Early Learning Centre Toddle Truck

At the age of 9 months my little boy was starting to pull himself up on anything he could reach although he was not yet starting to take steps. Eager to encourage him to learn to walk, I looked around for some kind of toddle truck for him. At about the same time he had begun to take a real interest in three plastic cubes that came with a different toy so when I found out the Early Learning Centre Toddle Truck had bricks inside it I went out and bought it.

Product Description

The handle for the Toddle Truck is about 45cm from the ground so is the perfect height for little people. The truck contains 28 bricks which are plain and patterned in four different colours - green, blue, orange and red.

The bricks you get in the truck are as follows:

10 squares
4 triangles
8 small rectangles
2 large rectangles
2 arches (the same shape as the large rectangle but with a semi-circle missing)
2 semi-circles (which fit inside the arch shapes)

The wheels of the truck are wooden with a knobbly green rubber tread to them. When the truck is pushed over hard, flat ground (for example the laminate floor in our living room) the truck makes a nice rattly kind of noise which my son loves. Sometimes he stands holding onto the sofa and pushes the truck backwards and forwards just to hear the noise.

You have to assemble this toddle truck yourself. Well, I got my husband to do it actually. According to him it was not at all complicated and only took a few minutes (although he probably wouldn't admit to finding it tricky to put a child's toy together). The body of the truck is pre-assembled, you just have to put the handle and the wheels on it so I reckon I probably could have managed it myself.

Quality and Safety

The truck feels very solid and well put together. The horizontal part of the handle does spin around unless you tighten the screws at either end frequently. However my son does not appear to have any problem when the handle is loose, he is still able to toddle along whilst holding onto it.

There do not appear to be any loose small parts which could present a choking hazard.

Age Recommendation

The recommended age for this toy is 1 to 2 years however I had no problem with giving it to my son from 9 months as he was ready to start walking at that age. Having said that, he was a bit young to play with the bricks in the truck properly although he did get a lot of enjoyment out of taking them out and carrying them around with him.

My Opinion

I was a little disappointed by the bricks that come in this truck. They are only 2.4cm deep so the square shaped ones are not actually cubes but instead are flat squares. This means that they are not so good for using as building blocks as being so narrow anything you build is quite unstable and I doubt that a young child would be able to stack these very easily. I was also a bit disappointed by the selection of shapes and sizes of the bricks as the majority are squares.

When I first gave my son this toy I kept a very close eye on him as he would try to pull himself up while holding onto it and I was worried he might tip it over. However, the handle for the truck is attached about a third of the way along the body which makes it quite stable and so he never actually managed to tip it over.

The wheels of the truck spin freely which means that it does roll quite quickly, especially over hard floors. When my son was not very competent at taking steps I frequently found that he was hanging on to the truck with it at arms length whilst he struggled to catch it back up again.

I think that this toddle truck has definitely helped my son to learn to walk. I have taken him out in our back garden and to the park with it and let him loose on the grass which he loves because he can walk around more independently rather than just going backwards and forwards in our small living room. Also the truck does not move so quickly over grass so he is better able to keep up with it.

Now that my son is a couple of months older he just uses the truck to help him balance and is able to move scarily fast whilst holding on to it. He has just started to take a few steps on his own and if I place the toddle truck a few steps away from the sofa where he is standing he will walk to the truck and then he's off. I suspect that we will get a lot more use out of this toddle truck over the coming year.

Pricing and Availability

I purchased this Toddle Truck from the Early Learning Centre for £22 however it seems to have gone up in price over the last few months and is now £25 from www.elc.co.uk.