Toys can be used to address your child’s development of their play skills, cognitive skills, motor skills and speech and language skills. Here are some more tips on ways you can use age-appropriate toys in play to help develop speech and language.
Toy play sets
Fisher Price makes some great toy play sets (Little People) that I highly recommend. Children can benefit from these sets to expand their functional, symbolic and pretend play skills along with their speech and language. Also, they can be used from the young toddler age to preschool years and will benefit your child for at least 3-5 years. It’s worth the investment!
Farm
There are different kinds of toy sets but a must for any household is a farm set. Here are a few tips on how to use a farm toy set to stimulate speech and language.
Point to the animals and name them “cow, pig, horse, duck, chicken, goat, sheep, rooster, cat, dog” or hold them up to your child one at a time and name them. You want to make sure your child is looking at the correct animal you are naming. You can also take their finger and help them point to each animal as you name them. Repeat the names of the animals as often as you can so that your child can learn them. For example, you can say “Look, cow! I see a cow. Cow says mooooo.”
You can ask your child to point to the animal or give you the animal that you name (e.g. “Show me cow” or “Give me cow”) and see if your child can find the cow. At first, make it easy for your child to identify animals by giving them a choice between 2 animals and preferably two that are very different. Sometimes children confuse a horse and a cow. So you might want to place a pig and a cow in front of your child and then ask for the cow. Before you ask for the animal, make sure you named each one so that they know what they are called. If your child is unable to grab the correct animal, that is okay. Take their hand and help them point to the animal you named and have them give it to you. For example, you point to cow and say “cow” then point to pig and say “pig.” Then ask “give me cow” and extend your hand. If your child gives you the pig then simply put the pig back and say “I want cow” and point to the cow. Then if your child doesn’t give you the cow, you can help them take the cow and say “Yes! Cow! Give me cow” and place the cow in your hand.
Teach your child all the sounds that the animals make and have them try to imitate you if they are imitating. As you’re playing with the farm take each animal and pretend they are talking to each other. Sounds such as moo, neigh, oink, meow, woof, bah, meh, quack, and cockle doo have all the early speech sounds that are great for your child to hear and practice. I like to emphasize the sounds by holding the animal close to my mouth as I make the animal sound so that the child has to look at my mouth to see how I am producing the sounds.
Sing the classic Old McDonald song with your child. Have them pick the animal and say the sound. As your child gets familiar with the song you can pause and see if they fill in the song. For example, sing “Old McDonald had a” and pause to see if your child says farm. If they are not saying many words yet then you can pause during the vowels to see if they fill in the blank. You would sing “ E I E I” then pause and you can shape your lips in an O position and wait to see if your child tries to imitate your lips and perhaps say oh. Singing is a great activity for shared attention and your child’s language and speech development.
Describe the animals – talk about their features such as color, size, body parts. Help expand your child’s language by giving them more vocabulary in play. If they name the animals you can help by expanding on what they say. For instance, your child says “cow” then you can say “Yes, a cow. A brown cow. A big brown cow”. You can point to the animals’ body parts and say “cow tail, horse tail, bird wings, duck beak, pig snout, cat whiskers.”
You can act out a play routine where you have the farmer feed the animals. Have your child pretend to be the farmer and say things like “time to eat”, “eat chicken”, eat your apples”, “drink water”, “cow drink water.” Adjust your language depending on your child’s age and language skills. If they are able to imitate one word then you can practice having them repeat “eat” while feeding the animals. If they can imitate two words then you can have them say eat + animal name (e.g. eat horse) or eat + type of food (e.g. eat carrot). Just remember even if your child can only say “cow eat” you can always model higher language (e.g. “the cow is eating” or “cow eats apples”). For older children, try to have them incorporate more grammar forms in play. Here are a few examples, “I am feeding the cow”, “the cat is drinking water”, and “the dog is sleeping.”
You can have the animals do various things. Here are some examples of verbs you can use in play – eat, drink, sleep, wake, jump, dance, push, pull, go, put, hide, kiss, hug, walk, ride, milk, feed, open, and close.
Prepositions – when using the barn you can have your child decide where the animals should go. Here are a few examples: inside the barn, outside, on top of the barn, under the tree, near the cow, next to the sheep, behind the cat, in front of the fence, between the ducks.
You can practice asking and answering questions “Is this a cow?”, “Is this a bus?”, “What color is the horse?”, “Where is the chicken?”, “Do ducks fly?”, “What is the cat doing?”, “Who is in the barn?” It is important to practice asking and answering Yes and No questions as of 12m-18m. Wh-Questions (what, who, where, when, why) should also be used in play. Give your children opportunities to answer different kinds of questions. You can also hide the animals and have your child practice asking questions like “where is the cow?” and/ or “who is in the barn?” Adjust your language and targets according to your child’s age and language abilities.
Categories – you can talk about categories of animals. Add some jungle animals into the barn and talk about which animals belong in the farm and which are wild. You can also create different play routines by adding unexpected items such as jungle animals to the farm. For example, maybe the wild animals escaped the zoo and wanted to visit their friends at the farm. This adds a lot of new language to a familiar toy by creating an unexpected routine.
The Little People Zoo toy set is also one of my favorites to use with toddlers and preschoolers. Here are some ideas of how to help develop your child’s speech and language with this set. You can refer to it as the zoo or jungle.
Name all the wild animals.
Describe the wild animals (e.g. color, size, body parts).
