Fill & Spill Barrel

This clear, lightweight barrel is filled with an assortment of brightly colored soft plush monkeys, plastic barrels and bunches of bananas. The monkeys have symmetrical, smiling faces, designed to have a calming effect on babies and young children. The soft monkeys are easy to grasp, squeak when squeezed, and encourage baby to reach out and strengthen gripping muscles. The wide mouth jar encourages baby to fit the pieces back in. "The toy encourages baby to play using fill and spill activity, which helps develop motor-cognitive processing skills and is a precursor to shape-sorting," Peggy Barrett, PR consultant at Barrett Marketing Communications, told TDmonthly. Launch date: July 2, 2009.