(Part 3) Best baby musical toys according to redditors
We found 101 Reddit comments discussing the best baby musical toys. We ranked the 52 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
Meijer (Kind of like a Walmart) is where I bought it. You can also get it on Amazon. It's a Fisher Price Brilliant Basics Friendly Flip Phone.
http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Brilliant-Basics-Friendly-Phone/dp/B000LSZVLO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334081874&sr=8-1
To answer the first question, here's what the switches are for. Sorry if it wasn't clear from the album.
TL;DR #1: The switches are for people with disabilities to interact with toys, iOS devices etc. They normally cost a lot of money but I made 4 switches for less than half the price of one commercial ability switch.
Single-switch devices are important for individuals with a wide range of disabilities. They are used for a wide range of accessibility things.
At one extreme end of the spectrum, Stephen Hawking used to use a simple single switch control for this computer when he was able to move his hand. It was actually depicted in a pivotal scene in the Theory of Everything. He describes it in this video. Now I believe he uses eye-gaze tracking.
A switch like this can be plugged into an interface box which can be used to control an iOS or Android device. Or for severely disabled people they can be used to simply answer yes or no audibly.
At the other end of the spectrum is my cousin's daughter. She's less than 2 years old and she has visual impairment as well as other medical issues which involve motor control.
For her, switches like these help her play with toys that she doesn't have the fine motor control to play with.
For example, you can put one toy on her left side connected to one switch, and another on her right side connected to another switch. One toy might be like the light shown in the gif from the album, which speaks when activated, and shines light (she can detect differences in light). On the right you might put a toy like this which makes sound and vibrates. Then you position one switch near her left hand and one switch near her right hand. As she hits the switches she's rewarded with the toys reacting to her (edit: and each toy's reaction is very different), and she learns cause and effect.
Also, importantly, she learns to use the switches which will probably be a part of her life permanently, unfortunately.
TL;DR #2: To answer the other question asked about the toys, yes you need special toys.
As part of this project I converted two toys to be accessible. I didn't take pictures along the way, so I can't post a DIY about them, but I can do better than that.
The stuffed dog in this gif a LeapFrog MyPal Violet, which talks, lights up, and sings songs, depending on which paw you squeeze. I used this amazing hour-long tutorial video to adapt the toy for these type of switches.
Essentially, I spliced into the wiring for the paws and created a breakout box that lets you plug in a switch to each paw if you want. Think of this as a "level 2" to the use described above since the differences between what the switch does is more subtle.
The lantern was even easier. There's a big switch at the top, which has two wires running back to the main control board at the bottom. I cut and soldered a splice into both wires, and ran them to a mono jack from radio shack. Then I drilled a hole in the back of the lantern and mounted the jack back there, et voila, you can plug in an external switch. The whole process took me about 20 minutes because I was already set up from having done the Violet toy.
Another way you can make toys accessible is by using a battery interrupter, which works with simpler toys, or other devices like a fan, radio etc. You switch the connected device on, and then the ability switch controls the on/off. The problem with these is they can't interact with complex toys like the MyPal, and they are very fragile and tend to break.
They already have them.
> Fischer-Price violin
That actually exists. Who knew?
This has been my daughter's favorite toy since she started sitting up at 5 months. She's now almost 10 months and plays with it every day. It's fun to watch her because now she's starting to figure it out instead of just bang on it. Provides hours -- okay minutes -- of entertainment!
https://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Laugh-Learn-Learning-Workbench/dp/B002OSY2SC/ref=sr_1_4_s_it?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1469434931&sr=1-4&keywords=toy+workbench
We have this Little Tikes Pop Tunes Guitar. DO NOT FUCKING GET IT. I'm warning you.
If you've got a real guitar, I'd say go for it with something more realistic, because he's actively watching you use yours correctly, so he'll want to "do it like daddy."
It doesn't have to be pro-quality. Just Amazon up "kid guitar" and buy a cheapie, since he probably WILL break it. But he might just enjoy it, and it'll make him feel like a big boy instead of getting some plastic kid's thing that goes in the corner when he gets bored. It'll be the transition from guitars being toys to him and guitars being honest to god instruments.
I think.
> jack-in-the-box
This is why Toys R Us are going out of business. https://www.amazon.com/Schylling-Silly-Circus-Jack-Box/dp/B000O3MAMO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1521629272&sr=8-3&keywords=jack+in+the+box and only $20.
Books, books, books! My babies love(d) Look, Look! (three year old loves "reading" it to his brother), Black & White, Art Cards, the Babyfaces series (esp Hugs and Kisses and Smile!. The World Snacks series is also great; they're bright, (mostly) well-written, and not irritating. Plus, My toddler still loves them, and we started reading them to him when he was three months. I like Yum Yum Dim Sum and Let's Nosh! best. Indestructables are great for babies who eat books. And the Leslie Patricelli books have been a huge hit around here since toddlerdude was a wee baby.
Don't forget non-board books good for reading, such as a Mother Goose (there are also "chunky" ones that are kid-safe), Beatrix Potter, The Wind in the Willows, or even Shel Silverstein.
Toys for this age that I like are sensory balls, music makers, rattles (we had to buy two of those because wee babydude likes it so much), stackers, links, these bead things (a large, four-sided activity cube is gold for this age through toddler hood--like this), stacking cups, and baby's first blocks. We have veriations on all of these (or the exact one listed), and they are popular with both our three year old and the eight month old.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
My 4 & 5 year old boys love their Leapster Explorer but they are pretty pricey- unless you think they could share one. Another great gift would be the Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys that talk. They are a favorite with my boys and it is nice that they are similar but very different and they can play together with them easily.
http://www.amazon.com/Story-STRING-WOODY-TALKING-FIGURE/dp/B000EDQGLK/ref=dp_cp_ob_t_title_0
My 2yo girl loves any doll or stuffed animal. If ou are going stuffed animal- you can't beat anything JellyCat She also likes her Fisher Price Tea set.
http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Laugh-Learn-Say-Please/dp/B001IEYXAA/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1330920454&sr=1-2
As for the baby- get him this toy- it is the best!
http://www.amazon.com/Skip-Hop-Farmyard-Squeak-Rattle/dp/B00284AHRW/ref=sr_1_3?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1330920601&sr=1-3
Slanted writing desk is important.
Try Crayola's Color Me A Song to build interest in writing activities.
My very young kids with DS loooove to knock over items and clear off any table surface. We build a game into it: build a tower with 1" blocks. We take turns stacking the blocks, gradually increasing from 3 blocks to about 8. Once the child has built the tower they then get to drive a toy car into it and knock it down. Simple activity but it builds attention, executive functioning, motor planning, fine motor development, self-regulation, turn-taking, and cause-effect.
You can also paint with Q tips at an easel to develop proper grasp.
My other favorite fine motor game is Plan Toys Balancing Monkeys. I get a toy alligator and then do the song 5 Little Monkeys Swinging In A Tree (but I up it to 6 monkeys to match the toy).
no.
the ai you speak of is not yet achieved by computers. maybe some day. Currently a computer can not look at a random problem, and try to make sense of it and respond. You can have artificial neural networks using genetic algorithm to mimic life, but even then it's very problem specific. Just trying to come up with a mathematical equation that fits the best for certain input series. But if you try to give a shape of a duck to a AI that only has learned numbers is not gonna give you any meaningful result.
If all you need is input->analyze->output...then this is also AI. Kid pulls the lever as the input, the toy analyzes the situation and detects a cow, toy outputs "The cow says mooooo"...Holy shit, its AI!!!.....not!