Abbey

I love this picnic set!

You can do pretend play, vocabulary/categories (food, colors, utensils), fine motor (chopping the fruit/veggies, twisting lid on), and prepositions & following directions (i.e. “Put the banana in the basket”, “Put the cake on the plate”, “Can you pour me a drink?”). Plus, who doesn’t want to foster a little future chef to cook for them 🙂

Hibaq

Magnetic Tile builders!

This is great activity for kids to do with an adult, by themselves or with a friend. It comes with a visual cards from simple to more difficult constructions or your child can come up with their own designs. There’s lots of opportunities to practice shapes, colors, imitation, and play skills!

Amy Strohman

Amy’s favourite SLT toy is a fun set of Wooden Chopping Fruit! This toy is frequently used in my therapy sessions, because I love how many different ways it can be used! You can target nouns, such as the names of the fruits, but also verbs (e.g. chop, eat, slice, smell) and sounds in play (e.g. “yum!”). It is also fun to see if you can match the fruits, or make silly fruit combinations! You can use this toy on its own, or combine it with other toys, such as dolls and stuffed animals, in order to target pretend play and sequences. Happy chopping!

Steph

 One of my go to therapy resources is Theraputty. Theraputty is so versatile and can be used in many different ways to work on developing your child’s hand and finger strength, as well as providing good tactile input to the sensory system. Theraputty can be used as a warm up activity before fine motor activities such as handwriting, and can be incorporated into your child’s daily routine to work on finger and hand strength.

Here are some activities you can do with therapy putty: 1) roll into a sausage shape, pull it apart and roll into small balls, chop into small pieces with scissors, make letters out of it, pinch and squeeze putty, work on hand strength by cutting it with a knife and fork, bury small beads in the putty and get your child to pull it apart with both hands to retrieve the beads. Theraputty comes in different strengths including soft, medium or firm. You can buy a pack of 3 and as your child’s hand and finger strength develops, move on to the next strength.

 

 Ava

 I love to read all throughout the year, and particularly during the darker, colder months to help unwind! Children love books too, but sometimes they need a unique story to capture their imaginations. This Christmas, think: a warm blanket, a hot water bottle and a brilliant children’s book that you can engage in with your child! Here a few of my go-to suggestions for BEST BOOKS this festive season:

  • A Monster in My House
  • Let’s Go Strolling
  • Tricky’s Bad Day
  • Zoo House
  • DUCK
  • My Mum is a Magician
  • Jasper Juggles Jellyfish

Merry Reading!

 Marissa

 This game is fit for a princess… or prince. This Enchanted Cupcake game has been a crowd please for both girls and boys. I love using this toy in therapy to work on concepts such as top, middle and bottom and for pronouns such as mine, yours, his and hers. This can be a great conversation starter for asking each other’s favourite cake and icing flavours. When the game is done, use the tiny cupcakes with other toys to extend the fun.

10/10 from this SLT.

 Cara

 I love using the Post-It Box!

Kids absolutely love this toy, and it can be used for a variety of communicative purposes! Kids can use this toy for imaginative play (posting a letter to Santa!) and can give them the opportunity to create a story about it. It also allows the child to work on questions, like, who are you writing a letter for? Where are you sending it? What is it going to say? So, what are you waiting for? Why not make your little one write out and send the holiday cards this year! 😉

Amy Sakuda

One of my favourite toys is the phlat ball! Here are a couple of my favourite ways to use it:
  • Waiting and turn-taking – We play with this by taking turns pushing the ball down to make it flat, say, “Waiting… waiting…. pop!” Because children have to wait for the ball to pop, it’s great for building anticipation and waiting for the pop. It’s also great for turn-taking, because it’s a quick and motivating each turn.
  • Reinforcement – Sometimes we use the ball to knock down a pyramid of cups that we have built, but the child had to answer a question or say words before they got a cup.
  • Articulation – Some words we might work on with simple syllable shapes (consonant-vowel [CV], consonant-vowel-consonant [CVC]) include: ball, pop, wow, me, turn, push, my
  • Requesting – I’ll have children request for the ball, and how they want to receive the ball (e.g., roll, throw, kick).
Have fun playing with this versatile toy!