3 Core Toy Safety Principles for Therapeutic Settings

Have you ever noticed how toys in therapy rooms have a much harder life than toys at home? In your therapy room, toys become tools for development, emotional expression and healing, and that job means a lot of pulling, throwing and squeezing.

The truth is, therapeutic play demands something more from toys than casual home play. While the basic safety principles remain the same across settings, the way children interact with toys during therapy creates unique challenges that we need to consider.

Therapy toys don't just face occasional weekend play—they're working tools that get used intensively and purposefully every single day. This completely changes how we need to think about their safety.

When therapy materials become vehicles for emotional expression or developmental work:

• Those small plastic parts that hold up fine during home play can become serious breaking points when subjected to therapeutic work. I've seen dollhouses that lasted years in family homes show stress fractures within months in a play therapy room.
• Materials break down differently under this kind of intensive use. What fascinates me is how this varies between therapeutic approaches—occupational therapy often stresses materials in completely different ways than play therapy or speech therapy.
• The way materials get handled matters tremendously. A wooden block set used for structural play therapy might face different wear patterns than the same set used in OT for motor planning activities.

For occupational therapists, this shows up clearly with materials that support weight or resistance. A therapy swing that shows minimal wear with occasional home use needs far more frequent safety checks when it's supporting vestibular integration work with multiple clients every day.

Setting up rotation and regular assessment schedules creates a much more reliable safety net. Don't wait for visible damage—regular checking of stress points is essential preventative practice that saves both money and potential safety incidents.

Perhaps the trickiest challenge in therapeutic settings is making sure your materials remain safe across the incredible diversity of clients who might use them in a single day.

This goes way beyond the age recommendations on packaging:

• Developmental patterns vary enormously in the children we work with. A 10-year-old with developmental differences might interact with toys in ways similar to a much younger child, but with the strength and reach of their actual age.
• Sensory processing differences dramatically impact how materials get used. A texture that one child finds calming might trigger a strong avoidance response in another, potentially creating safety issues through unexpected reactions.
• Mouthing behaviours continue well beyond what manufacturers expect in many therapeutic populations. Materials meant for older children often haven't been tested for mouthing safety, yet this remains a common exploration pattern in numerous therapeutic contexts.

Play therapists face this challenge constantly when working with regression as part of the therapeutic process. Children often engage with materials in ways that don't match their typical developmental stage, requiring safety considerations that span multiple developmental levels at once.

Creating simple documented safety profiles for materials that account for different client characteristics transforms safety from a static "yes/no" assessment to a dynamic, client-centred process.

The cleaning requirements in therapeutic settings create a specific safety challenge that connects material integrity, chemical exposure, and therapeutic effectiveness.

When toys move between different clients:

• Material breakdown through cleaning becomes a real concern. Repeated intensive sanitising can degrade materials in ways that create new hazards—plastics develop tiny cracks that harbour bacteria, finishes wear away, exposing less stable materials underneath.
• Chemical residues present hidden risks, especially for clients with sensory sensitivities or those who explore orally. Many cleaning products leave behind residues that might be fine for occasional contact, but become problematic during intensive therapy sessions.
• The therapeutic qualities that make materials valuable can be altered through cleaning. A soft textile might become less soothing after repeated sanitising; a wooden object might lose the natural texture that provided important sensory feedback.

In speech therapy contexts, this cleaning challenge shows up constantly with materials that come near or in contact with the mouth. Keeping these items both safe and therapeutically effective requires carefully chosen cleaning approaches that don't leave harmful residues or change the sensory properties that make the materials work.

Developing specific cleaning protocols for different types of materials helps balance germ control with material preservation. This might mean implementing different sanitising approaches for different toys, with some items needing significant "rest time" between uses.

What truly sets therapeutic settings apart is the need to balance safety with therapeutic goals. Sometimes, the material that offers the greatest therapeutic benefit also presents unique safety challenges that need to be managed rather than eliminated.

In occupational therapy, this often appears with heavy work materials or balance equipment. The therapeutic value comes precisely from the controlled challenge these materials offer, requiring thoughtful risk assessment rather than simply removing all possible risks.

Safety in therapeutic settings isn't about eliminating all potential risks—it's about creating an environment where necessary therapeutic challenges can happen with appropriate safeguards.

While core safety principles stay consistent across environments, therapeutic settings face some distinct considerations:

• Intensity of use: Materials experience concentrated, purposeful engagement far beyond typical play patterns.
• Diversity of interaction patterns: The same toys must safely accommodate widely varying developmental and sensory profiles.
• Therapeutic purpose: Safety needs to support rather than hinder therapeutic objectives, requiring more nuanced risk management.
• Professional responsibility: Therapists hold specific obligations regarding the safety of materials used in intervention.

Creating systems that address these unique aspects while maintaining core safety principles allows therapeutic materials to fulfil their potential as tools for growth and healing.