Talk about the differences and similarities between animals – some live in the cold (i.e. polar bear), some live in the water (i.e. hippo), some are cats (i.e. tiger, lion, cheetah), some have fur others have feathers, and so on. Then you can have your child place the animals accordingly – hippo in the water, birds in the trees, polar bear in the ice.
Create dialogue in play. Have the animals visit each other. For example, you can have the polar bear go in the tree and say “hi bird, this is a big tree. It’s my first time in a tree. It’s hot here.” See what you and your child come up with, be imaginative. Maybe the animals are on a mission to find some food. This will give you the ability to model a lot of new language.
Animal sounds – talk about what sound each animal makes. For the less obvious animals like a crocodile, hippo, zebra – have fun and let your child come up with what they think the animal sounds like. You can even take the time and search a video of each animal and find out what the animal sounds like – a fun project to do together.
Once again you can do numerous things in play with this set and the animals. Here are just a few verbs you can use in play – eat, jump, swim, slide, fly, sleep, wake, push, go, pull, put, feed, drink, look, find, hide, play, laugh, climb, run, and walk.
Prepositions that can be addressed – in, on, out, down, up, under, top, bottom, above, between, in front, behind, next to, beside, and near. Ask your child where they want to put the animals and/or tell them where to put the animals and help them understand the location. Based on your child’s age and language skills use prepositions that are appropriate. For instance, a 2 year-old should be able to say “in, on, down, up” but “near, beside, between” are expected to be said by older toddlers/preschoolers.
Grammar – target pronouns (me, my, you, your, I, he, she, etc.), is/are, present progressive verbs (e.g. eating, sleeping), past regular verbs (e.g. jumped), irregular past tense verbs (e.g. ate, went, drank), has/does, don’t, plurals (e.g. bears, tigers), possessives (e.g. mine, yours, the bear’s) and many more.
This classic is loved by toddlers and preschoolers. The versatility of this toy gives you the biggest bang for your buck. Here are some ideas of how to play with your Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head to stimulate speech and language.
Name all the different body parts – head, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, tongue, teeth, arms, hands, feet, mustache, hair, belly, back, etc.
Name all the different clothing items – hat, shoes, sandals, bow tie, purse, pants, bag, cap, earrings, etc.
Keep all the pieces of the potato head and have your child ask for each body part/clothing item at a time. You can also give a few pieces to your child while you hold the head and ask them for each piece at a time. If your child cannot yet communicate then hold an item in each of your hands and ask them which one they want and have them point to the desired item. For example, ask “do you want nose or mouth”, if they point to the nose then say “nose” and “I want nose” or “give me nose” and give your child the item. This way you model the appropriate language they need to request and pointing is a functional form of communication. If your child is talking and says “nose” then you should say “give me nose” and see if they are able to repeat it before you give it to them. Repeat “give me _” for each item and with repetition your child will start to understand that when they want something they have to ask using “give me”.
Describe the body parts and clothing – size, shape, color. If your child is labelling the body parts and clothing then add onto it by giving them more language such as “big nose, big red nose, short arms, white shoes”.
Talk about the location of the body parts by asking “where do I put the nose/mouth/eyes?” Have your child practice usng prepositions such as up, down, above/under (the nose), on the side, at the bottom, and on top. You can also have your child follow directions and teach them prepositions by asking them to put the body parts using the same language (e.g. above, under, beside). Help them put the items in the spot you asked if they are unable to.
Be silly. Let the child make the potato head however they want. Then talk about why it looks so funny and ask questions like “do eyes go at the bottom?” or “do shoes go on your head?” This is a great way to work in asking and answering questions in play.
Name your potato heads and play with them. Have them eat, jump, sleep, etc. You can make your potato jump so high and then have some body parts fall off. You can then talk about what fell off and say “uh oh! What fell off?” or model “uh oh, his arm fell off!” Your child will most likely find this amusing. You can then practice having them imitate you and have body parts fall off and then help put the potato back together. Have your child say “put his/her arm back on” or “put it back”. You can also have multiple parts fall off the potato head and ask “who’s arm/nose is this?” and have your child say “bob’s arm, pam’s nose”. This is a great way to target pronouns and possessives.
Naming your potato heads will allow your child to practice using their speech sounds and different syllable combinations. Here are a few examples “bob, pam, matt, betty, didi, teddy, coco, baby”. If your child is currently receiving speech therapy for articulation then ask their speech therapist which sounds would be appropriate for you to practice at home.
Just a quick reminder that these activity tips can be used in any language. If you speak a language that has songs that can be sung in play with animals then sing them. Some languages have different sounds for animals so just make sure you are consistent with the sounds you use in play with your child depending on the language you speak. Bilingual children will learn the body parts, clothing items, and animal names for each language. However, repetition is crucial and they will need a lot of exposure to the same words for them to know that the toy cow is called a cow. Once you know your child has mastered certain labels in one language then you can start to do the activity in the other language.
Here are some examples of situations that may occur if you are raising a Spanish/English bilingual child that can be applied to any language. Your child might continue to use the word “cow” but if you are playing in Spanish just keep modeling “vaca” and stay consistent. It is also important to consider your child’s speech abilities. For some children, monosyllabic words such as “cow, horse, and sheep” might be easier to produce then their longer Spanish counter parts “vaca, caballo, y oveja.” For this reason, some children may shorten their words because it is easier to produce or use the label in the language that is easiest for them to produce. Eventually with time and practice they should be able to start using the words appropriately in each of their languages.
By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information.
.svg)
.svg)
