About Early Steps Guide

I'm Emily, a homeschooling mom and independent publisher based in Hawaii. I built this site because I kept looking for a clean, trustworthy resource that pulled early intervention toy recommendations together in one place — organized in a way that actually made sense for parents — and I couldn't find it.

I want to be upfront with you: I'm not an occupational therapist, physical therapist, or speech-language pathologist. I don't live this world personally. What I am is a researcher who cares about getting it right, a mom who understands how overwhelming it is to navigate a child's needs with limited time and energy, and someone who believes parents deserve honest, well-organized information without having to dig through a dozen different therapy clinic websites to find it.

Every toy and product on this site has been researched against what actual pediatric OTs, PTs, and SLPs consistently recommend. I look for safety certifications, reputable materials, and real therapeutic reasoning — not just whatever ranks well on Amazon. I've also built a Resources page with links to the professional organizations and therapy blogs I learned from, so you can always go deeper or verify anything yourself.

This site is a living resource. I know I'll get things wrong sometimes — a term that's become outdated, a product that missed the mark, a condition I haven't covered well enough. If you see something that needs correcting, please reach out. This site genuinely gets better with your input, and I'd rather hear it from you than have a parent leave with the wrong information.

I hope you found what you were looking for. And if you didn't, tell me — I'll research it.