Talking is two jobs. Having the words, and being able to use them with somebody else. A child can have plenty of one and very little of the other, and the two need different help.
Our speech therapists built three play kits that take it in order. Early Years Language is for the child who is clearly trying to tell you something that will not come out in words, and everything in that box has a challenge built into it on purpose: a lid nobody can get off on their own, a tea party that needs someone to pour, five ducks that go missing one at a time. Sounds and Rhymes comes next, for the child who talks easily and is heading towards reading. Language and Conversation is last, for the child who talks plenty and still cannot get the message across.
Before the words arrive there are the picture boards. Our ALD boards put a symbol beside each word so language becomes something a child can point at, and the song boards do the same with Five Little Ducks and Twinkle Twinkle so you can point while you sing. The nursery rhyme storybook and card set and the five little ducks finger puppets all work on those same songs. The People Games cards are 30 games that need two people and nothing else, which is where the back and forth communication starts.
For sounds there is an alphabet game with wax sticks, a word building game with tiles and boards, printable CVC and syllable cards, a rhyming game with a slime monster, and a letter spotting game. For conversation and storytelling there are conversation cards, a word association game with 152 cards, and story starter cards.
Then there is pretend play, which is where a great deal of language actually happens. A tea party set, a farm animals felt set, a space kit, a cardboard castle and a knight's costume.
Putting words to feelings belongs here too, so there is an emotions bingo game, a set for naming twenty feelings, and a game about reading faces.
