When I worked at private practice, I worked with many kids that were under the age of 3, and they were one of my favorite groups to work with! I was provided with some of the toys to start working with them but did have to buy some. Below are my favorite speech therapy toys for early intervention along with links for you to purchase if you’d like.
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Building Blocks
Blocks are always a fun activity. You can work on colors and target words like “on” and “up” when stacking them. It’s always fun to create different structures with them, too!
Bubbles
Bubbles were always a hit with my young kids! The no-spill bubbles are the way to go, especially since some of these kids can move fast and grab them when you least expect it. You can work on words like “pop” and “more” with these.
Cause & Effect Toys
Cause and effect toys like this one are a MUST. I can’t tell you how long some kids can stay entertained with this toy. You can work on language use with the words “open” and “closed” along with so many others! This one makes sounds when you press the buttons and I’ve seen a few others that just open and close with no sounds.
Toy Cars
Cars are so much fun to play with in therapy! You can create ramps out of different things and target words like “push”, “go”, and “vroom”. The pack of cars linked is great because it includes a car, bus, and police car, which allows for even more targets.
Barn & Animals
Any barn and animals that you can get your hands on is a great tool to use. There are so many targets that you can focus on with this toy, including animal sounds and names. If you work with older kids, this is a great toy to use as well to focus on later developing language.
Nesting Cups & Hammer Toy
This toy is great because it can keep the kid entertained while working on different targets. You can work on colors and words like “on” and “down”. The nesting cups are a bonus and you can stack them “in” each other or even hide different things underneath for them to find.
Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head
Everyone loves Mr. Potato Head, but Mrs. Potato Head is just as awesome, and you can use these to target basic body parts.
Balls
Kids love balls – especially throwing them. This toy works great with targeting words like “push” and “roll”.
Steering Wheel
I had quite a few kids that enjoyed playing with the steering wheel during therapy and I targeted words like “on” and “off” when turning it on and off and “push” when beeping the horn.
I hope that this list of early intervention speech therapy toys helps you with ideas on what to get and how to use them in therapy. I’d love to hear from you on what other toys you like to use with this population. Let me know down in the comments below about your must-have toys and if you will be using any of these listed above in your future sessions!
-Robyn 🙂