Hot Wheels 4 Lane Raceway

I use this toy for speech therapy and it is a lot of fun. It is easy to set up and is fairly sturdy-I gave it 4 stars for durability because it will collapse if the child leans on it, but mine has not broken, even with rough toddlers. (However, I don’t doubt that determined and unsupervised toddlers can do permanent damage to any toy.) The track segments, which typically just fold together, can become detached, but again, they’ve never broken. I just snap it back together. The release mechanism is easy for little hands to manipulate, including children with some fine motor problems. Older kids like that there is an impartial way to judge the winner (as opposed to just “eyeballing” it). There are little plastic things (flags?) that pop up when hit by the cars, and the first one to be pushed up shows through a little window at the bottom of the track. No arguments about who won.

I like that it does not require batteries, keeps children’s attention, and has quick and easy set up. As far as educational value-well, I’m not a teacher, so I don’t feel completely qualified to judge. I believe it would facilitate teaching the concepts of ordinal numbers (first, second, etc.), stop and go, fast, slow, turn taking, mine, yours, supposition (guessing which car will win), some basic physics (again, in guessing which car will win, due to size, weight, aerodynamic features), win, lose, future and past tense (will win, won)… probably other things.

Good buy. I’ve used it with girls and boys, ages 2-11, everything from autism to cochlear implants to phonological processes. I believe typically developing children would like it as well.