Counters

These themed counters are small, satisfying figurines made for sorting, counting and storytelling. Each set is a collection of colourful little characters in one theme,

With 30 to 48 pieces per set, there's a theme to suit whatever your child is curious about right now.

There's no board, no rules and no right way to play. Pour them out and see what happens: colour groups, lines from smallest to biggest, patterns, counting into a cup, or a whole farm scene on the living room floor. A child who is sorting by colour at two can be adding and subtracting with the same set by five or six.

 They're simple and open-ended, and they work as well on a therapy table as on a kitchen floor. They pair beautifully with tweezers, scoops and sorting cups (sold separately), drop easily into a sensory bin, and make a good travel toy.

What's Included

• Farm: 36 figurines
• Pets: 36 figurines
• Fruit: 36 figurines
• Vegetables: 36 figurines
• Bugs: 36 figurines
• Transport: 36 figurines
• Wild Animals: 30 figurines
• 4 Colour Dinosaurs: 32 figurines
• Aqua: 42 figurines
• Dinosaurs: 48 figurines

Each purchase is one set of your chosen design. Tweezers, scoops and sorting cups are sold separately.

What the OT Says:

Counters look simple, and that's exactly why I reach for them so often. When a child picks up a small figurine, most of the work happens in the fingers. Picking up and releasing a small piece uses the pincer grip, the thumb-and-index-finger control that later becomes the foundation for holding a pencil. When a child gathers several figurines into the palm while picking up one more, they're practising in-hand manipulation and finger isolation, which is one of the most useful and least talked-about fine motor skills for handwriting, buttons and zips.

Add tweezers or a scoop and the same tray of counters becomes real hand-strengthening work. Tweezers build the small muscles of the hand and the arches of the palm, and they encourage a more mature tripod grasp. Holding a cup or muffin tin steady with one hand while the other sorts uses bilateral coordination. Reaching across the tray to find the right piece encourages crossing the midline, and tracking small pieces builds hand-eye coordination.

The thinking skills matter just as much. Sorting by colour, then by size, then by type asks a child to hold a rule in mind and switch to a new one, which supports working memory, attention and cognitive flexibility. Counting each piece one at a time builds one-to-one correspondence, and building patterns, grouping and simple adding and subtracting grow naturally from there. In a sensory bin, hiding and finding counters adds tactile input and visual discrimination, and matching them to flashcards or a light box strengthens visual perception.

Language grows quietly alongside all of this. Naming the animals, describing what's the same and different, and telling a story with the figurines builds vocabulary, category words and early narrative skills. Shared sorting or a turn-taking game adds a social-emotional layer too. I love that children can enter at their own level: colour sorting at two, patterns and number stories at five or six. I recommend these counters for both home play and therapy-room use.