It can be difficult to know what are the best toys for 1 year old babies. I know, before I had my son I hadn't a clue what to buy as presents for 1 year olds. My son is now 2 and I have done a lot of research into the toys he has really enjoyed and played with. The suggestions and advice in this article is based on the toys my son and niece played with at home, friend's houses, toddler and play groups.

The best toys for 1 year old babies are quite often ones which encourage them to use their hands to improve their fine motor skills. Toys such as shapesorters, activity tables, balls and 1st sets of building blocks all fall into this category.

Noisy toys that have voices speaking, nursery rhymes and songs are also good to help encouage talking and listening skills.

Toys that enourage 1 year old babies to stand up and start walking or improve their balance and walking skills are also good for this age group.

Read on for the best toys for 1 year old babies.

Ride on toys are a must have toy for 1 year old babies. Most of them have handles on the back that 1 year olds can pull themselves up on and use as balance when learning to walk. When the babies have learned to walk they will love pushing these toys around. Of course they will also love riding on them too. Ride on toys can be used outside and inside. It's good to get one with a seat that has storage. My son used to loved putting things in the seat and then pushing it around. I especially like the In the Night Garden ride on toy as it has lots of extra features inlcuding spinning tomliboos, a horn and a seat with storage.

I found that tradititional baby toys without the fashing lights were often the ones that kept my son occupied for ages. Most of them are so simple yet very effective for keeping babies enteratined and educational too.
 A toy drum is a popular toy. Young babies delight in banging on a toy drum. and as they get older it's a good tool to learn about rhythm.
One of my favourite baby toys is the peg and hammer bench. It's colourful to attract attention and help teach colours. Babies will love knocking the pegs with a hammer, helping to develop motor skills about teach about cause and effect.
Shapesorters are great for teaching colours and shapes as well as improving fine motor skills. At 1 years old a baby will be developing just enough skill to start posting some of the shapes.
1 years old is a good age to get a baby their first set of bricks to learn about building towers and knocking them down. The Wonderworld wooden brick are unusual bricks which will fascinate one year olds with their different colours and rattling beads.
The stacking toy is another toy that will keep babies engaged for ages and is great for teaching shapes, colours and developing motor skills
  

Activity tables, keyboards and phones are all great toys for 1 year olds. Babies love pressing buttons and hearing music, seeing lights and listening to words and songs which all these toys do.
Activity tables are great for 1 year old babies as they have lots of different activities and games to help babies learn colours, numbers, shapes and songs.
Toy phones are great for introducing role play.

These toys don't really fit into some of the other categories but they are some of my favourite toys for 1 year olds. My son loved all of these toys and most importantly they kept him occupied for ages giving me a few free minutes to myself.

1 year olds love sticking magnets onto fridges and the leapfrog magnets are great. They are big enough to not be a choking hazard and the farmyard set featured here teaches 1 year olds about animals, their names and noises. The letter magnets teaches the alphabet but  1 year olds will still love sticking them to the fridge and pulling them off again and they are also great to learn letters as they get older. Magnets were great for keeping my little one occupied in the kitchen while I was doing other tasks.
 
The Waterwheel play table is a great toy. It's better for the Summer when you can put it outside but if you have a big kitchen or can put down some waterproof covering it can possibly be used inside too. Kept my little boy engaged for ages.

The Fisher Price Garage is a toy my friend bought for her oldest son when he was one. She now has 2 boys who are 4 and 5 and they still play with it. My son is also a big fan of the garage when we go there to play.

Slides are great too. My son will play on one for ages. The bird slide featured is probably best  from about 15 months up.

In the Night Garden Toys are a particular hit with this age group as they absolutely love the TV series. My son had the Iggle Piggle toy the Christmas just before he was one and was absolutely fascinated by it.
Jigsaw puzzles which are great for children from about 15 months and over.
My mother in law had an In the Night Garden play tent which my son and his cousin used to love sitting in to play peek-a-boo, hide in, eat their lunch and bring in their toys into. Play tents can be used indoors but are also good for putting outdoors in the Summer as they make a great shade from the Sun.
The DVD set below is a bargain. You can buy a new set for £13.77 which is reduced from £29.99

Obviously walkers are great toys for 1 year old babies as they are a perfect  aid to walking before they've taken their first steps. If they've already taken their first steps it won't be long until they are pushing them everywhere. My son had a walker with bricks which he particularly liked as he would spend ages taking the bricks out of the walker and then putting them all in again before pushing them around. The bricks were also great for building and knocking down towers. The Vtech walker is another great walker as it has a detachable activity table that babies will love to play on as well. It includes its own play telephone too.

Some more great toys for 1 year olds.