lifelike features, a cuddly body, and a magnetic pacifier, Wee Baby Stella is the perfect first baby doll for 18-month-olds to nurture and care for. This doll is designed with a realistic belly button and a soft, round tummy, making them extra huggable. The dolls’ clothes are also interchangeable, allowing for hours of creative play.
- Recommended Age: 12 months to 6 years
PEBIRA Stacking Toy – Best Montessori Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- Great for kids, keeps them busy
- Easy to use
- Very durable
- Great colors
- The multiple holes are a little challenging for the kids
This wooden sorting and stacking puzzle is perfect for your child’s early development. With 20 blocks in 5 different colors and 5 different geometric designs, it encourages infants to match the blocks to the target or create other combinations, which helps to develop their early form, color, and size differentiating abilities.
This toddler shape puzzle is ideal for helping your child learn form and geometry, develop color perception, and practice hand-eye coordination. You can rest easy knowing that this educational toy is made entirely of non-toxic wood and water-based paint, ensuring that it’s both safe for your child and environmentally friendly.
- Recommended Age: 12 months to 3 years
Playskool Sit ‘n Spin – Best Activity Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- Very entertaining for kids
- Great for indoor or outdoor use
- Provides hours of fun
- Spins fast
- Your child will outgrow them in a few months
This toy is perfect for indoor play, giving your child control over the spinning action with an easy-to-spin design that can go fast or slow. As your child spins and twirls, they’ll develop their balance, coordination, and motor skills – and maybe even tire themselves out for a good nap afterward!
With the Sit ‘n Spin, your child can experience all the twirling excitement you remember from your childhood. The toy spins effortlessly and smoothly, promoting balance and coordination while providing endless fun. Just turn the wheel to start the action, then sit back and watch as your little one has a blast and stays active.
- Recommended Age: 18 months to 6 years
The Block Set by Lovevery – Best Open-Ended Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- The set is high quality and fits inside a wooden box neatly
- Includes a wide variety of blocks and an activity guide
- Has so many different options for play and learning
- Can push/pull the set around if you leave the wheel set up on
- A bit pricey
This is an heirloom-quality toy that is designed to promote play-based learning for children as young as 18 months old. It is created by child development specialists to match every stage of your child’s growth, and it inspires pretend play, improves motor skills, and fosters spatial awareness and problem-solving abilities.
By playing with blocks of different sizes, colors, and shapes, children can develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, while also learning the fundamentals of categorization and understanding the physical characteristics of objects. The modular features of the toy also allow for early physics experiments, such as exploring force, gravity, and cause and effect.
- Recommended Age: 18 months to 4 years
MindSprout Pound a Ball Toy – Best Stem Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- A great toy without the noise of electronics
- Bright colors
- Hours of playtime
- Material is well made
- A bit challenging to hit balls through holes
This hammer ball toy is designed by early childhood specialists to help your child learn color recognition, hand-eye coordination, and motor skills. The toy allows your child to insert the balls into the holes and hammer them, improving their hand-eye coordination.
The toy comes with bright balls that are perfect for little hands, and your child can collect the balls from the bottom and bring them back to the top for endless entertainment. There is also a set of six stacking cups included for additional play opportunities.
- Recommended Age: 12 months to 4 years
Melissa & Doug Safari Zig-Zag Tower – Best Fine Motor Skills Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- Very well made
- Very bright
- Can be played in multiple ways
- Super cute toy
- The pieces roll down very slowly so it can be a little boring for a toddler sometimes
The First Play Safari Zig-Zag Tower is a wooden toy designed for babies and toddlers over 12 months old. The toy has four components that spin down a zigzag track, and your child can match, stack, and roll the smooth, solid wood pieces with friendly safari animal faces.
The tower is easily stored and features bright colors, striking patterns, and imaginative designs that help children develop their abilities while igniting their curiosity and amazement.
- Recommended Age: 12 months to 2 years
Fubbles Bubbles No-Spill Bubble Tumbler – Best Outdoor Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- Mostly no spills
- Easy to refill
- Well-sized for toddler’s hands and easy to hold
- Good toy for the outdoors
- The bubble wand is small and doesn’t produce very many or very big bubbles
With its no-spill design, Fubbles provide endless fun without creating any mess. This is the perfect toy for toddlers and young children who are just starting to enjoy bubbles. Whether you’re indoors or outdoors, at a party or on a beach, the Fubbles No-Spill Bubble Tumbler is the perfect accessory.
