Recommendations for toys you can use in early intervention from one of our certified speech-language pathologists.
Farm Animal Set:
Target expressive language by:
-Using environmental sounds: moo, oink-oink, nay, bah
-Producing other “fun” noises like: pretending the animal is eating/drinking (the sillier you are, the more likely you are to get imitations!)
-Producing VC/CV/CVC words like: cow, pig, sheep, goat, up, down, go, in, out… & see if your child will imitate!
Target receptive language by:
-Identifying animals (e.g. show me the horse)
-Giving simple directions like: put the pig in the barn
Nesting Blocks:
Target expressive language by:
-Withholding the blocks allowing the child to request for “more”
-Stacking the blocks and repeat: “up, up, up!”
-Using exclamatory language, like: “Wow! So big!”, “Uh-oh, they fell down”, “Boom!”, etc.
Target receptive language by:
-Identifying colors/pictures on the blocks
-Following directions: put on top, push down, clean up blocks, etc.
Popper Toy:
Target expressive language by…
-Withholding the toy allowing the child to request for: “more” OR “ball”
-Working on simple CV/VC/CVC combinations, like: up, pop, down.
Courtney Johnson, M.S., CCC-SLP
Pediatric Speech Therapist
courtneyjohnson@kidtherapy.org