Thursday, January 30, 2014

Oball Toys Support and Stimulate Infant Growth & Development


Like many great brands, Oball™ started out as a single product developed by a company called Kids II.  The company has been in business for four decades producing innovative baby products. 

The original Oball™ was, as its name suggests, a ball-shaped toy, now called the  Oball™ Classic.  The soft, flexible moulded sphere consists of what look like fused rings, resulting in 32 holes that create a tactile experience that babies love.  Each ball is multi-coloured in various bright shades, adding another sensory element to this toy that is simple in its complexity. 

Tactile sensation is critical to the process of developing motor skills in babies, both gross and fine.  Oball™ places a great deal of emphasis on the tactile experience, incorporating a variety of tactile sensations into each toy they make.  Designing each toy with bright colors helps to stimulate the brain, develop eyesight and encourage color differentiation.  Some Oball™ toys also add the element of sound by incorporating rattles.  Babies quickly learn that shaking the object produces sound, which, among other things, helps babies to discover the principle of cause and effect.

The popularity of the original Oball™ lead the company to develop more toys based on the original concept.  Fuzzy Freckles Children's Store and online catalogue carries several of these fantastic developmental toys.   Take a look at some of our favourites:

* The  Oball™ with Rattles:  This is a new take on the Oball™ Classic.  Four inches in diameter, this award-winning design provides the same great tactile experience, but with the added element of rattles.  The rattles are small beads safely contained inside of transparent round cases mounted inside some of the Oball's™ rings.  The rattles add another sensory factor, sound, as well as enhanced tactile experience.



* The  Oball™ Rattle and Roll: This design is destined to become baby's first toy car.  The sturdy, moulded design is safe for play, tactile, and brightly-coloured.  Each wheel contains a bead rattle similar to the ones in the Oball™ with Rattles.  The car has a "roll cage" made of…. naturally…. soft, flexible moulded rings just like the original Oball™.



* The Oball™ Mini Beebo: Similar to the original toy, this design features twisted spindles instead of circles.  Small beads can be moved over the spindles for even more sensory stimulation.


* The Oball™ FlexiLoops: This toy consists of a solid spherical core with semi-circular rings attached.  Each toy is multi-coloured and made of the same flexible material as the original Oball™ toy.



* The Oball™ Clickety Twist: This fun design has a sphere-shaped core, similar to the Oball™ FlexiLoops toy.  Sprouting from the core are spindles of different textures: smooth, ridged and coiled.  Each one provides a different tactile sensation.



All of the Oball™ toys that you'll find in our children's store are PVC, BPA and phthalate free, which is perfect for parents who worry about the chemicals that may leach from toys into baby's mouth.