Special Toys for Special Kids.

Thinking Toys was established with the intention of providing access, in Ireland, to a range of products that can bring specific benefit to children who have special needs or learning difficulties.

The business is owned and managed by myself, Aine Conacur and my husband Michael. Our eldest child had major brain surgery when she was 2 years old. The frustration and difficulties we endured in trying to source suitable products that would assist in her development was a catalyst in deciding to try and reduce this frustration for other parents in similar situations.

We have just opened Ireland's first  Demonstration / Display Room that is dedicated to toys, games and equipment that are suitable for children with special needs or learning difficulties. This allows Therapists, Teachers, Parents and Children to visit and see the product range, out of their boxes, facilitating everyone to touch, feel and play with the products. We feel this approach brings many benefits to all prospective customers as you can determine, first hand, what benefits might accrue from use of each product and also whether the child is likely to engage with the product and / or has the required skills to succeed and therefore help reduce the frustration levels for child and parents alike.  

The Demonstration / Display Room is located in Ballina, Killaloe, Co. Clare (just 3 miles off the main Dublin/Limerick road). While the song claims that it is a "Long Way from Clare to Here", Killaloe is fairly centrally located and many people will be able to get to us in an hour and a half. The room is booked by appointment (there is no charge for attending) and we are very flexible in our opening hours, in that appointments can be made for any day of the week and we also do evening sessions. The reason for the need for booking an Appointment is twofold, firstly to ensure we are around, as we do travel the country doing demonstrations and secondly, having your own time allows us to dedicate ourselves to the attendees for a specified period of time which is especially critical if we have succeeded in gaining the trust of a child.  The room is big enough to handle groups of therapists and / or teachers. We are in the town centre and will give you detailed directions when appointments are booked.

We will also gladly demonstrate and display our products anywhere in Ireland to groups including therapists, teachers and support groups. All you have to Do is Ask and we will be there.

We are continuing to build up our range of products and part of this process involves liaison with parents and relevant professionals in order to try and provide as extensive a range of products as we can. Obviously, the success of this approach is dependent on the quantity and quality of feedback received from you, the user. Therefore, we would like the web site to facilitate a two way flow of information. All requests and inputs from parents or professionals are welcome and we commit to using best endeavours to try and meet specific needs as they arise and source required products if at all possible.

We would like to thank you for visiting our site and hope that you agree that Thinking Toys goes some way towards succeeding in its aim of providing Special Toys for Special Kids.

If you wish to advise a friend of the site or of a specific product please click on the “Tell a Friend” link.

If you wish to contact us please click on the “Contact Us” link for details.

If you wish to be informed on how to purchase product direct from the website please click on “Delivery” note in the “Information” link.