Promoting Speech and Language While at Home: Mr. Potato Head

Promoting Speech and Language While at Home: Mr. Potato Head | Sol Speech & Language Therapy | Austin Texas

Sol is continuing to spotlight a few of our favorite games/toys to promote speech and language in children.

This is turning out to be especially useful for most families who are stuck at home more often due to COVID-19.

This week…

Mr. (or Mrs.) Potato Head

Mr. Potato Head is the gift that keeps on giving.

This oldie but goodie is a toy that ALL of my kids get excited to play with.

Sometimes I can’t even get a word out before they’re pointing at, requesting for, or grabbing at the Mr. Potato Head who currently lives right on top of my therapy bag.

Mr. Potato Head comes complete with a set of body parts including: eyes, nose, ears, tongue, teeth, arms, shoes, hat, mustache, and glasses.

There are also Mr. Potato Head toys you can purchase that come with several varieties of particular body parts so you can build him different ways!

Mr. Potato Head’s New Job – A Speech & Language Therapy Assistant!

Whether at home, in the clinic, or at school, here’s how you can use this fun toy to promote language and articulation:

Receptive Language

This is a fantastic toy if your child or client has a developmental or language delay, especially if there are difficulties related to understanding various basic concepts and/or following directions. For example, you can use Mr. Potato Head to teach:

body parts (“show me the nose” or “Where is Mr. Potato Head’s nose?”),

colors (“Show me something green”)

prepositions (“show me something on the top of Mr. Potato Head”).

Additionally, you can use this toy to promote following one- and two-step directions.

For example, “put the teeth on” or “first, put the nose on, then put the arms on”.

Expressive Language

If your child or client has a developmental or language delay, with weaknesses in oral expression, you can use Mr. Potato Head for naming various concepts, such as:

body parts (“What is this?”),

colors (“What color are his shoes?”)

function (“What body part do you hear with?”).

It can also help encourage requesting for an item.

For example, before getting the item that the child wants, they must use a short phrase or sentence (i.e., “I want the nose” or “I need the hat please”).

This is instead of simply gesturing or using one word.

Articulation

If your child or client is working on a specific sound, you can practice several trials of that sound and then allow them to put something on Mr. Potato Head.

Go back and forth like this until Mr. Potato Head is dressed or until you’ve completed all of your trials.

We at Sol highly recommend this toy to all our families and fellow speech pathologist!

Sol will continue to highlight our favorite toys/games/activities in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

If you live in the Austin and Round Rock areas and have concerns about your child’s speech and/or language and would like to seek additional help beyond what your school based speech language pathologist may be able to provide, contact us for more information on our speech and language evaluation and/or speech and language therapy services for children of all ages.

 
Sol Speech & Language Therapy
6448 E Hwy 290 Suite E-106,
Austin, TX 78723

(512) 368-9488
» https://g.page/r/CfRfhOpEQm7BEAE

Sol Speech & Language Therapy
555 Round Rock W Dr E-221,
Round Rock, TX 78681

(512) 808-3953
» https://g.page/r/Cb5pwCTosSEfEBM

Sol Speech & Language Therapy offers personalized skilled intervention to those struggling with their speech and language skills. Services offered include screening, consultation, and comprehensive evaluation. We also provide one-on-one and/or group therapy for speech sound disorders, receptive/expressive language delay/disorder, stuttering/cluttering, accent reduction, and much more.


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