Water Play in May: Part Two!

Water play toys can be created from anything. I remember as a young child using cups, spoons and dippers from the kitchen! These are of course the easiest and most inexpensive toys! However, these days there are many water play toys that can be purchased to add variety!

A Walmart Find!
Recently when walking through the "baby" section in Walmart I found a fun water play toy for just $2.50! It can satisfy the child that likes to see spinning action! The water runs through the holes in the end and makes the wheel inside spin!






Vocabulary words you can teach with this activity:" Fill up!, through, in, out, spin!"

Sponges make fun water play toys and they come in all shapes, sizes and colors! You can get sponges wet and they will stick to the sides of the tub. This is helpful when using Alphabet Letter Sponges!
If you are working on a particular letter or shape that you can't find in the store, you can make your own. Many craft stores or on-line suppliers have Compressed Sponges. These are fun because you can draw on the shape, cut it out, soak it in water and watch it expand!!!

Compressed Sponge before soaking.















After soaking in water!






                                                                                                     


With this activity, you can target the Descriptive Words: "flat, puffy, thin, thick, little, big, dry, and wet"! 

Water play can provide endless opportunities to learn new words in a fun and meaningful way! The sensory component make learning language memorable! You can create a lot of fun Verbal Routines with water play. Some I use are "Cup cup fill it up!" or " One..Two..Three..SPLASH!" The language opportunities are endless so get busy and get wet!!!

For more ideas, go to sites like Pinterest and search for Water Play or Bath Toys. You will find endless ideas to make water fun.

Water Play in May: Sensory Aspects

As May begins to "heat up", it is the perfect time to talk about water play! Water is a sensory experience that many of us enjoy. Though some children may not like being in the bath or pool, many love to engage in watching water flow, pouring water, splashing and exploring the endless ways that toys react in water! The other fantastic part of water play is that it provides hours of inexpensive fun for children.

Let's talk about the sensory aspect. If your child enjoys the feeling of bath time, use it as an opportunity to soothe and quiet him or her when nothing else seems to work. Lavender is considered by many as a soothing scent. You can add lavender scented products to a bath or just to a play tub of water to "increase" the calming factor of water play.

When choosing products, always check to see if it is safe and non-toxic to little ones!




A favorite in my household are bath products from Lush. This store sells handmade bath products that dissolve in the water and sometimes give you a "fizzy" experience! The "Robot" made by Lush is specially made for kids and provides a lavender scent. 










However, if you are look for something on a budget, you might experiment with products that you can purchase at Walmart or another discount store. I found this bathtime "Dinosaur Egg" for kids in the soap section for under $2.00. There is also the old reliable Lavender scented Johnson's Baby Bath soap or even Epson Salts! Both cheap alternatives.

Toytalk and More: My first blog!

Hello all! Welcome to my Blog...Therapy Toytalk ! The purpose of this site is to share ideas on using toys to teach a variety of skills to children!

First a little about me! My name is Lydia Gaster and I am a pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist. I currently  work with 2-5 year old children who have a variety of delays or disabilities. However, first and foremost they are KIDS!!! They love toys and so do I!!!

 My intention is to share old and new toys and showcase ways to use these toys to teach speech skills, motor skills, and general learning. This blog is for ANYONE who works with children.

Today I start with an old time favorite...Mr. Potato Head!  Recently I found a Birthday Hat for my Potato Head. Needless to say, it has been a big hit. In addition to doing the obvious like naming and identifying body parts, now I can add an entire play scheme related to a Birthday Party.  Everyone of my children have loved joining in singing Happy Birthday to Mr. Potato head. We also pulled out a Melissa and Doug Birthday cake and put on the candles and counted them. There you have it, by adding just one type of hat, I am able to branch off and target the following words and concepts in my therapy session: body part names, singing Happy Birthday, candles, Birthday cake, putting on candles (fine motor), counting, blowing out the candles (oral motor), and prepositions like "on" or "off", and the term for completion "all done"!

For my nonverbal kids, I have a picture symbol board that they can use to request each body part. I have used the app Verbal Victor on the ipad to take pictures of the body parts so that they can use photos and voice output to help assemble Mr. Potato Head!

In upcoming blogs, I will talk more about using other toys and augmentative communication strategies!