The best fine motor toys for toddlers

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

The Insider Pick:

• Helping a child improve fine motor skills will improve the youngster's prowess at writing, dressing, building, eating, and just about everything else. Fine motor toys make that process fun. The Magna-Tiles Clear Color 100-Piece Set is our top choice because children as young as one enjoy manipulating the colorful tiles, while older children love challenging themselves to build ever larger, more complex structures.

A child's early development of fine motor skills is imperative for their successful progress toward the elementary school years and then on into the rest of his or her life. Competent fine motor control is imperative for everything from the proper use of a pen or pencil to the use of utensils to typing to handling buttons and zippers to ten thousand and one other activities as well.

Unfortunately, far too many contemporary children display a lack of sufficient fine motor skill development. This is the case in part due to how much the nature of play has changed in recent years. The shift from play with building toys, art materials, and other such hands-on manipulative activities to more modern toys with buttons and, in just the past few years, the growth of screen-based play sees children using their hands and in fact their entire bodies less and less. This leads to lower tone in fine motor muscles and less dexterous control.

Even in the classroom, the shift toward integrated technology proves a double-edged sword, offering more opportunity for the enrichment of necessary contemporary skills, but affording less opportunity for fine motor development.

Fortunately, fine motor skills can always be improved. And even more fortunately, one of the best ways parents or other caregivers can help young children with this improvement is by providing kids with toys they will love to play with. No reason to tell them they're in fact developing motor control skills at the same time...

The toddler fine motor toys on this list have been thoroughly tested by experts, vetted by parents, and played with by toddlers. One of the latter happens to live in my house with my wife and me, so we've tested a few of these toys. (Also, he happens to be our son.) These toys are first and foremost engaging and amusing, which is important for their secondary benefit: They challenge the young mind and body, helping build and refine fine motor muscles and strengthen the neural pathways connecting said muscles to the child's brain.

Read on in the slides below to learn why the Magna-Tiles Clear Color 100-Piece Set is our top pick and why your toddler may also love the Learning Resources Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set, the Learning Resources Avalanche Fruit Stand Game, the Skoolzy Jumbo Toddler Lacing and Stringing Beads, and the Play-Doh Sweet Shoppe Frosting Fun Bakery Playset.

The best fine motor toy overall

Why you'll love it: While the Magna-Tiles Clear Color 100-Piece Set certainly helps children improve fine motor skills, it also helps develop math skills, spatial reasoning, and logic.

My son is now four years old, and he has been playing with Magna-Tiles for three years. (I'm sure you can do the math on that one!) While most kids outgrow and/or tire of most toys, his love for his Magna-Tiles has only grown, and the structures he builds have only grown larger and more complex.

What he sees merely as creating parking garages, apartment buildings, houses, and all sorts of other colorful structures, my wife and I also see as improved dexterity and better hand-eye coordination. And also parking garages ... lots of parking garages.

This 100-Piece Magna-Tile set is expensive, but how many other toys can you expect a child to play with for three, four, perhaps even seven or eight years? (Or more — I rather enjoy playing with the things myself.) They are well worth their price due to their longevity and thanks to how deeply children can engage with this elegantly simply toy.

There is no right or wrong way to play with Magna-Tiles. The play is entirely open-ended, freeing the child from the rigidity of so many toys, and of far too many fine motor-oriented toys in particular.

The refinement of dexterity that comes with repeatedly placing narrow tiles edge upon edge is but one of the benefits of this toy, though. Playing with Magna-Tiles can also help a young person develop math skills, spatial reasoning capacity, logic and planning ability, and, for the very young child, they help teach shapes and colors.

The Magna-Tiles Clear Color 100-Piece Set has a superlative 4.9-star average rating on Amazon. One mother speaks for many parents when she calls them "one of the best toys ever," adding that her children's "creativity knows no bounds with these, and they never get tired of them. On top of that, these things are tough ... our original set is still going strong."

A writer with ResearchParent.com calls Magna-Tiles an "indestructible" toy notable" for keeping kids engaged for a surprisingly long amount of time," a feat few toys can match. It is also our top pick for educational toys in our buying guide.

Pros: Help develop multiple skills, suitable for wide age range, durable design

Cons: Quite expensive

Buy the Magna-Tiles Clear Colors 100-Piece Set on Amazon for $120

The best low-cost fine motor toy

Why you'll love it: The Learning Resources Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set costs less than $10, comes with four toys that kids enjoy using, and develops the pincer grasp.

I'm honestly not writing a list exclusively about toys our son loves, OK? We did a lot of research before getting him some of these toys, and now I'm merely applying that same research here. But ... this is yet another toy set we do have in our house.

The Learning Resources Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set allows a child to experiment with all sorts of small objects, from beads to pebbles to pompoms and more, and to siphon up and spread around water, both of which are things most children love to do.

In the process, these tweezers, scoopers, and droppers help a child develop his or her pincer grasp, the hold needed for correct use of a writing implement, utensils, art supplies, and more. Extended use of the implements in the set will also increase hand muscle tone.

With four tools in the set, this one is a good choice for the multi-kid family (assuming they're all relatively young) or for schools, daycare centers, or even occupational therapy centers. The low price also helps out for organizations that need multiple items for a larger number of kids.

With hundreds of reviews in, this set as a commendable 4.4 out of five-star rating. One parent calls them great for the kid who "needs a fun and entertaining way to learn." Another called them "great learning tools" and reported that her daughter mastered cutting using scissors after only a week practicing with these toys.

And again, I can vouch for this one personally: While your youngster is pretending to be a scientist, paleontologist, cook, or whatever else he or she chooses to imagine while using these manipulative tools, those fine motor skills and hand muscles will benefit.

Pros: Great low price, four tools in set, helps develop pincer grasp

Cons: Initially frustrating for some children

Buy the Learning Resources Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set on Amazon for $8.19 (originally $12.99)

The best fine motor skills game

Why you'll love it: Kids playing Educational Insights' Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game won't realize they are working hand muscle tone and dexterity capabilities — They will be too busy having fun gathering acorns for their squirrel.

It's hard to resist the charming little critters in the Educational Insights Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game. Kids will love gathering the different colors of acorns from the "forest" and will be thrilled by the occasional opportunity to swipe an acorn from other players. They will enjoy using the squirrel-shaped tongs to deftly place the acorns in the appropriate spot on their log game cards. And win or lose, it's always exciting to see where the spinner lands, showing which squirrel gets more food, and who has their acorns sneakily nabbed away.

What children will be less cognizant of is that fact that in picking up and placing those acorns, they are working on hand muscle tone and hand-eye coordination. The game also helps cement color matching familiarity and can even promote enhanced strategic thinking and planning. No need to mention all of that to the players, though.

While simple enough in premise for kids as young as three, the game is nonetheless enjoyable enough for the adult destined to play round after round.

The Educational Insights Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game has an impressive 4.7-star average rating on Amazon. One insightful review puts it best, saying: "Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel is a game perfect for preschoolers to develop matching skills, develop fine motor skills, social skills of taking turns, and strategic thinking skills."

A reviewer from Time to Play Magazine called the game "cute" and "fun" and noted how the squirrel tweezers can "really help preschoolers with those fine motor skills."

Pros: Fun for parents and kids or group of kids, promotes strategic thinking, teaches social skills

Cons: Spinner is too flimsy

Buy the Educational Insights' Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game on Amazon for $12.49 (originally $21.99)