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Occupational therapists recommend the Oball for its open, lattice design: the large finger holes let babies grip the ball with any part of their hand, without needing the pincer grasp their fine motor skills haven’t developed yet. This makes it one of the easiest first toys for babies to actually hold onto, which builds the hand strength and coordination needed for more precise grasps later.
The same design helps in the mouth. The ridges and open spaces give the tongue distinct edges and textures to move around and explore, encouraging the side-to-side tongue movement (lateralization) that’s a building block for both chewing and speech sound production.