The main barrier in terms of both production time and profitability was the ghostwriting. The goal was to trick enough people searching for real books on various topics into buying trash books that the whole endeavor turned a profit. The writing was all done by barely paid ghostwriters. The topics of the books didn’t really matter, as long as they included keywords that corresponded to popular searches on Amazon. When all was said and done, these emerged as the best toys and gifts for 1-year-olds in 2023, which include current and former Good Housekeeping Best Toy Award winners.Late last year Folding Ideas, a YouTube channel run by researcher / writer Dan Olson, published an investigation into a group of Amazon con-artists who promise their followers big money if they take classes to learn how to mass-produce and sell low-quality books on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and Audible. Then, the best toys are shipped off to actual 1-year-olds and put to the real test. The Good Housekeeping Institute tests toys year-round to make sure they're safe and will withstand the love of a 1-year-old toddler. Still, with toys for kids this age, safety is still a top concern. And toys that make noise - like a xylophone, drum, or toy piano - are also a hit at this age.

And it’s never too early for set of cube blocks, plus a basket or bucket to drop them in and dump them out of. 'Toys can also pose fun challenges for 1-year-olds to figure out - think about a stacking ring, nesting cups, shape-sorters, a busy-box or simple wooden knob puzzles. 'These include simple items, like a ball to kick and chase, as well as things like push toys or toys that can be pulled on a string while walking,' Parlakian says. 'They are also really interested in big questions like, 'How does this work?' 'What does it do?' And, 'What happens if I do this?'”Īnd there are plenty of toys and gifts to buy 1-year-olds that meet them right where they are developmentally. 'One-year-olds are at a period in their development when they are becoming increasingly powerful and competent - evidenced by the fact that they are starting to walk and talk,' says Rebecca Parlakian, M.A., E.D., a parenting expert from Zero to Three, an organization that focuses on kid development during the early years. In fact, it's the opposite: Gifts for kids this age are really fun to shop for, thanks to toddlers' growing skill sets.

While the old baby toys might be too simple for them now, they're not yet ready to play with the toys meant for the big kids, since those can have choking and pinching hazards, or are too difficult to use.īut that doesn't mean it's hard to find great toddler toys. No two 1-year-olds are exactly alike, but if there's one thing that unites them all, it's this: Toddlers love to play! But what they want to play with and what's safe for them to play with are not always the same thing.

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