Parent Glossary: Toy and Learning Terms Explained

Short, plain definitions of the words that come up when choosing toys and books for young children, with a link to where each idea shows up in the shop. Every product shows the age printed on its box.

Play and development

Montessori toys

Toys based on Maria Montessori's approach to early education: simple, usually wooden, each focused on one skill, and designed so a child can see and correct their own mistakes. See Montessori toys and Montessori toys by age.

Fine motor skills

Control of the small muscles in the hands and fingers: pinching, threading, turning and placing. They develop before a child can hold a pencil well. See fine motor skills toys.

Gross motor skills

Movements that use the large muscles of the body: walking, running, jumping, throwing and balancing. See movement and balance toys.

Hand–eye coordination

The eyes and hands working together to aim, catch or place something exactly. It sits under catching a ball, using scissors and, later, writing on a line. See hand–eye coordination toys.

Pincer grip

Picking up a small object between the thumb and index finger, which most children manage around their first birthday. It is the start of the grip later used for a pencil, and tweezer games like the Bead Tweezer Sorting Set practise it. See how to teach pencil grip.

Cause and effect

A baby's discovery that an action makes something happen: shake a rattle and it makes a sound. Rattles, pounding benches and sound books are built around it. See baby and toddler toys.

Object permanence

Understanding that something still exists when it is hidden. Peekaboo and lift-the-flap books practise it. See lift-the-flap books.

Sensory play

Play that uses touch, sound, sight and movement to explore, such as textured balls or touch-and-feel pages. See the Textured Sensory Balls and touch-and-feel books.

Spatial reasoning

Understanding shapes, positions and how pieces fit, turn and combine. Puzzles, tangrams and building sets exercise it. See problem-solving toys.

Open-ended toys

Toys with no single right way to play, like blocks or city sets, so the child decides what to make. See creative toys.

STEM toys

Toys that teach science, technology, engineering and maths through building, experimenting and solving problems, such as circuit kits and microscopes. See science kits and science and discovery toys.

Turn-taking

Waiting for your go and letting others have theirs, learned best at a table with other players. See games that teach patience.

Speech delay

When a child says fewer words, or starts putting words together later, than most children their age; by two, most children say at least two words together. The first step is the child's doctor, who may check their hearing and refer them to a speech and language therapist. Play supports talking but doesn't treat a delay. See how to help your child talk and speech and language toys.

Developmental milestones

Skills most children can do by a certain age, like smiling, sitting, walking and first words. The CDC places each one at the age by which 75% or more of children have it, so a missed milestone is a reason to ask the doctor, not a diagnosis. See child development stages, month by month.

Tummy time

Time a baby spends lying on their tummy while awake and watched, which builds the muscles for rolling, sitting and crawling. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests starting from the first days at home. See baby toys by month.

Serve and return

The back-and-forth between a baby and a caring adult: the baby babbles, looks or reaches, and the adult responds, like a game of tennis. Harvard's Center on the Developing Child describes it as what shapes early brain development. See baby toys by month.

Executive function

The brain skills behind focus: working memory, self-control and flexible thinking. They grow slowly through childhood, through play that asks a child to remember, wait and switch rules. See focus games by age.

Separation anxiety

A child's distress when a parent leaves, most common from about six months to three years, and a normal stage of development. See preparing your child for nursery.

Screen-free play

Play that holds a child's attention with hands, objects and people rather than a screen. See 30 activities for kids at home.

Age on the box

The age range a toy's manufacturer prints on the packaging. A "not suitable for children under 3" warning usually means small parts that could be swallowed. Kiddil shows the box age on every product. See choosing toys by age.

Books and reading

Board book

A book printed on thick card pages that survive chewing and pulling; the usual first book from birth to about three. See board books.

Lift-the-flap book

A book with flaps that hide part of each picture, so the child guesses and then looks. See lift-the-flap books.

Pop-up book

A book whose pages open into a 3D scene. See pop-up books.

Touch-and-feel book

A book with textured pages to feel as well as look at. See touch-and-feel books.

Write-and-wipe book

Practice pages a child writes on with a marker and wipes clean to try again, for letters and numbers. See Write & Wipe: Arabic Letters, Alif to Ya.

Sight words

Common words children learn to recognise instantly by sight, like "the", "and" and "is", instead of sounding them out; knowing them makes reading faster. See Sight Words Swat.

Phonics

Teaching children the sound each letter makes and how to blend sounds into words: c-a-t makes "cat". English has 26 letters for about 44 sounds, so letters are taught by their sounds before their names. See teaching your child English at home.

Harakat (tashkil)

The short-vowel marks written above and below Arabic letters: fatha, kasra and damma, with sukun, shadda and tanween. Children's books and the first school years use them because they make every word readable; reading without them comes later. See teaching your child to read Arabic.

Diglossia (فصحى and عامية)

Having two forms of one language for different uses: Egyptian children speak Egyptian Arabic at home but learn to read in Modern Standard Arabic. Hearing فصحى early, for example in stories read aloud, eases the move to reading it. See teaching your child to read Arabic.

Dialogic reading

Reading a picture book as a conversation: the adult asks what, where and why questions, adds to the child's answers and lets the child tell the story. See children's books by age.

Early readers

Books with short sentences and repeated words for children starting to read alone. See learn-to-read books.

Bilingual book

A book with the same story in two languages, here Arabic and English. See bilingual Arabic–English books and raising a reader in two languages.

Puzzles and games

Tangram

A puzzle of flat geometric pieces (seven in the classic Chinese version) arranged to make pictures. See the Triangle Tangram Puzzle and the Magnetic Board Set.

Klotski

A sliding-block puzzle: move the pieces inside a frame, without lifting them, until the largest block can slide out. See the Klotski Sliding Block Puzzle.

Graded challenge cards

Puzzle cards ordered from easy to hard, so a child can climb one level at a time. See brain teasers.