I am very excited about this new blog series, Toy of the Week: 5 Ways to Play! There are so many ways to use toys, games, and regular household items (more than just their original intended use) to teach and elicit lots of language. I chose the Learning Resources Counting Surprise Party as my first toy of the week because I have used it so much since COVID hit. This set has been a fantastic, engaging activity for both in person and teletherapy sessions.
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This toy set was created and intended to use to help children learn colors and numbers. But as we all know, every good toy can be used in more than one way.
Here are 5 ways I have used this toy in therapy.
Number 1: What's Inside?
Work on those inference skills by giving your child clues about what object is inside the box. For example, take a peek inside one of the boxes and say to your little one, "Ohhhhhh!! This one has big ears, loves carrots, and can hop! What do you think it is?" As your child's language grows, switch it up. Tell them that they get to be the teacher and let them give you clues about what is inside. This is a great way to also work on descriptive words and object function.
Number 2: Following Directions!
These are great objects for working on listening and following directions. Set out the objects and the boxes on a table or the floor. You can use simple directions, such as: "Put the cat in the orange box." work on spatial concepts, such as: "Put the duck behind the blue box" and temporal directions, such as: "Before you put the bear in the green box, put the teapot in the purple box."
Number 3: Simple Reinforcement
These presents bring a lot of engagement to my sessions. I often use these as simple reinforcements for answering questions or practicing a target speech sound. After the child answers the questions, they get to open one box. During teletherapy, this was often a reinforcement for finishing one activity before we moved on to the next one.
Number 4: Make Skill and Drill Practice More Fun!
Grab some flashcards and lay them out on the floor or table. These can be for shapes, letters, numbers, vocabulary words, articulation targets.... anything! Place one of the presents on top of each card. Have the child tell you which present he/she wants to open by naming/ practicing what is on the card first. Since there are 10 boxes, you can easily get to 100 trials in a session with this activity.
Number 5: Movement!
So many of my students need movement breaks between activities. Hide these presents around your therapy space. After each task is complete or after a certain amount of time, instruct your student to go search for one of the presents and bring it back to you. This helps bring excitement and engagement to your sessions as well as work on attention to task.
As I said before, all good toys can be used in more than one way. These are just 5 examples. I would love to hear your ideas or ways that you would use them in therapy!
To purchase this set, you can use this link, here!
