Our Top Speech & Language Materials
Every Speech Therapists office is filled with shelves upon shelves of toys, games and activities designed to work on children’s speech and language goals while keeping them interested, motivated and engaged in their learning. So many times my clients have such fun in ours sessions that they hardly recognize they are learning and working on hard things at all! Below are some of my tried and true materials, that have been on constant rotation in my office since I started my career. Fun, engaging and good for children of different ages, these games have been kiddo and S-LP approved.
Passe Partout- La boîte à devinettes
Passe Partout is a Quebec company that has been making language based learning materials for years. La boîte à devinettes is a particular favorite in my office. It can be used by children of all ages for a variety of skills including vocabulary development, describing, associations, wh-questions, inferencing and more.
Placote- Qui cherche quoi où comment?
Placote is an S-LP favorite, by and large. They have the most intentional collection of language development games targeting a variety of skills. Qui Cherche Quoi Où Comment? has been recently updated and is a game I am constantly pulling out for children in my sessions. The best part about this game is it’s flexibility. Once you’ve gone through the respective cards and boards, these can be used alternatively for labelling verbs and nouns, answering questions, comprehension of sentences, pronoun use, sentence formulation and more.
Learning Resources- Farmer’s Market
Food vocabulary, sorting, categorizing, color labelling, pretend play, noun phrases, word associations, requesting, the list of skills and goals the Learning Resources Farmer’s Market toy can target is endless. This game is an excellent addition to anyone’s play kitchen or pretend food collection and can be used in a variety of ways to promote language development.
Sequencing Cards
Sequencing cards can be used for older children who are working on narrative skills, describing, sequencing events, retelling events, adding details, sentence structure, and more. We used sequencing cards all the time in therapy, given the importance of being able to describe events with enough detail. Think of picking your child up from school and asking them “ How was your day?”. If you recognize that your child has difficulty telling you about their day, specifying what they are talking about, giving relevant information, or communicating their day effectively, sequencing cards can be a useful tool.
B. toys- Pet Vet
Another S-LP staple, the Pet Vet is a favorite for young preschoolers. We’ve used the toy as intended to work on vocabulary: animals, body parts, colors and functional words (ex. help, open, close, more, sick, better, 1, 2, 3, up, down, listen, see, go, hi, bye, etc.) and pretend play. We’ve also combined the Pet Vet with different animal figurines, surprise toys or other children’s favorites. They love opening and closing the doors with the keys and this game can really be adapted to any child’s interests simply by switching out what is behind the doors.
Super Duper Publications - Webber Photo Cards WH Questions
Wh-questions are common challenges for children with language difficulties. Understanding the questions and answering them can be difficult, and these photo cards with question prompts can provide parents with opportunities to follow up on wh-question practice at home with their little ones. Each picture comes with corresponding questions on the back, so parents don’t have to come up with these themselves. Also, these cards can easily be paired with any motivating game of your child’s choice, to keep things interesting.
Picture my Picture - Language Flash Card Set
This set of flash cards is one of my most used resources, and most recommended to parents looking to supplement their child’s language learning at home. Because it has so many different picture cards and is organized into different targets (verbs, categories, go togethers, emotions and prepositions), this is a great starter set of flashcards for children with multiple receptive and expressive language goals. Because they are picture cards, these can also easily be paired with more engaging games and activities.
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