With a wand and 4 oz. of bubble solution, all you need to do is pour the solution into the bottom cup and twist it on the top to start playing. The No-Spill Bubble Tumbler is available in several colors, making it an ideal party favor or Easter basket toy.
- Recommended Age: 18 months to 6 years
Radio Flyer Busy Buggy – Best Ride-On Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- Makes a great sound
- The wheels are nice and smooth for indoor play
- Quality
- Very sturdy
- Not great for thick carpets
The Busy Buggy® from Radio Flyer is an interactive toy that encourages creative play and enhances fine and gross motor skills while also functioning as a push walker to help your child develop balance and confidence while learning to walk.
With 17 sensory exercises, including interlocking gears, a clicking spare tire, and a spinning steering wheel, kids will be engaged and learning for hours. The Busy Buggy® also introduces letters and numerals to children through the spinning beads and features storage space under the seat for their favorite toys.
- Recommended Age: 12 months to 3 years
Excellerations Pop Beads – Best Sensory Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- Great for fine motor and counting and color recognition
- colors are exactly as they are shown
- Plastic quality is good
- Makes toddlers use their arm muscles to push together and pull apart
- A bit expensive
Excellerations Fun Pop Linking Beads offer a great way to make learning fun for young children. The set includes 28 colorful plastic beads in different shapes and four vivid colors. These beads are not only fun to play with but also help improve fine motor skills, and eye-hand coordination, and encourage early STEM play.
The beads are conveniently stored in a durable carrying box, making it easy to use them at home, school, or daycare. Sized for toddlers, the 3″ long, easy-to-link beads are made of sturdy plastic and can withstand the excitement of young children.
- Recommended Age: 18 months to 3 years
Nuby Floating Purple Octopus – Best Bath Toys For 18-Month-Olds
- Cute toy, appealing to baby
- No holes in the toy so you don’t have to worry about mold
- The legs are a softer, flexible material – that works well for teething babies to gnaw on
- The material is good which prevents it from stretching
- The rings are very small
With its vibrant colors and entertaining forms, this bath toy is sure to be a bathtime favorite. Not only is the Octopus Hoopla fun to play with but it’s also designed to stimulate your child’s senses with its bright colors and various textures.
The friendly figures on the toy will teach your child how to identify shapes, and the toy is carefully created to prevent mold problems and keep your child healthy during bath time.
- Recommended Age: 18 months to 3 years
Fisher-Price Garden to Kitchen – Best Pretend Kitchen Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- Adorable, simple design
- Provides storage for all the little pieces
- Pretend kitchen and gardening play with a smaller footprint than other toys
- Perfect height for a toddler
- Expensive for the size
The Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Grow-the-Fun Garden to Kitchen toy is a fantastic two-sided interactive playhouse for toddlers to enjoy. It features a play kitchen and a home garden that is both filled with lights, music, and interactive elements to explore. Smart Stages educational materials teach letters, counting, colors, shapes, healthy eating, and more as young gardeners play.
With this toy, your child can “plant,” “pick,” “cook,” and “serve” fresh fake food, making their own delectable farm-to-table dinners. The garden side allows your child to “plant” flowers, sort fruit, and vegetable shapes, turn lights on and off, collect eggs, spin tomatoes, and “stir” honey. Plus, the kitchen side allows your child to “mix” smoothies in the blender, look through a recipe book, “make” a wonderful dinner, and “serve” it.
- Recommended Age: 18 months to 3 years
Fisher-Price Classic Xylophone – Best Musical Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- It’s very well made
- The little mallet is attached to the xylophone
- Great for teaching coordination
- A colorful addition to your toddler’s toys
- The cord could be longer
The Fisher-Price Classic Xylophone pull toy is an excellent tool for fostering early musical creativity. With eight bright keys, mini maestros can easily follow the colors to create a genuine song as their musical abilities grow. The attached mallet ensures that the toy is never lost, while the wheels make it easy for your toddler to pull their musical instruments around as they walk.
Furthermore, playing with the xylophone can help improve gross motor skills, balance, and coordination by gripping the string and moving the toy around, as well as enhancing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination by pressing the keys with the mallet.
