My Favorite Toys for Apraxia Therapy

What makes one toy more effective for apraxia speech therapy than another?

I try and work on my target words in a functional activity. 

Some toys are more limiting and some are more open ended.

👐 Open ended means they can be used in many different ways.  Easter eggs are an example of an open ended toy. Any target word that’s a noun, can be hidden inside the egg. You can also work on the power words, open, help, in, out, yes, no, who, what etc.

Another example of an open ended toy for speech therapy would be play with TV characters, animals and little people.  You can target many power words with these toys.

It is dependent on the target word.  If the target is a verb then it can usually be targeted with a larger variety of toys. 

Any animal or character can "do" most actions. 

If the target word is a noun i.e. car, then you are limited to playing with a car.

Here are a few suggestions for playing with TV characters, animals and little people.

😊 Verbs: go, come, see, hide, find, fly, eat, hop, jump, sleep etc.

😊 Greetings: hi, bye

😊 Prepositions: in, on, out, off

😊 Questions: who, what, where

❤️ Other power words: up, down, top, one, two, again, home, same, match, yes, no

SOME TIPS:

• The toy should not be too complex to set up and operate.  We need the toy to be reinforcing without distracting the child from attending to the word practice.

• Keep control of the pieces to the toy, and give the child one at a time, when the set of practice trials is complete.  I use a small tray or bag to hold onto the pieces.  Hold the pieces up to your face to gain attention to your lip movement.

• If the child gets too distracted with the play then use a toy without pieces i.e an app, bubbles, or musical toy that they can push as a reward

• Finally, the effectiveness of a toy can also depend on the child's individual interests and preferences. A toy that appeals to one child may not necessarily appeal to another, so it's important to consider the child's personality and interests when selecting a toy. If the child really likes a particular toy, we will use it to elicit repetitions of our target word.

• Here is a link to my favorite and most used toys in Apraxia speech therapy.

Here is a link to receive a sample of my Power Word Resource to help you choose powerful words and toys and activities to elicit those words. 

Here is a link for more information about my Toys and Tools in Apraxia course.  The course includes my full POWER WORD resource.

CLICK ON THE PICTURES BELOW TO SEE INSTAGRAM POSTS ABOUT HOW TO USE

THESE TOYS IN APRAXIA SPEECH THERAPY