The holiday season is here and the hustle and bustle to buy gifts is here with it too! We wanted to help you out by sharing some of our favorite gifts that double as language development tools. Gifts that build skills and are fun! It’s a win win! We came across this great list by Margaret over at Speak Play Love. These gifts are mostly geared towards kids ages 2-5, but can definitely be used for older and younger kids especially if they are learning English as a second language. In addition to being great holiday gifts, these double as excellent birthday gifts. Be sure to sa
The main takeaway for these gifts is communication! Each one creates an environment for interactive play where communication is happening while playing. We love how these gifts encourage caregivers to interact with their children as well. Modeling language and communication is one of the best gifts we can give!
10 holiday gifts your little one will LOVE and encourage speech development:
1. Indoor Scavenger Hunt Cards- This is such an awesome indoor game for winter! What we love about it: helps to connect words with real world objects and builds vocabulary of ordinary items.
2. Seek-A-Boo- A very fun memory/matching game that you can modify for different ages. It helps build vocabulary and categories. Kids also learn to take turns and communicate around games.
3. Bear Sees Colors Book-This book abounds with possibilities. It helps to teach simple sentence structure and pairing two words together. Of course, it teaches colors and animals as well. Reading to a child is such a phenomenal tool in language development.
4. What Comes Next puzzle – This is an easy sequencing puzzle that builds vocabulary around adjectives and verbs! It teaches sequencing words such as first, then, last.
5. Magnatiles-These are all the rage and we can see why. They help build vocabulary around spatial words and locations like – left, right, up, top, bottom. Helps kids to learn colors. It also aids in social conversation with sharing and cooperation.
6. Nesting blocks – These are such a fun activity! It helps to teach taking turns and building words like Up and On. It also teaches vocabulary, animal sounds, and much more!
7. Wooden puzzles- These are durable and FUN! It builds vocabulary, works on location like “upside down” or turn it around. Try and see if your preschooler can identify the sounds with the alphabet puzzle- or even name other things that start with that sound.
8. Mr. Potato Head- What a great toy to help teach vocabulary to identify body parts. Ask questions like “Where is his ear? Is that how he hears?”
9. Sticker books – This is a great one for travel too! Maybe wrap it up and gift it early if you plan to travel for the holidays. Sticker books help to build vocabulary in regards to directions and descriptions- “put the green truck by the yellow bird”
10. Play kitchen- Works on following directions, learning describing words, & pretend play. This toy creates unlimited opportunities for conversation!
Source: https://speakplaylove.com/recommended-toys-to-increase-speech-and-language-development/