Toys for Language Learning Recommended by Speech Language Pathologists

Tis' the season to find some incredible deals on toys for your children as well as send family members and friends your holiday shopping 'wish-lists' for your littles. Some of our families whose children receive our pediatric speech-therapy services throughout Los Angeles have asked us for our holiday 'toy' recommendations - specifically toys that can be used for children with speech and language delays and can help promote their language learning and speech development.

We've compiled a list of some popular toys/activities/games/books that we often use with children of all ages and abilities during our play-based speech therapy sessions. We also have included some suggested ways families can easily use these toys to help foster their child's language growth and speech development at home!

Additionally, we have included some of our favorite toys for children who are early AAC users (Alternative and Augmentative Communication) as well as adapted toys for children who may have more restricted mobility and/or Orthopedic Impairment.

Toys for Infants - 6 months -2 years

1. Musical instrument toys - There are so many language concepts that you can target with musical instrument toys and we love the game, "stop" and "go" but you can also target early language concepts like, 'fast/slow', 'loud/quiet', 'hard/soft', and verbs like: shake, drum, tap, hit, etc.

2. Sensory Balls - Sensory balls of all textures and sizes provide infants and toddlers with early joint play and turn-taking skills, by pushing/throwing/rolling a ball back and forth with a loved one. They also target a variety of early language concepts that you can model for them, like common verbs (e.g. push, ball, throw, bounce, roll) and early opposites: hard/soft, smooth/bumpy, big/small, in/out.

3. Baby board books - Lift-a-flap and repetitive baby board books are honestly the best gifts you can give families with infants for their language development! Here are some baby board book titles that we love, that help teach core vocabulary and early language concepts; Brown Bear Brown Bear, Five Little Monkeys, Where's Spot, Peek A Who, Who Am I Under the Sea, Where is Baby's Belly Button?

4. Blocks - We love these soft matching blocks for stacking and matching as well as for teaching language concepts like: up/down, on top, push, build, more, same/different. Blocks can also be used for articulation practice, where children can practice saying their target sound or word while they build a block tower with you!

5. Animal Hide/Seek Toys - This plush farm set is great for infants and toddlers alike - and children love putting them 'in and out' as well as imitating their animal sounds/noises. It's also a great toy option for children to learn the important skill of 'cause/effect.'

Toys For Toddlers & Preschool Ages - 2-5 years

1. Sound Puzzles - We love to use sound puzzles during speech therapy sessions to teach your littles 'cause/effect' skills, how to imitate animal sounds as well as help them with their fine motor and matching skills.

2. Play Dough & Accessories - This is our 'no brainer' gift because it keeps toddlers entertained, encourages creativity, helps with their fine motor skills and targets an endless variety of verbs and adjectives that parents can model for their children during joint play! However, there's really no need to 'buy' play dough accessories - we love to use things we already have on hand such as dry pasta, popsicle sticks, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, cookie cutters, spoons, etc. and let children get 'creative' with their playdough creations!

3. Potato Head - We love using Potato Head toys to teach basic body parts vocabulary, facial expressions and emotions, clothing vocabulary as well as help children with their fine motor skills. This is also a great activity to elicit requests (e.g. 'more') and offer your child choices (e.g. Do you want the red hat or yellow hat?) to expand their language utterances.

4. Cars and play mats - Toy cars and vehicles of various sizes and colors can go a long way in terms of keeping your toddlers busy as well as teaching important language concepts like: go/stop, up/down, fast/slow, big/small etc. We love some of the toy car sets that include city play mats to help expand language opportunities such as "places" around town (e.g. school, houses, restaurants, hospital, stores). We often use these play mats with toy animals and dolls you likely already own, for increased language rich pretend play opportunities.

5. Puppets & Pretend Play Food - We love using puppets and pretend play food and kitchen sets during our speech therapy sessions because children LOVE these realistic toys that foster pretend play and joint play skills. We also love these slice and bake toy sets for teaching sequencing (first, then) and more advanced verbs such as: slice, dice, bake, mix, stir, serve, stack, etc..

   
   

   

   
   
   
   

Toys For School-Aged Children - Ages 5 years +

1. What Should Danny Do? Interactive book series - We often use this interactive book series (5 books in total) with school-aged children to teach problem solving and perspective taking skills as well as story prediction and inferencing skills. They are fun and each have different endings based on the choices your child makes throughout the story. They are also a great choice for neurodivergent children who are learning about perspective taking and social problem-solving skills.

2. ZINGO - This 'Bingo' like matching game is a great way for kids to learn basic vocabulary terms, matching skills (e.g. same/different) and practice their speech sounds and articulation skills in commonly used words (e.g. bat, house, tree, star).

3. Magnetic Blocks & Playmags Figures - Many of our families already own magnetic block sets so we like to suggest Playmags figures which are a fun way to expand play opportunities (and language opportunities) with these magnetic toy people and community workers. You can target pronouns, prepositions, and verbs while you model pretend play actions with these mini figures and build them houses, playgrounds, schools etc.

4. Story Cubes - A great 'stocking stuffer' - story 'dice' or story cubes are fun to have on hand to create stories with your children! We love to use these dice to help our older children create longer and more complex sentences. This is a terrific gift for school-aged children to learn how to use correct verb tense, recall and describe sequences of events, expand their sentences and increase their narrative skills.

5. HedBanz - This is one of our 'must-have' games for children working on expanding their descriptive and expressive language skills as well as children working on asking/answering basic questions. This fun game is terrific for teaching category words, adjectives, adverbs and the use of more specific and descriptive vocabulary and longer and more complex sentence structures.

   
   

Toys For AAC Users & Children with Orthopedic Impairments

We have worked with a diverse range of children throughout Los Angeles who have more complex medical conditions and disabilities, including children with orthopedic impairments with reduced fine and gross motor skills. Here are some toys that we have used with our early AAC users as well as toys that can be used with children with various disabilities that may require more adaptive and sensory based toys:

1. Interactive Animal Touch Toys - We love using toys that children can touch and will result in a sound. Here's one we love to use with children who have limited muscle tone because it is so reactive to light touch/contact: Little Live Pets.

2. Recordable buttons - These recordable 'answer buzzers' are terrific for early AAC users and beginning speakers because you can record basic words like, 'more' and, 'hi' and phrases and watch your child learn the 'cause/effect' skill that will be necessary for their success in use of this basic AAC device.

3. Baby Einstein Glow & Discover Activity Station - This is a terrific toy for children who have varying disabilities and our early AAC users. It's a multisensory toy that has colorful lights, a variety of sounds and words and is terrific for teaching 'cause/effect' learning!

4. Switch Adapted Toys: We love AdaptAbilities - a company created by a Speech Language Pathologist and AAC specialist - that provides switch adapted toys and devices at an affordable price. These toys give children of all age ranges and disabilities the ability to play and operate a much more diverse range of toys!

   
   

   

   
   

Sunny Spot Speech provides private speech therapy for kids in home, online, at your child's preschool, daycare, private school, or at another community location throughout Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. Locations include:  Northridge, Calabasas, Granada Hills, Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Topanga, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Universal City, San Fernando, Valley Village, Burbank, Glendale. 

Contact us for a free phone consultation if you’re concerned about your child’s speech, language or communication abilities: Phone: 818-350-3107 or Email: info@sunnyspotspeech.com.