ESI Toys

The pop-up-style enclosures, and Tub of Toys (TT) are recommended play toys for the ESI. Similar toys with equivelant functions were used in its initial development. The ESI normative data represent children’s social behavior while playing with these type of toys. For purchase information view our ESI Toy Purchasing Information.

Toys were screened and selected based on their ability to engage children’s interest and evoke interactions with peers and adults. Additionally important criteria for selecting these toys included safety, common availability in child care settings, and suitability for use by children six months to 3 years. Additionally, we rejected toys that met these criteria, but too often evoked sitting and exploration rather than play and interaction

Warning: Children will often explore toys by putting them in their mouth. So, it is always important to maintain close supervision of children (birth - 3 yrs) when playing with these and any toys to avoid potential choking hazards. Also, be sure to inspect all toys before and after they are used and discard broken, chipped, or loose pieces, torn or damaged material, and any other pieces with potentially harmful defects.

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Form A: Pop-up-style enclosures with balls : These type of toys are typically made of a flexible nylon enclosure, similar to the bus and "Big Burger Drive Thru" on the right. Playhut and Time-to-Play offer several different styles of these enclosures. They are characterized by a door that children can walk through, and window(s) through which children can communicate with each other and/or the adult play partner. For safety reasons, there is no attached floor. In addition to crawling through, children may stand up in the enclosures, open and close the nylon doors, and look out the windows. The balls are not sold with the enclosures, but can be borrowed from the TT toy set described below. The balls are used to encourage further communication between children in and around the toys.

Form B: Tub of Toys (TT): The Tub of Toys is an assortment of toys including a bowl, three balls, at least two people, a vehicle for the people to interact with (e.g., a car, space ship, etc.), and four animal figures. Although there is not a specific set of toys recommended for this toy set, the Fisher-Price Little People figurines pictured here are acceptable for the people and animal figurines. Appropriately sized vehicles that do not require batteries should be used to encourage children to interact with the figurines. All toys used for these assessments should be 'wipable'. For example, toys with a cloth exterior would not be appropriate because they cannot be wiped with antiseptic wet wipes.

See the ESI administration instructions (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) for additional information, including recommendations on how to use the toys during an observation, and how to modify the toys for children with sensory impairments.