You may already have the budget for this—sitting in a pre-tax account you have to spend anyway.
Quick answer: with a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN) from your child's provider, play and sensory equipment can be HSA/FSA eligible—and because you are spending pre-tax dollars, that works out to savings of up to about 30%. The process: get the LMN first (our guide includes a template your provider can adapt), purchase the equipment, keep the LMN and receipt together for your plan administrator. Eligibility ultimately depends on your plan, so the guide also covers what administrators look for.
The reasoning behind eligibility is straightforward: when a provider documents that a child needs sensory or motor equipment—common with autism, ADHD, sensory processing differences, or motor delays—a climbing gym stops being a toy purchase and becomes the equipment that need calls for. Climbing, hanging, and swinging are the inputs occupational therapists build sessions around; this page collects the equipment that delivers them at home.
Two more routes worth knowing: FSA funds expire—if you have a balance approaching its deadline, this is the classic use for it—and many state disability waiver programs fund sensory equipment directly, no HSA required. Both are covered in the guides below.
