Blue Orange Games, known for their “hot games for a cool planet,” continue to invent clever games for kids that are friendly to our environment. Their latest member of the family, “ChickyBoom,” calls on fine motor skill and balance, requiring slow, precise movements to remove a chick, bale of hay or wagon wheel delicately placed along the chick’s perch. Take turns plucking pieces off the balance beam without letting it topple. After the perch is dumped, collect your pieces and call upon your math skills to count up the numbers on each one to see who has the highest number to declare victory.
This simple game of balance, math and strategy can be used effectively as a reinforcer for articulation and language therapy. I have written in a previous blog of the merits of good board games for teaching social language to children on the autism spectrum, and this is another such game that is simple enough with quick turns, but can be used to teach social skills as well as concepts such as high/low, same/different, heavy/ light and center.
I’ve used it to reinforce articulation learning by practicing sounds and taking a turn, or teach language skills like irregular past tense verbs as we “took” off a piece, “saw” where we put it, “put” it in our pile, “got” the block in the center, or declared that the chick “fell.”
Kids love the impish looking chicks and try to pluck them off first.
See my full review of “ChickyBoom.”
If you follow my blog you know that I contantly talk about having little people available for your child’s pretend play.
Once again, I visited a home of boys where the train set was devoid of people. This well-meaning mom of two boys had a variety to stimulating toys around. When I asked her, “Where are the people for the train set?” she opened the drawer below the track and there they were. I said, “Let them out of the drawer!”
Wooden train sets are common toys for boys, whether they are Thomas the Train or some variation of it. They provide a lot of fun for kids but don’t always encourage a lot of talking, especially if there are no people to have little conversations, buy tickets, build or repair the railroad or work in the forest.
So if you have a train set, check for the people, or else you might have a quiet play time.
Target offers many house brand toys for creative play that are affordable and fun. I thought I would try out the Circo 70 piece Train Set after much success with the Circo Frog Tent.
I wasn’t disappointed and either were my 3 year-old toy testers! We had lots of fun sending the three trains and two trucks down the ample track. We added a little pink Playdoh as “dirt” to flatten with the roller, then set out the forest of trees and added the caution gates as well as the many traffic signs. The wooden men hung out near the train, went to the “Office” for tickets or rode on top of the train with the aide of some Playdoh! One parent was so impressed with the 70 piece construction set for $25.99 since she said the Thomas trains are over $10 each. For added props to encourage creative play and language development, the 120 piece Circo Train Set ($39.99) had a helicopter and landing pad, airplane with a runway, five buildings and a mountain to drive through.
Circo wooden train from Target
Let me know some lower priced toys that deliver the creativity with your kids. What have you found that’s fun?
Playing fun, engaging board games with kids helps build social skills. For higher functioning children on the autism spectrum, games provide many opportunities to teach pragmatic language skills. Children with ASD like predictable routines (taking turns around the table, drawing a card or rolling the dice and moving your piece) and a set of rules (the directions for the game) which can be a backdrop for lots of learning.
I’ve had success teaching social language skills while playing board games with kids who I work with on the autism spectrum. I use games to:
- teach turn taking, and use language to prompt peers what to do next
- explain the rules to a new player
- follow directions
- wait their turn
- encourage others
- talk about what card they hope to draw
- talk about emotions when we are excited or disappointed in a turn or at the end of the game
I have often told parents that they should be the Producer, not the Director of their child’s pretend play, meaning, set out some fun toys and objects and let your child create the story with the props.
Today I was playing with Reagan with the pretend hospital including the doctor, patient in a cast, x-ray machine and baby nursery. After we had played for a while, mom got up and passed by dropping a stethoscope on the table. Next thing you know, Reagan was combining her life size props with her smaller representational toys. She had the doctor pinned to the floor while she was listening to her heartbeat.
Mom did just what she should do–add a little something for play to extend it or move the story along. This will not only lengthen her child’s attention span for this play but also build a new language story.
What combinations of toys does your child like to play with? How do you combine toys? Share in the comments below.
