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12 best musical toys for babies and toddlers that will strike a chord
Encourage curiosity, self-expression and a love of tuneful noise with brands like Melissa & Doug and The White Company
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Not only do musical toys add another level of entertainment to playtime, they also have developmental benefits for babies.
They encourage curiosity and self-expression, teach cause and effect, build fine motor skills and encourage a lifelong love of music.
Musical Toys also help to develop patience and selective hearing in parents due to the repetitive and sometimes ear-splitting noises they can produce in unskilled little hands.
We recommend looking for toys with a volume adjuster if buying for your own children or a parent that you like. If you are buying for a frenemy, go all out with a drum kit and cymbals.
Wooden toy experts Hape say: “When trying to find the right musical toy or instrument, ensuring the age range is correct is a priority. Look for toys that have been made specifically to help develop children from birth and each toy is made to compliment the natural development of children.”
It goes on to say that “the power of musical toys not only develops little brains from an early age it also drives children to higher language processing abilities, contributing to the development of cognitive functions such as attention, visual-spatial perception, executive functions as well as auditory skills and cognitive flexibility”.
We tested wide range of toys for babies and toddlers, looking for fun, sturdiness and educational and developmental benefits.
You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
The verdict: Musical toys for babies and toddlers
While testing musical toys we found that the most important factors were longevity and variety. Toys that appeal to wide age groups last longer and can be passed from sibling to sibling. Toys that offered several functions or sounds were also a success. The Halilit my first baby band was the Best Buy because it offered a variety of instruments that appealed to all testers from babies to toddlers and was durable and good value. The Baby Einstein magic touch piano was a close second because it has both basic and more sophisticated functions that spanned age gaps.