5 of the best toys and activities to support your child’s development that won’t break the bank!
With anything you do in life, motivation is key. We need motivation to exercise, we need motivation to work, and our little ones certainly need motivation for their speech homework!
Evidence shows that children’s brains light up when they are having fun. This is the exact reason we strive to make every session a fun one; to ensure that learning is occurring at an optimum time. We need to make home practice just as enjoyable, to continue that fun learning experience.
So, here comes the big question; How do you get your child to enjoy taking part in speech homework and consequently meet their goals sooner? At SpeechEase, we have put together a list of our favourite motivational toys for speech sound therapy, and for language stimulation that won’t hurt your wallet.
Speech Sound Therapy
Pop up pig
Suspenseful games are always super rewarding for little learners! Each burger you feed the pig has a number written on the bottom, which dictates how many times the pig’s head needs bopping. Each number can also dictates how many sounds, words, phrases or sentences are going to be practiced. Check it out here.
Snakes and ladders
If you don’t have a snakes and ladders board, these are easily printed from a simple Google image search. All you need is a die! Whatever number you roll dictates how many sounds, words, phrases or sentences are to be practiced. Check it out here.
Picture cards with the target words
These cards are fantastically functional. With picture cards, you can play memory, snap, or go fish. However, my favourite activity to play with picture cards is hide and seek. You can hide the cards around the house, and make a treasure hunt to find (and practice!) each word. Pirate hats for this treasure hunt are optional! Check them out here.
Language Stimulation Therapy
Mr. Potato Head
This little guy is a brilliant way to introduce language relating to body parts, clothes and, of course, adjectives. With you as “The Keeper Of The Toys”, you can offer “big eyes or small eyes”, or “pink nose or red nose”. This carb-loaded toy also provides a good laugh to light up your little learner’s brain. Check it out here.
Play dough
Play dough is a wonderful activity, simply made from some spare pantry items. It’s an excellent way to stimulate language relating to verbs (like ‘cut’, ‘pull’, ‘roll’ and ‘squash’), colours and shapes. Play dough is an enjoyable way to stimulate commentating, requesting and a pair of very sticky hands! Find how to make some here.
If you are wanting even more ideas, feel free to give one of our Speech Pathologist’s a call! We have many many MANY more ideas! Also, keep an eye out on our Facebook page for videos of us using these toys to show you exactly how great they are!
