December 2022 | Kirsten Withers, SLP-CCC

What kind of toys should we give our kiddos who are building their language through play?  

This blog will focus on:

• 7 different kinds of toys and how you can use them at home

• Toys that help build your child’s language through play

If you have ever been in one of my speech sessions, you may have heard me say, “I can’t wait for these batteries to stop working!” But why? I know, I know, I know- kids are amazed by the flashing lights and sounds of battery-operated toys but when you are attempting to facilitate language, I find that it is distracting. I have observed time after time that kids will focus on a crazy monkey jumping up and down screaming “oo-oo, ah-ah,” or the coin pig singing “1-2-3" but what does the child do as soon as the music and sounds are over? That’s right: they press the buttons again and again. It is almost impossible to gain the child’s attention or model language for our emerging talkers. So, what kind of toys should we give our kiddos who are building their language through play?  

Think: less is more. Simplistic toys without sounds, flashy lights, talking creatures, and batteries are a great choice to use when trying to increase your child’s language. Caregivers will be encouraged to use more descriptive language and be able to increase their child’s joint attention when utilizing these types of toys. What kind of toys are we talking about?

Here are some of my favorites and how I use them in therapy: 

1. Dollhouse with dolls and various types of furniture/household objects: 

   I use dollhouses almost daily! There are so many language targets that you can accomplish when using these kinds of manipulatives. I can model simple utterances like, “go downstairs, eat dinner, sit down, time for bed,” as well as verbs like, “sleeping, jumping, sitting, walking,” play skills such as, “first we put the girl on the bed, then we put a blanket on her” and with following directions like, “first put the girl on the chair, then put the cat in the tub.” 

2. Mr. Potato Head: 

   I love to use Mr. Potato Head to work on identifying body parts. For example, I can say, “this is Potato’s eye, where is your eye?” I also use the Mr. Potato Head parts to work on communication skills for requesting. For instance, I will hold up two body parts and have the child point or verbalize to request (child: “I want nose.”). You can also work on two-word utterances while playing with Mr. Potato head with statements like, “nose on,” “arm on,” “hat off.”  

3. Blocks or Magnet Tiles:  

   Using blocks are great to build towers, knock them down and take turns. While playing you can model words like, “up, up, up” while building and then….”BOOM!” For kids who are working on turn-taking or two-word combinations, you can model statements like, “my turn” and “your turn” between each block placement.   

4. Pretend Kitchens and/or Pretend Food Items: 

   Kids are always gravitating towards my pretend kitchen! It is definitely one of the fan favorites. We pretend to cook, cut, stir, and serve various types of food in my pretend kitchen. The language models and play skills here are endless. Some of the many language models I use are: “eat pizza, cut the carrot, stir soup, bake hot cookies.” There are so many amazing pretend foods out there. We enjoy the ice cream set, birthday cake, and pizza foods! 

5. Planes/Trains/Cars: 

   This might seem basic but vehicles are wonderful toys to use when modeling early language development. Exclamatory words like “oh-no,” “uh-oh,” or “wow” and environmental sounds are some of the first words to emerge. Kids will love hearing their parents use funny “vroom-vroom-vroom,” “choo-choo,” and “beep-beep” sounds while playing together.   

6. Dolls and Figurines: 

   There are endless opportunities for descriptive language that you can use when playing with dolls and figurines. You can model locational concepts like, “Barbie is IN the tent,” “Superman is UNDER the table,” “Farmer John is BEHIND the barn”, in addition to action words like, “jump, sleep, run, walk, fly” and encourage your child use their imagination to increase the variety of play schemas.  

7. Magnets and Stickers: 

Magnets and stickers are a great way to increase a child’s vocabulary! My favorite stickers are the reusable kind that come in various themes. Kids can work on labeling single words, identifying vocabulary through language like, “where is the cow?” or “show me the firefighter” as well as following directions and locational concepts such as, “where should we put the slide? NEXT TO the swings? Or behind the swings?”  

As you can see, there are numerous options for simplistic toys which will allow for improved engagement and language modeling. I must add that electronic toys are, of course, not bad options. It’s nice to have options; however, if you are looking to build your child’s language through play, these non-batter-operated options may be a better choice.  

One last thought: these toys would be excellent choices for the upcoming holidays!     

Photo by Jerry Wang on Unsplash