August 2017: Favorite Toys Without Batteries

It's time again for our monthly segment: Favorite Toys Without Batteries! As we talked about in our previous segments, we love toys without batteries. Below is The Speech Space's August list of great toys that don't make noise, so that you can get your child talking more while you play!

Melissa & Doug Lock and Roll Rescue Garage:
This is a great toy for younger children and targets a lot of vocabulary. This garage has 3 colored doors and 3 keys. Each door is a different color and each lock is a different shape, so your child needs to match the key to the door color and then notice how to correctly fit the key into the lock to open the door. Once the door is unlocked, you can roll up the garage door and 1 of 3 emergency vehicles is inside (firetruck, police car, ambulance). This toy allows you to target color, shape, preposition (in, out, up, down), and vehicle vocabulary.

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​Marble Tower:
This toy allows children to build their own tower or track for marbles to race down. When building these tracks, you are able to work on both receptive and expressive language skills. Receptively, you can describe the piece you want your child to find, or tell them where to put it (e.g., "Put the green piece on top of the blue piece with the wheel."). Expressively, have your child tell you which piece to find or where to put it. Make sure they are specific and name features of the piece they want (e.g., "It's pink and has a spinner.", "It's the long yellow piece."). 

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Animal Pop-Up Toy: The Speech Space likes this option and this option
​These toys are great for ​the toddler and younger crowd. Once your child is a toddler, this toy can be great for working on problem solving skills (i.e., figuring out how to open each box/make the animals pop up, how to close the boxes/animals), as well as, your child's expressive and receptive language skills. Receptively, you can tell your child which animal to pop up (e.g., "Open the pig"; "Where is dog?"). Expressively you and your child can work on naming the animals, making the animal noises, 

Animal noise suggestions for young children working on imitating new words/sounds: Chicken says "bawk bawk", Sheep says "ba ba", Horse says "neigh neigh", Cow says "moo moo"

Animal noise suggestions for young children working on imitating new words/sounds: Giraffe says "nom nom" (like eating leaves), Elephant says (raspberry noise with lips), Bear says "Grrr", Lion says "rawwwr", Monkey says "oo-oo, ee-ee"

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Check back on The Speech Space blog for other fun ideas, toys and games you can do with your child to help increase their communication development. If you missed our previous Toys Without Batteries segments, check them out under the "Toys" category!
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If you have questions or concerns about your child's development, contact us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems. ​