The 15 Best Sensory Toys for Autism from Amazon (2025)

Buying sensory toys for autism can be tricky—you want a toy that will keep your child busy, entertained and happy, and one that will meet their safety, sensory, and developmental needs. So how do you know what toys are ideal for children with autism? What factors should you consider when choosing a toy for your own child? Our product specialists, occupational therapists, and parenting experts often receive calls from parents asking for toys and gift shopping advice and guidance.

So here we’ve compiled this comprehensive guide to help you select the best sensory toys and gift ideas for children, teenagers, and adults with autism.

What are Sensory Toys and How Do They Help?

Sensory toys are unique tools made to stimulate one’s senses, assisting in learning and the development of individuals, particularly those with autism and sensory processing difficulties.

Sensory toys help provide a personalized sensory experience to improve sensory processing through a wide range of sensory inputs, build gross and fine motor skills through toy manipulation, promote calmness in children experiencing sensory overload, and improve concentration and focus in educational and therapeutic settings.

Autism Sensory Toys for Adults

It’s never too late to play with sensory toys! In most cases, when it comes to autism and sensory processing needs, people only talk about children, but adults with autism also stim and have their own sensory needs, and adults with sensory processing difficulties and autism can also benefit from playing with autism sensory toys for adults. These sensory toys for autistic adults can be personalized to meet individual needs and to provide the required level of calming effect.

The Best Sensory Toys and Gifts For Autism

Many children, teens, and adults with autism have fun with sensory toys or products that help them self-regulate, provide a pleasurable experience, or are a fun distraction from sensory integration difficulties.

Some popular sensory gifts or products include weighted blankets, swings, or toys with pleasant textures that light up or play interesting melodies. Read on to learn more about how to pick the best toys for autistic people available at Amazon plus our favorites, according to parents, toy experts, and experienced therapists.

1. Hand2mind Sensory Fidget Tubes

The hand2mind Sensory Fidget Tubes boasts four tubes that are perfect for users of all ages and helps keep them entertained for long—observing the toys as each tube glitters from end to end keeps children and even adults with autism focused and entertained.

This gift item also comes with one reverse hourglass, a fidget tube, and a gravity spinner, so you can choose the option that will allow your child to self-soothe and have fun for hours. The glitters and colors in these awesome toys will help provide visual and tactile stimulation that provides a calm experience and serves as a pleasant distraction.

Pros

• Ideal for keeping children and adults busy and entertained
• Features four tubes

Cons

• Quite small

2. Playskool Sit ‘n Spin Spinning Toy

The Playskool Sit ‘n Spin toy allows children to enjoy the fun they would otherwise have at the park safely at home without much hassle. Easy to have fun with and with no complicated assembly required, both children and adults will enjoy this interesting way of playing in a safe, calming, and controlled environment.

Users enjoy full control of the toys so they can choose to go slow or fast either by pulling or pushing. It’s an excellent way to ease stress and anxiety while developing motor skills, building coordination and enjoying the experience at the same time.

Pros

• Easy to set up and use
• Builds coordination/motor skills in a safe and calming setting

Cons

• Can be quite small for older children

3. Fat Brain Toys Dimpl Digits

This sensory product takes fidgets to a whole new level thanks to the inclusion of all the rainbow colors. Children can pop, push, and have fun with this multi-purpose toy. It boasts premier-quality squishy bubbles that helps children identify different colors and numbers while developing their fine motor skills.
The presence of number words, Spanish words, and integrated braille and numerals will allow your child to learn in different ways and the tactile repetitive movement of the pop can enhance self-regulation, allowing your child to learn to stay calm and focused.

Pros

• Perfect for bilingual learning
• Includes embossed numerals, braille, and number words

Cons

• A bit pricey

4. Fat Brain Toys Dimpl Pops Deluxe

This sensory toy is an excellent way to offer relief to children sensitive to sound, light, touch and particular textures and can benefit kids with autism by enabling them to engage with, get and provide feedback, and regulate their senses in a coordinated manner.

The Dimpl Pops board provides up to 25 bubbles in a variety of colors and sizes, offers tactile stimulation, and helps kids stay calm and collected.

Pros

• Includes 25 colored bubbles that come in several sizes
• Calming
• Tactile stimulation

Cons

• A bit big for smaller kids

5. Made By Me Seek + Find Ocean Adventure Sensory Bin

The bright Made by Me Seek Sensory Bin is another highly recommended sensory toy for children aged 3 and above, as it allows them to experience a wide range of textures, including play sand and pebbles and water beads as well as molds, rollers, and shovels for creating various shapes. For some beach-style fun, add some water to the sensory bin.

Pros

• Easy to set up and clean
• Provides different ways to have fun

Cons

• Some users say the lid doesn’t close properly

6. Piano Tunes Lights and Music Switch

Children enjoy making and playing music in a safe and secure setting and this user-friendly piano boasts bright lights, beautiful buttons, and a simple, 8-note keyboard for playing familiar animal sounds and melodies.
We highly recommend this cheerful autism sensory toy for small children because it encourages creativity, visual and auditory processing. It also boasts an auto shut button that allows kids to continue playing and enjoying the music without draining the battery within a short period.

Pros

• Very easy to assemble and use
• Features an auto shut button
• Highly portable

Cons

• Not as engaging for older children

7. Vivere Cotton Hammock

The Hammock fits the criteria for both traditional toys and a sensory toy for people on the autism spectrum thanks to its calming and fun play effect. The toy can promote sensory integration while the slow swinging action can offer a calming effect, making it an excellent option for children, teenagers or even adults on the autism spectrum.

This double hammock requires a reasonable amount of space, but set up is easy thanks to its smart carrying bag and steel stand.