When I choose a toy for review, I am often surprised at how kids react to the toy. They show me new dimensions for play or sometimes the lack of exciting potential. They teach me whenever I let them!
I saw the Taggies Rocker by International Playthings at the International Toy Fair in New York City this winter and was drawn in by that adorable giraffe’s goofy smile. I thought it would be fun to ride as well as play with and I was right.
My little toy testers are neighborhood kids, grandchildren and families that I work with. I arrived at the first house with my giraffe and was greeted at the door by the three kids, one, two and-a-half and four years old. They were thrilled to try out my giraffe and wanted to know if he was staying. After a while, Mom had to get out the timer to regulate turns on this popular safari friend. His next stop was at one-year-old Caroline’s to be tried out by her gang of pals. Since the toy is designed for one to three year-olds, it was interesting to see how the different ages related to the giraffe. One-year-olds needed assistance in getting on the animal and loved the ride but also enjoyed exploring the taggies, crinkled ears, and varied patched of texture. Caroline entered the playroom in the morning, pulled herself to a stand, hugged and pet the giraffe and then explored his eyes and cheeks, fascinated with his face. Her two-and-a-half year old pal, Kallie, climbed right up and went for a rockin’ ride.
Don’t we want a toy that has more than one function? This rocker can wear out a toddler in motion or entertain a crawler with the varied sounds, colors, patterns and textures on his plush body.
As speech pathologists, we are always looking for new activities to keep our students engaged and improve their speech and language skills. Sometimes we just need a change of scenery ourselves!
I was reminded of this when we had an uncanny week of summer weather 2 weeks ago. I arrived at a child’s house and he was outside sending matchbox cars down the slide into his plastic pool. Instead of doing our usual routine we just stayed outside and played with the cars, using them as a reinforcement for articulation productions. As the cars got ready to race down the slide, we used it as an opportunity for a language activity as well–predicting who would win, and then naming the first, middle and last cars as they crashed into the water. Somehow I got an entire hour of “work” done on his sounds that usually interest him for a short time.
Preschoolers love the out-of-doors as a backdrop for therapy. I have taken walks and gotten a first word out of a child–”rock” as we pass the same stream and throw rocks in the water. I have used a bale of hay in the backyard (Dad was seeding the lawn) as a home for dinosaurs to talk and move, a slide to send blades of grass and sticks down, a bucket to collect rocks, ants and sticks, all as the child is naming or attempting to name his surroundings.
Parents, keep in mind that the outdoors is a whole new backdrop for vocabulary and interesting things to explore and name.
I want to wish a very happy Mother’s Day to all of you incredible moms out there! I know we aren’t perfect but even Oprah says we have the hardest job in the world (and the most rewarding!).
A special Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom who is also a great grandmother to 4 and is just as entertaining and creative with her great-grandchildren from a wheelchair as she was with her own children! Here she grabbed some blue swim goggles to stretch over her glasses to entertain Ben.
Here’s to you Mom.
I want to wish my readers a happy Easter and Passover. Many of the kids I work with are off on vacation, escaping to warmer weather or visiting “Back Ogama” as one of my little girls said, describing her upcoming trip to Washington DC!
I just had to share this photo of Caroline meeting the “mall bunny.” Her parents patiently waited in line and were warned that she might be frightened of the large bunny. Not Caroline! She likes everyone and ended her photo shoot by hugging the oversize bunny!
While I was visiting with a mom today, her 4 year-old daughter was creating a pretend world with her blocks. The blocks had many different shapes, but were the traditional natural wood blocks, without painted villages or people on them. Some might think these blocks are a bit boring by today’s standard of toys.
Mom picked up on of the bigger blocks and started to talk about the clever preschool teacher her daughter has. She said the teacher glued a picture of each of the children in the class onto the large blocks for play. Now the kids gather, take up their picture block and have conversations at the block area. This clever teacher has added conversation and encouraging language to a typically quieter activity.
Make sure you add people or animals or figures who can talk to your child’s pretend play scenarios. Children hone their conversational skills and social language through play.
