It’s that time of year again! It’s time to start getting your kids ready for the coming school year. Whether your child is working on articulation sounds, pronouns, or labeling, there are simple toys and resources that can help you practice their goals from home this fall. Remember, research shows that both consistent therapist and parent-implemented interventions result in more progress towards achieving their goals (Graepel, 2020). Below is a list of toys and activities that you can purchase or create to utilize during this coming school year.
- Cars or a farm with animals: These toys are helpful if your child needs to practice making animal or environmental sounds or if they need to work on requesting. For example, you can put all the animals or cars in buckets and have your child ask “more” or “open” each time they want an animal or car.
- Potato head: This can also be used to practice requesting with your child. However, it is especially helpful for working on identifying and labeling body parts.
- Different size toys (e.g. balls, cars, blocks, etc.): These types of toys are useful for practicing identifying and labeling items that are big versus small, tall versus short, long versus short, etc.
- Toys/dolls with different genders: These kinds of toys are helpful if your child needs to practice pronouns (he/she/they, his/hers/theirs, etc.). They can also be useful for helping your child practice labeling body parts and clothes.
- Articulation stories: This activity can help your child practice their articulation sounds in sentences and paragraphs. Here is an example of some affordable articulation stories for any sound your child might be working on: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Articulation-Stories-for-Speech-Language-Therapy-1823745
- Articulation scavenger hunt: This activity can easily be created at home free of cost. First, write your child’s target words on different shaped or colored papers. Then hide them around the house or tape them on walls and have your child hunt for them. Then have them practice each word they find.
These are just a few resources to help you and your family target your child’s speech and language goals during this next school year. Remember, making home practice a priority will help your child retain and improve on what they have already learned with their therapist.
Resources used: https://aaspeech.com/aasl-home-practicecarryover/
