36 of the Best Gifts to Get Your Truck-Obsessed Kid
About 33% of kids will have an obsession such as trains, dressing up, or dinosaurs. I know this because I went knee-deep on this topic in a recent article, “Trucks and Other Kid Obsessions: What’s Normal and What Should You Do About It?” This topic piqued my interest because my son is obsessed with trucks. I learned what the evidence says about obsessions (called “extremely intense interests” or EII by researchers) and the best ways to use them as a tool to develop skills in your child.
Here I’ll list the best truck-geared (or at least vehicle-based) purchases we made. I’ve excluded things that either he didn’t gravitate to or we flat-out regretted having (whether it be because it was cheap, boring, or otherwise). Most of these things went beyond simply being something we knew would put a smile on his face.
As I highlighted in the previous post, we used his strong interests as a catalyst for whatever skills we were focusing on developing at the time or as behavioral strategies. I highlight some of these successful strategies as “wins” below.
Without further ado, here are the best recommendations for your truck-obsessed kid.
The Bedroom
Win: To encourage him to lay down to have his diaper changed and get in his pajamas we give him the choice of which truck he’d like to lay on.
Win: see comment below.
Bedroom Wins: As a way to get him excited to go to bed we put a lot of effort, with his input, into making his room a place he’d want to be. We called it the “Struction Zone” and encouraged him to go in the “pit stop” tent to play as a way to wind down. We made sure, however, not to use the room as a playroom. Just like adults should separate their bed from non-sleep-related tasks such as work, eating, and watching TV (sex excluded), kids should not associate their room with their primary play spot because it blurs the lines between winding down and revving up which can impact the transition and hinder falling asleep.
Books
1 year old
Win: The Little Blue Truck series seems to be a cult favorite with parents and kids but it’s sentimental to me for a specific reason. After reading it most nights before bed my son, with only a handful of words to his late-blooming name, began to read the book verbatim to my wife and me. With merely a hint of the first word of the page, he finished the rest of the page through the end of the book adding 10x the words to his vocab that we thought he knew.
Looking for non-truck book recommendations? Find a list here.
2 years old
Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (Richard Scarry)
Win: each night he gets to choose at least two of the books we read. Cars and Trucks blew second place out of the water with the number of requests. The storyline is lacking so we created our own, talked about emotions, and used the busy scenery as a way to teach cause-and-effect and problem-solving skills.
What Do People Do All Day (Richard Scarry)
Not as truck-heavy of a book but it comes in second place for my son’s all-time favorite books.
Win: This book was a huge help with letter recognition and might be the only reason my son can spell his name.
Looking for non-truck book recommendations? Find a list here.
3 years old
Cars, Trains, Ships, and Planes: A Visual Encyclopedia of Every Vehicle
Win: Another book empty on a storyline so lots of creativity is needed. It’s literally an encyclopedia.
The Science of Vehicles: The Turbo-Charged Truth About Trucks and Cars
Looking for non-truck book recommendations? Find a list here.
Miscellaneous
A trip to Diggerland
Win: We’ve been there twice and it may have been two of my son’s favorite days ever. A great place for kids who love trucks and vehicles. (Pro tip: get there early.)
