Toy Recommendations for Early Intervention
Below is a list of toy recommendations that are beneficial for your child’s speech and language development. I provided links to where you can purchase these items. Also, thrift stores are a great place to look for the below Items!
1. Interactive books
Interactive books include flap books, touch and feel, musical, and sound books. These books are a great way to promote engagement and build foundational literacy skills. They are also great for toddlers, children with limited attention, or for those that are not showing complete interest in books yet.
Where’s Spot
Busy Car Book
Noisy Farm
2. Bubbles!
Bubbles can lead to increased engagement and joint attention and can motivate your toddler to communicate. You can work on targeting early developing vowels and consonant sounds (e.g. “Pop!”) and playful sounds!
3. Pop-Up Toys
Pop-up toys are a great way for your child to learn and understand cause and effect. In order for a child to communicate or use words they must first understand that their actions or vocalizations have meaning or an effect on their environment.
4. Blocks/Legos
Legos and blocks are a great way to target basic concepts (in, on, under). You can promote cause and effect with your child by building a tall tower and having your child knock it down.
5. Ring Stacker
6. Tunnel
You can use a tunnel to target following 1-2 step directions and prepositions (e.g. “Go through the red tunnel.”). It can also be used to teach children comparative/superlatives (fast, faster, etc.), pronouns (“Where are YOU?”) and can also be included in a game of “Hide-and-Seek”.
7. Puzzles
Puzzles are great way to label common nouns and model environmental and playful sounds.
Music is a great way to enhance your child’s engagement and participation. Music can promote speech sound development, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and expressive and receptive language skills. You can also work on having your child request which instrument they want to use.
9. Farm
You can never go wrong with a farm and farm animals when playing with your child. Toddlers learn to label animals and vocalize animal sounds. It also reinforces the use of basic concepts (“Put hay in the horse stall.”) and provides many opportunities to ask basic Wh-questions.
10. Pull back cars
Pull back cars are also considered cause and effect. You can work on the strategy wait time after using an intraverbal “Ready, set, ____.!”
Eyas Landing is a therapy clinic with a mission to provide evidence-based and family-centered therapy services for children, adolescents, and their families. The primary goal is to deliver relationship-based interventions within the most natural environments and to empower families to reach their full potential. To achieve this goal, our highly educated, compassionate staff dedicates time and expertise to create experiences that maximize therapeutic outcomes. The strength, determination, and perseverance of our clients are evident as they succeed in therapy, and ultimately in their daily lives.
Eyas Landing offers a wide range of comprehensive services including Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, ABA Therapy, Social Work, Family Therapy, and Neuropsych testing. Services are provided throughout the Chicagoland area via Telehealth, In-Home, and in our state of the art clinic.
Want to learn more or you have a specific question? Feel free to connect with us here!
