The multidisciplinary pediatric therapy team at Child and Family Development is rounding up some FUNctional gift ideas for the 2016 holiday season!

Here are some suggestions from our speech therapists:

• Feed The Woozle (Peaceable Kingdom): This game can be used for social language skills, following directions and as carryover practice for articulation.  Kids love feeding this silly, orange creature!
• Talking Cubes (Alex Toys): A fun toy for encouraging social interaction or a silly way to practice sounds!
• Stamp & Sort Mailbox (Melissa & Doug): perfect for pretend play, asking/answering questions and basic concepts.
• Rory’s Story Cubes (Gamewright): Roll the dice and make up a story.  Great for working on producing narratives and encouraging creative thinking
• Express It Buddy (Discovery Toys): A soft toy with different Velcro features that can be combined to make different facial expressions.  This toy can be used to help understand and express feelings and for imaginative play.
• Discovery Putty (Fun and Function): Kids will have fun finding and talking about the objects hiding in the putty.  
• Buddy’s Balloon Launch (Fat Brain Toys): This exciting game can teach cause and effect, turn taking, cooperation and sequencing.  It can also be used as an incentive to encourage continued participation in an activity.  
• Bunny Peek-A-Boo (Fat Brain Toys): Move the pieces to match the picture on the cards.  Great for teaching understanding and use of spatial concepts.
• More suggestions:
  • Kitchen play sets
  • Blocks
  • Dolls and accessories
  • Wind up toys
  • Shape sorter
  • Puppets

Helpful Hints:

• Choose open ended toys to encourage language
• Skip toys that have batteries
• Look for toys that are fun to play with a partner or a group to encourage social interaction
• Avoid toys that specifically teach academic concepts (letter, number, color) for early language learners
• Sometimes the best learning occurs with no toy at all; speech and language can be a part of any daily activity

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