- Recommended Age: 18 months to 3 years
TOYVENTIVE Wooden Kids Baby Activity Cube – Best Developmental Toy For 18-Month-Olds
- A lot for the baby to interact with
- Can be broken down to share
- Great for learning
- Very durable
- Its made of wood and a bit hard
This toddler activity play cube comes with bonus stacking cups and a words board book, providing an engaging and interactive way to promote counting and math skills, as well as color, pattern, and shape recognition.
The cube is designed to be played with both as a whole and with its detachable top and bottom parts, which can also be stored inside the cube for easy portability. Made of sturdy wood with water-based non-toxic paint, this toy is a great choice if you are looking for educational toys that will keep your toddler entertained for hours.
- Recommended Age: 12 months to 3 years
ALASOU Baby Truck Car Toy – Best Car Toys For 18-Month-Olds
- Good quality
- The bag unfolds to make a road and then back up to store the cars
- Easy to play with
- The vehicles are the perfect size for little hands
- Small
This set of automobile toys comes with features that ensure their safety and enjoyment. The round edges, vibrant colors, and absence of tiny or sharp pieces make them a safe and engaging option. Plus, friction-powered vehicles require no batteries, allowing your toddler to push them and watch them travel across the room.
They also come nicely wrapped, making them a wonderful gift for toddlers who love trucks. Their brightly colored design is made with high-quality ABS material, ensuring that they are durable and long-lasting, unlike cheap plastic toys.
- Recommended Age: 12 months to 3 years
Related: Best Toy Cars For Toddlers
How To Choose The Best Toys For 18-Month-Olds?
- Physical Activity: Look for playthings that inspire your kid to exercise her entire body, such as dancing music or a ball she can kick, roll, or chase (1).
- Safety: When choosing toys, always think about how the toy will be used and how much assistance or supervision a child will require to play with it safely. Toys that need strong magnets and button batteries should be avoided by parents and caregivers (2). Small toys or those that can be entirely inserted into a child’s mouth pose a choking risk and should be kept out of reach (3).
- Learning: Children may learn about colors and recognize them with the help of toys with vivid hues. Children can also learn the names of many animals when they play with toys that are fashioned like them. Through the development of their hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and gross motor abilities, toys provide the groundwork for their educational endeavors.
- Milestones: When a kid reaches certain developmental milestones, it becomes easier to determine if they are on the proper path. Social, emotional, language-based, cognitive, and physical abilities are all examples of milestones (4).
What Kind Of Toys Should An 18-Month-Old Play With?
There are several toys that are suitable for 18-month-olds. These include toys that are age-appropriate and that can support the development of fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and cognitive abilities. Soft blocks, shape sorters, pull-along toys, and nesting toys are a few examples of these kinds of toys (5). Balls, balloons, and rudimentary musical instruments are also fun for 18-month-olds to play with. As this age group is still learning about Cause and Effect and may put objects in their mouths, it is crucial to select toys that are safe for them.
Which Toy Is The Most Developmentally Appropriate For An 18 To 24-month-old Child?
The best toys for babies between the ages of 18 and 24 months are ones that inspire imaginative play and creative expression. Balls, building blocks, and easy puzzles are all excellent options. At this age, dolls and toy automobiles are also popular options. Toys with fascinating sounds and vibrant colors are best for grabbing your child’s attention.
What Words Should An 18-Month-Old Baby Be Saying?
Most babies who are 18 months old will utter 20 words or fewer. Some infants may, however, speak more or fewer words than this because every kid grows at their own rate. Babies who are 18 months old frequently utter “mama,” “dada,” “bye-bye,” and “please” among their first words (6). Additionally, they can be beginning to say simple words like “more milk” or “all gone.” Babies can often understand basic requests like “Please pick up your toy” by the age of 18 months.
Why Does My 18-Month-Old Not Play With Toys?
At 18 months old, many babies lose interest in playing with toys as much as they did when they were younger. Instead, they start to show more interest in interacting with others and their environment. They may lack patience when playing with toys that don’t offer an instant reward. To make playing with toys more exciting for them, try giving them toys that they can use in different ways. You can also play with them to demonstrate how much fun it can be.
