2021 Gift Guide
By: Claire Luttrell, MS, CCC-SLP
Wondering what to get your kids for Christmas / holiday gifts? These are some of our favorite toys we use in therapy!! They all have an ability to promote language use and learning! Visit our amazon page for more toys and games we recommend for your children!
Early-Development Toys:
Shape-Sorter
Stacking cups / rings
Piggy Bank
Ball Popper Toys
Pretend phone
These types of toys allow children to explore their newly developed fine motor skills and can be paired with learning new words such as colors, numbers 1-10, “up, down, on, off, in, out, more”, etc..
Open-Ended Toys:
Build-A-Garden
Doll houses / farms
Tool Set
Little People (animals and people toys)
Pretend food (especially the kind with velcro food items that kids can “cut”)
Car race track
Legos
Mr. Potato Head
Allow your child to use their imagination while playing! They can play with these toys by themselves or with other children, or even with you! Target words such as “more, up, down, go, stop, in, out, on, off”, colors, animals, foods, etc..
Sensory Toys:
Bean Bin
Rice Bin
Play-doh
Making your child a sensory bin can be super cheap! Buy a bag of beans or rice from the grocery store, and pour into a plastic bin with a top (for storage). You can put items in the bin that your child enjoys playing with or would enjoy finding, such as cars, bugs, mini erasers, little people / animals, and pom-pom balls. See below for an easy way to make colorful rice! You can get small toys / mini erasers to hide and find in the sensory bin from the dollar tree.
Cause & Effect Games:
Pop The Pig
Banana Blast
Pop Up Pirate
Don’t Break the Ice
These games are great for turn-taking, labeling the game pieces, requesting to put pieces in or take out, working on counting / colors, and have an element of surprise!
Beginner Turn-Taking Games
Candy Land
Chutes and Ladders
High-Ho Cherry-O
Sneaky Snacky Squirrel
Zingo
These games require less strategic planning, so are good for kids learning to take turns. These games are perfect for a variety of ages, so would be fun for the whole family!
Turn-Taking / Strategy Games:
Trouble
Sorry
Connect 4
Battleship
Jenga
Great for taking turns, thinking ahead, and making a plan to win! Kids are required to follow a game sequence, wait their turn, and make a strategy to go further in the game.
Question-Asking / Describing Games:
Headbands
Guess Who
These games are perfect to promote using descriptive language, asking questions, and recall, as you have to take turns while remembering what information you have already learned.
DIY Colorful Rice:
What you need:
1 cup of uncooked rice per desired color
1 tsp of water per cup of rice
15-20 drops of food coloring per cup of rice
Plastic baggies to mix the rice
What to do:
Pour 1 cup of rice, the water, and food coloring into a bag
Seal the bag tight, but leave some air in the bag
Shake the bag until the color is mixed in with the rice
Pour rice on a cookie sheet , parchment paper, or paper towels to allow for drying
Dry rice for at least an hour to prevent colors from transferring onto hands / clothing
