It’s that time of year again (well, almost!). If they haven’t already, your children will soon be making their list for Santa Claus, and holiday presents can be a great opportunity to buy the appropriate toys that will help develop your child’s communication skills.

We know that play skills are fundamental for communication development. Children learn language, speech and social rules through play, such as turn-taking, joint attention, and listening skills. Playing with toys also gives parents a wonderful opportunity to model appropriate behavior and label objects and actions.

Here are some Christmas pressie ideas for your little one!

1) Dolls; Teddy Bears; Mr. Potato head

Why?

These can be used to develop pretend play skills, as well as learning verbs, emotions and nouns (i.e. body parts/clothing items).

How?

Use the doll/teddy bear/Mr. Potato head to point out body parts “Here’s dolly’s feet/hands/legs etc” and to model verbs/nouns, e.g., “Dolly is hungry, wheres her bottle?”; “Teddy is tired, night night teddy”; “Mr. Potato head is sitting/jumping (etc.) on the chair” etc.

2) Toy sets such as Tea sets; Train or Car sets; Farm sets

Why?

These provide a great opportunity to label different objects and actions, as well as demonstrate sounds.

How?

Ensure to talk about what you and your child are doing as you are playing. E.g., “The red car crashed into the blue car”. “I’m stirring my tea”, “The train is going fast”. Ensure to use short, simple sentences.

3) Shopping game; ‘Guess Who’ game; Board Games; Picture cards

Why?

These can be used to improve your child’s memory, attention, speech and listening skills. Two player games help children develop social skills, and turn-taking skills.

How?

Picture cards can be used for matching, memory games and barrier games. Work on describing words (adjectives) by taking turns to choose a card, describe it, and have your child/you guess what it is! Use simple instructions or short lists of groceries during the shopping game using real or toy groceries and a trolley/basket. Describe and label them as you play the game. The ‘Guess Who’ game is a barrier game in itself, and is therefore great for working on describing words (adjectives), listening skills and turn-taking.

4) Dolls House; Pretend Kitchen; Princess Castles

Why?

Again, this will help the development of pretend play skills, and provides an opportunity for parents to comment on play.

How?

Act out different scenes as a prince/princess/chef or with the dolls in the dollhouse. Talk about the different objects, what they are used for, the different colors and the different rooms in the doll house. Use role play to improve social interaction and turn-taking skills.

5) Blocks; Bubbles; Football; Musical Instruments; Puzzles; Shape Sorters

Why?

These games help develop turn-taking, attention and hand-eye coordination. They also provide opportunity to comment on objects and actions.

How?

They can be played using ‘ready steady, go’. Wait until your child says ‘go’, or makes eye contact before doing the action, i.e., building the next block/blowing the bubble/playing the xylophone. Ball games target hand-eye coordination and sharing. When playing with puzzles/shape sorters, comment on what is happening e.g., ‘in’, ‘out’, ‘doesn’t fit’, ‘try again’, ‘it fits!’ ‘my turn’, ‘your turn’. Use hand-over-hand where needed to guide your child with correct placements.

Extra tips when playing with your child:

Ensure you are at eye level when playing with your child
Use short simple sentences
Talk about everything you are doing…keep repeating words over and over again!
Repeat back what your child says. If your child is at a one-word level, and says ‘ball’, expand this to two-words such as ‘blue ball’, ‘small ball’. As such, if your child is at a two-word combined level, e.g., ‘yellow car’ expand this to three words such as ‘fast yellow car’, ‘yellow car crashed’. Continue this to help your child develop to 4-5 word phrases.
Use gesture and point to what you are commenting on/describing
Comment on your child’s speech, as opposed to correct. E.g., your child says ‘taw’ for ‘car’. Repeat, “yes, the car” and emphasize the target word.

As always, I’d love to hear from you, so get in touch at hannah@elyhq.com. For more insights, go to www.elyhq.com and follow us on Instagram @earlylanguageyears

Wishing you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving!