Highly motivating toys and games that require help increase the opportunities for a child to initiate an interaction. You can target sounds while playing with a common toy. Using familiar games to target speech sounds is an effective way to play with your children and provides an interactive way to practice speech, rather than drilling vocabulary. Here are a few games and toys you may already have at home that can be used to encourage speech practice.
Activity #1: Ball Popper Unicorn
Skills to Target:
Vocabulary: ball, pop, in, out, go, more, push, help
Activity #2: Potato Head
Skills to Target:
Vocabulary: Final /t/ words: hat, foot, feet, out, put. Final /n, m/ words: in, arm. Final /s, z/ words: eyes, nose, toes, purse, or plurals. Final /p/ words: top, hop. Final /k/ words: take.
Activity #3: Honey Bee Tree Game or Kerplunk
Skills to Target:
Vocabulary: in (putting leaves in, putting bees in), out (pulling leaves out, bees falling out), drop, down, my/your turn, buzz, bees, come/home
Activity #4: Don’t Break the Ice
Skills to Target:
Vocabulary: my/your turn, in (setting up ice blocks), gone (knocking out ice blocks), hit, out, knock, break, ice, boom/tap (as you hit the ice)
