Top speech therapy toys!
I always say, it’s not the toys themselves that make for a magical speech therapy session but what you do with the toys that makes the magic.
However there are some toys that are so fun that it is a little easier to bring that sparkle!
On Wednesday this week, I did a IG story series where I showed behind the scenes of a day-in-the-life of a speech therapist! By the end of the day I had so many questions about the resources I use, and when they can be bought. So I am responding to that call!
Here are the details of what’s in my therapy bag….
How to use these toys to develop speech, language and communication skills
These 4 toys (plus a few extras, see below!) came with me for a full day of therapy. On the day in question I saw two 4 year-olds in nursery and two 3 year-olds in their homes.
I used these resources to work on:
Speech sounds
Following instructions
Developing conceptual language
Play skills
Working on speech sounds using the rocket!
I used the rocket tower on the /f/ sound. Although these activities work just as well for any target sounds, just switch out ‘f’ for your target sound.
Have the rocket ‘make’ a ‘fffffffff’ sound as it takes off into space!
Draw aliens and give them pretend ‘f’ names (e.g. “fa”, “fee”, “fow”).
Get the rocket to travel through a ‘f’ universe landing on different ‘f’ planets (‘fan’ planet, ‘farm’ planet'...)
Working on following instructions using play doh!
Play doh plus these body-part accessories are perfect for working on following instructions!
Create a number of play-doh bodies! Green, yellow, purple…
Place a selection of body parts in front of your little learner.
Ask them to give a body part to one of the play-doh bodies (e.g. “give the green body 4 arms”).
Make this as simple or complicated as you like by increasing/decreasing the number of options.
Working on concepts using the Washer!
The most obvious concepts to work on with this washer are colours and locations (in, on, under, infant, next to…). However these aren’t the only concepts you can work on with this toy!
More/ less.
Everything/ all the (blue clothes, trousers..).
All xxxx except the xxx.
I also like to add other resources in to “wash” picture cards, small little trinkets etc.
Working on play skills using Bey Blades!
Now I do like to use all these toys to work on play skills. Depending on the toy, they are good for different types of play. Bey Blades are a lovely simple toy that can be scaled up or down deepening on the little learner’s needs and skills.
Turn taking with ‘launching’ them! (making them spin).
Having a Bey blade battle, the last Bey blade spinning is the winner.
Creating an imaginative scene around the Bey blades (maybe they’re magical circles that will give us powers, maybe they’re a hurricane we need to escape from).
Extras!
Here are the extra bits I use to keep things running smoothly!
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