Pros

• Ideal for children and parents alike
• Comes with several bright colors

Cons

• Requires a reasonable amount of space

8. PLAYABLE Art Ball

The Playable ART Ball is another awesome sensory toy that little children can experiment with by molding it into various shapes and sizes by pushing, scrunching, or rolling it. It’s perfect for building motor skills and providing a soothing sensory experience to children and teens with autism, sensory processing difficulties, ADHD, and more.

The ball has gliding joints that help make it easy to maneuver and arrange in different shapes, promoting creativity, problem-solving skills, color recognition, and much more.

Pros

• Cheerful colors
• Aids in development of fine motor skills

Cons

• Some reviewers claim it can pinch tiny fingers

9. Scented Dazzlin’ Dough

The scented and colorful Dazzlin’ Dough encourages fine motor control development, sensory processing, and creativity.

Each container is made with food-grade materials and comes with one pound of dough, giving you and your kids up to 6 pounds to play around with for all your molding, rolling, punching, and squishing experiments.

Pros

• Ideal for open ended play
• A lot of fun scents and colors

Cons

• May be difficult to clean

10. JOYIN Bubble Machine

The two-pack JOYIN Bubble machine features two guns and bubble bottles for prolonged periods of playful fun and allows children to control their playtime, whilst developing social-emotional intelligence.

This sensory toy responds to a kid’s touch or voice with vibrations and light sounds and has easy-to-use features for spinning, pushing, or pulling.

Pros

• Multiple colors
• Food-grade natural bubble solution

Cons

• Requires bubble replacement

11. Fat Brain Toys Klickity

This cause-n-effect sensory product exposes kids to a wide range of textures, movements, and sounds.

By shaking, spinning, pushing, and pulling, autistic children will be able to unlock a variety of effects while developing coordination and fine motor skills.

Pros

• Bright colors
• Features a wide range of sounds and textures

Cons

• Quite pricey for a non open-ended sensory toy

12. Melissa & Doug Doctor’s Kit

This Melissa & Doug kit gives autistic children a pleasant tool to engage in pretend play and is a fun way to prepare them prior to important events like visiting the doctor.

The product features 25 pieces and includes a blood pressure cuff, a stethoscope, and thermometer, which can all be safely and conveniently kept in a provided tote bag.

Pros

• Makes doctors visits a seamless experience for kids with autism
• Multiple tools and accessories to work with

Cons

• Flimsy bag

13. Kinetic Sand

This squeezable sensory toy gives little kids the chance to interact with various textured items, which allows them to create and control their own open-ended play sessions.

This sensory item features a 3-pound bag, with an opportunity to upgrade the kit and add even more fun tools. Your child can experience the sensation of soft beach sand and sticks without becoming messy, making it a wonderful choice among parents as well.

Pros

• Easy to set up/clean
• Can be molded into different shapes
• Features calming sand

Cons

• It’s prone to collecting dust or dirt easily

14. Playfoam Combo Pack

As with the Kinetic Sand squishable sensory toy, the Playfoam Combo Pack offers sensory stimulation and expands the user’s capability to deal with various tactile experiences while building their fine and gross motor skills.

With this colorful toy, it’s incredibly easy to create different shapes for smooth, endless entertainment. And parents can also hide items inside the toy for extra fun and engagement.

Pros

• Fun colors
• Therapeutic squishing sensation
• Allows children to create their own stuff

Cons

• Ideal for older kids

15. HUGIMALS Charlie the Puppy

This sensory toy provides several weighted animals, including Charlie the Puppy and comes with a washable exterior and removable weight. It helps ease stress and provides calmness, making it the perfect object to add to a child’s sleeping routine.

Pros

• Uses weighted pressure
• Designed to help reduce anxiety and stress

Cons

• Quite expensive
  

What to Consider When Buying Sensory Toys for Autism?

#1 Sensory Stimuli

Children with autism might experience sensory processing difficulties such as having trouble coping with sounds, sights, textures, smells or other forms of sensory stimuli.

Hgh-quality autism sensory toys can provide children with sensory feedback and help the self-regulate so they can engage and control their senses appropriately.

Remember, every autistic kid takes in and responds to sensory stimuli in a different way from another, and some items can cause sensory overload for them if they are too bright, too loud, or have too many parts while other toys might be overstimulating, something that might interfere with sensory regulation.

#2 Interest Level

Shopping for a new toy for an autistic child can feel overwhelming, but you need to buy one as you’d for other children—consider their interests and the skills you want them to develop. The toys ought to be fun and engage your autistic child in the same manner they would engage a non-autistic child because some of the toys or products you would purchase for a non-autistic child are similar to the ones an autistic child would find enjoyable (e.g. stuffed animals, balls, cars, blocks, etc.).

#3 Developmental suitability

Although engagement in playtime aids in development, you want to ensure your child is benefiting from the toys in all areas. For instance, if you’re targeting a child’s motor skills, you want to go for autism sensory toys that feature a cause-n-effect element, especially if you’re working with smaller kids.

#4 Safety

When it comes to safety, you need to remember that kids on the autism spectrum tend to put things in their mouth, so it’s advisable to pick sensory toys for autism with few or no small, separate parts.

Conclusion

Creating time for playtime and exposing autistic children to autistic sensory toys that stimulate their vestibular input, proprioception, tactile stimulation, and auditory stimulation are all important considerations.

So there you have it! We’ve covered the 15 best sensory toys for children, teens and adults living with autism and sensory processing issues. Go ahead and choose one that will benefit your child based on considerations such as sensory stimuli, interest, safety, and developmental suitability and let them have endless fun with the toy of your choice. Good luck!