If you are like me (and most women in general) then you too
peruse the malls for any bargain you can find. One of my favourite elements of
retail shopping is looking for new therapy material. There are three toy shops
in my area that I frequent, and I have started to consider myself a bit of a
collector now. There are also specific brands of toys that I am beginning to
prefer. That’s not what I want to talk
about today though. Today I want to bring up those awesome little discoveries that
one finds unexpectedly. Actually, I now expect to find these awesome discoveries
twice a year, namely at Christmas and Easter time at Woolworths. Their holiday
items are becoming more arbitrary but I do find them rather exciting. The most
exciting part for therapists and parents is that if you hang on a week or two
after said holiday these items are reduced to anything from 25-75%.
A few years ago I found the loveliest farm-animal finger puppets
that came with a small Easter egg inside; the year before that it was full
sized Winnie-the-Pooh puppets over a giant
Easter egg. This year it is little plastic robots and plastic ice-cream cones
that open with an explosion of jelly beans. Now what does a robot or ice-cream
cone, have to do with Easter you ask? Well if you come up with the answer
please let me know too! I’m not complaining though because I am finding some
very exciting uses for these in therapy and the jelly beans disappeared amongst
our therapy staff very quickly.
I have loved hiding targets for vocabulary and articulation
in these little toys and the children I see have loved it too. The element of
surprise has been a real help in keeping the attention of otherwise inattentive
little kiddos.
The basis of articulation therapy is really to get as many
drills of the target sound in the desired word position as many times as you
possibly can. Articulation therapy is quite a process and for more detailed information please click here and here. I use pictures to target specific sounds and I often
use Black Sheep Press or the lovely articulation sheets from Mommy SpeechTherapy. I then cut them apart and lay each one face down on the table. I have been quite
predictable in that I have used the ice-cream cones for the girls (they are in
pretty pink and purple colours) and the robots for the boys. I have then either
the robot or the ice cream cones out on the table too. The child takes one
picture at a time and then says the target word (so we can learn what the
pictures are) and then hides the picture in the toy. Once all the words are
hidden I then hide the robots/ice cream cones around the therapy room. The
child then gets to run around finding them (Like an Easter egg hunt, just to
make them relevant). When they find one they have to open it and use their best
sound to say the word (voila! spontaneous production!).
I’m going to enjoy these little gems until the next holiday
season comes around.
For more information on what articulation disorders are check this out.
For more resources for articulation therapy ideas go here.
