Meet the newest addition to my therapy room… WATER BEADS! They are squishy, bouncy, and great for playful learning. There are so many ways to use water beads in order to develop speech and language. I created a sensory bin with my water beads and I wanted to share my ideas with you!

1. Place your child’s favorite toys in the sensory bin to target requesting, spatial concepts, following directions, identifying, answering questions, and labeling. “Can you find the cow? Where does a cow live? What does a cow say? Can you put the cow at the bottom?”
 
2. It is so easy to target articulation goals with a sensory bin. Place laminated flashcards inside and have children say the word using their “good sounds” when they find it. This is much more fun than sitting at a table and doing boring homework. :-)

3. Let your child explore! Teach verbs (digging, pouring, mixing), adjectives (slimy, bouncy, squishy, wet), colors, and sizes. Use kitchen utensils for pretend play. Get creative and have fun!

I purchased a package of water beads on Amazon, a container from Dollar Tree, and used flashcards and toys we have around the clinic. This is an inexpensive project that can make targeting speech and language goals more fun and engaging. I hope you enjoy the water beads as much as I do!

Meagan Milligan, B.S., SLP-A

While playing with playdoh can give optimal time to address receptive language, expressive language, pragmatic language, sensory, fine motor, gross motor, and handwriting development not all kiddos are able to safely play with it. Sometimes kiddos eat the playdoh or they are gluten sensitivity.  Well, we have the solution! Follow the recipe below for some EDIBLE GLUTEN FREE PLAYDOH!

Edible Gluten Free Playdoh Recipe
Ingredients:
-Baby rice cereal
-Vegetable oil
-Cornstarch(or gluten-free cornflour if you are in the UK or Australia)
-Unsweetened Applesauce (you can substitute water if you don't have applesauce)
-Food coloring (optional)

The prices for toys seems to be getting higher and higher by the month.  It is important for parents to realize that all of these expensive toys are not necessary for your child to expand their language, speech, fine motor, gross motor, and sensory development.  In most cases our friends enjoy playing with our homemade or inexpensive toys more than the expensive ones.  Here are some effective ways to target your child’s developmental skills on a budget.