10 Best Stocking Stuffers for Speech and Language Development
This list includes toys and items that are relatively low cost, small in size and perfect for eliciting speech and language development. I use all of these in my therapy sessions and have found their use extremely successful and highly motivating to my students. The more engaging an activity is, the more language it facilitates! Please check out my other BLOG POST about the Top 10 Toys for Speech and Language Development. I am linking all of the following on Amazon, but often you can find these at your local dollar store, pharmacy chain and even convenience stores!
***Keep in mind that many of these toys contain small parts and should be used with an adult next to the child. To elicit the best communication opportunities the adult should be playing with the toys alongside the child. As you play, be sure model your own language (i.e. “Let’s push the dough”, “uh-oh, the car fell!”) for the child to hear and perhaps imitate.
This list is my no means exhaustive and there are plenty more I could add- but these are some of my favorites that I use with my speech and language impaired students.
1) These gross SUCKING SLIME EMOJIS have been a huge hit for eliciting language for students with decreased verbal skills to students with more language. Targeted core words can include, “in, out, yuck, suck, squeeze, and push”. With gestalt language processors kids have developed new gestalts like, “thats disgusting”, “that didn’t work”, and “It’s not coming out”. They don’t last forever so buy a pack!
2) PAINTER’S TAPE: This seems like a strange gift, but it is hours of fun. To elicit language the adult is the holder of the tape. Children can work on requesting tape, asking for “short” or “long” pieces (great concepts), using prepositions (on, under, around). Kids can make roads for vehicles using the tape and capture items in the wall using the tape. With painters tape it wont peel your paint off!
3) WIND UP TOYS: Kids often require help winding these up which is a perfect opportunity to work on asking an adult or another child for “help”. Target core words can include “stop, go, fall, wind, up, and uh-oh”. Kids enjoy watching these toys fall off of ledges eliciting “uh-oh” or “ Oh no”. Speech sound targets can include /g/ for “go”, and /st/ blend for “stop”. Also you can name each toy with the target sound that the child is working on.3)
4) This PUTTY SNOWMAN is fantastic for working on body parts and children add body parts to the putty to form a snowman. Forming the putty into balls for the snowman works on fine motor strength and coordination for later developing pencil grasp. Language targets include “in, on, out push, stuck, and pull” . You can also pair this with real snow in a bowl and work on those same concepts plus “melt, cold, warm, water”.
5) PAINT WITH WATER BOOKS: I use these in my session when kids need a low key break from high energy activities. Kids can work on labeling or pointing to items on the pages and love to reveal the hidden objects after painting with the water pen. This activity also works on fine motor skills (paint brush grasp). Targeted language can inlcude, “look, I found it, where?, see____, there” and specific vocabulary depending on the theme of the book.
6) PULL BACK VEHICLES: Kids pull back these vehicles then let them go on their own- like magic. This is great for encouraging the following core words: “pull, back, go, stop” in addition to the names of the specific vehicles. Kids can make car tracks by putting books together for a road and watching cars fall “off” or “stay on” the road. Stand books on the edges to make tunnels for cars to go “under” and “through”. You can also target functions of each and describing each vehicle. There are endless concepts to work on with these vehicles.
7) Play-do: Good old dough! Play-do or homemade dough works well for those fine motor skills (strengthening hands and fingers and coordinating the muscles of the hand) in addition to heaping kids develop speech and language skills. Verbs that can be worked on are, “push, squeeze, smash, poke, roll, cut, pinch”. Speech sounds like /p/ for “push” and “pop” can be elicited for minimally verbal kids. Use cookie cutters, bread knives and other kitchen tools with the dough to simulate making cookies and baking.
8) BUBBLES: These are my go-to activity when kids are shy or reticent to participate in sessions. Bubbles usually can elicit participation and language quickly. Bubbles are great to work on early sound /p/ for “pop” and /b/ for “blow” and vowel-consonant combinations like “up”. It also elicits lip rounding while blowing which helps with straw use. I like these Fubbles containers because of the “no-spill” feature (I have spilled many a container of Bubbles before this was invented!)
9) STICKY CRAWLER BALLS: It’s seriously magic how these balls stick to walls and crawl down! Words that can be targeted are “throw, high, up, down, stick, fall, stuck, uh-oh”. The vowel-consonant combination “up” is perfect for working on with these! They also facilitate work on descriptors like feel, color and shape.
10) NESTING ZOO ANIMALS: My students really enjoy trying to figure out how to put these nesting dolls back together. It is a great opportunity to work on sizes (big, small, medium, bigger, smaller) and to work on the concepts “top” and “bottom”. Some core words that can be targeted are, “on, off, pull, same, different” and descriptions and differences can be elicited also.