Tot Spot was designed with caregiver comfort in mind, so that adults can easily stay engaged with their child’s play. This could be as simple as playing a game of peek-a-boo or rolling a ball back and forth. Children in Tot Spot will also have to navigate popular shared spaces, like tunnels and slides. Even playing near peers is beneficial for children at this age, regardless of whether or not there is any direct interaction.

When infants and toddlers hear new vocabulary, it helps them to better process language. As children explore Tot Spot’s new features and crawl up and down different levels and ramps, wall prompts will encourage caregivers to intentionally use specific spatial language—words like above, over, through, or under— to describe what is happening or what their child is doing.

An understanding of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts begins in the first year of life, and it’s important to support these thinking skills with age-appropriate activities. In Tot Spot, children can practice STEM thinking by repeatedly filling buckets and dumping them out; infants test theories about the world through repetitive behavior. A color-mixing activity lets children combine colored panels to create new shades. This is a way the youngest children engage with the scientific concept of cause and effect.