Toy Paths by Age

Age tells you less about a child than it seems to. Two four-year-olds can be a year apart developmentally, and a toy that delights one will sit untouched for the other. What age does give you is a rough sequence: the order in which most children pick up grasping, stacking, pretending, rule-following and abstract reasoning.
Each guide in this section takes one age and describes what is usually emerging, what is often still fragile, and which toy categories tend to fit that moment. The recommendations are deliberately broad — a type of material rather than a specific product — because the match between child and toy matters more than the label on the box.
If your child is between the obvious milestones, read the guide for the age below and the one above; the gap between them is usually where the real answer sits. Start with the six-year-old path or the five-year-old blueprint.