I’ve already tried out some new products that I got at the Toy Fair last week. Nothing like spicing up therapy sessions with some new games in my bag! The kids loved both new games I got from Educational Insights:
Koala Capers Game is like last year’s Raccoon Rumpus with each player “dressing” his koala whose 3D head anchors the cut-out outfit cards. Roll the dice to find what card to collect, shirt or pants, zig zags, checks or flowers. Of course the funniest part of the game is when your die lands on the underwear and you have to dump all your outfits so your koala is down to–you guessed it–his underwear. That always gets kids giggling and engaged. Dressing your koala involves pattern recognition and memory but once the outfit is on, we can talk about where your koala has traveled, describing the background which can include snakes, pyramids, kangaroos, a magnifying glass and shovel or an iceberg and penguin. My kids looked at the surfer and said an island, saw the penguin and said North Pole while the bat and lantern elicited “cave.”
I used this game for goals on:
- Fluency. Use a cloze phrase like, “My koala is wearing_______” or for a harder task of answering a question, “Where is your koala?” He’s on an island, in the desert or in Egypt.
- Articulation. Again you can use the cards on many levels, whether repeating a model phrase like, “a shirt with flowers,” or sentences, “I need a shirt with flowers.” Pick a carrier phrase according to the child’s target sound and they love to add the rest.
- Word-finding. Talking about vocabulary within a category of location.
Frankie’s Food Truck Fiasco Game gets kids filling orders from Frankie’s truck full of foodtastic shapes–circle, square, triangle, rectangle, heart, oval, heart, star and moon. Spin to see what shaped food you can select to fill your five-course meal. If the spinner lands on the fly in your soup, return a dish to the box, while the hand grabbing a dish allows you to steal a card from another player. Kids love to chat while they are deciding what goodie to take for their shape. Usually, they asked me what I liked and then they grabbed it! I had a hard time holding on to my pink frosted donut. Here are some ways I’ve used the game to meet goals:
- Fluency. Again using a cloze phrase like, “I got a ________(shape)” or “I want_____” If you are at the level of generating a phrase or sentence they might tell about their choice, “I love watermelon” or “I don’t eat chocolate.” (true response–are they crazy??)
- Articulation. Repeating a carrier phrase with their sound like, “I can see______” or “I pick_____”
- Nasality. I used this game in the same leveled way for a child working on oral emission instead of nasal emission where appropriate.
The above is solely the opinion of the author. The games were provided by Educational Insights.
