Tanna's Top 10 Traditional Toys (with a Twist!)



Baby Wonderland Gifts

 As promised in an earlier post  (Awesome Holiday Gifts for Special Kids), here is my list of the simplest but most versatile, traditional toys for targeting cognitive, physical and communication skills while playing with kids who have special needs.  Many of these toys can be adapted to suit the level of support needed by your child.  They don't come with all of the bells and whistles of a computerized toy or iPad, but I think they have their place as essentials in every child's toy box. :) As a speech therapist, I NEVER leave home without them!  These toys can be purchased at most toy stores (and even dollar stores), or you can buy them online here from Amazon. :) (Visit the SNEAK aStore for great toy ideas for special kids)

 1.  Bubbles

Bubbles entertain children of all ages!  They are a great way to practice fine motor skills like putting in and taking out, isolating a finger to pop, and pinching or grasping the bubble wand;  gross motor skills like stomping, jumping, swatting, and waving arms; and oral skills like rounding lips to blow.  You can also create many communication opportunities with bubbles by talking about what you see, do, and experience.  What do your bubbles look like?  Where are they going? How do they feel on your fingers?  Talking about the play experience models language for children in a context that is concrete and fun.  Use words like up, down, blow, in, out, stomp, pop, high, low, wet, dry, fun, yucky, and more!  Bubbles can be adapted to support children with motor limitations by using bubble machines, bubble blowers, or bubble wands that only require gross movements to work. 

 2.  Blocks 

Blocks are a great way for special kids to practice constructive play.  Simple, flat blocks versus those that needd to interlock in a certain way (e.g., Legos, bristle blocks) are the best because of their flexible use.  Create towers, houses, farms, schools and buildings with your blocks.  Talk about what you are building, how it looks, and what you do in it.  Combine blocks with other toys to expand play experiences, such as crashing them with cars or using toy figures to pretend inside of the structures you have created.  Children can expand their imagination by using blocks to create symbolic things.  Talking about your play experience models language and actions for your child, giving them the words they need to understand and express the things they are doing while they play.  Use words like on, off, fall, build, up, high, down, low, oh no!, tall, big, little, etc...  Blocks can be adapted for children with physical challenges by adjusting the size and consistency of the block (soft or hard) depending on the child's needs and adding magnets or velcro to the blocks to help them stack more securely so that less precision is needed in building.  Check out these magnetic blocks!

 3.  Balls

Ball play is an early way to take turns with play mates.  It is also a great way to build gross and fine motor skills and learn language.  Use different balls and talk about their differences to practice new words like big, little, soft, hard, and colors.  Combine balls with other toys to expand play, such as knocking blocks or pins down like a bowling game, throwing balls into clothes hampers or boxes for basketball, rolling under tables and over couches.  Using balls in different ways helps expand the language that you can model about the experience.  Balls can be adapted to suit different physical needs by using different sizes and shapes.  You can also use lighter or heavier balls depending on the needs of the child.  Some balls even come with holes to make them easier to grasp and throw (like the Oball).  Using balloons as balls is a nice way to help children with motor challenges get the time they need to catch a ball(because the balloons float). 

 4.  Books

Choose books specifically for the learning level of your child.  Books are a great tool to learn new words, practice answering questions, and explore new people, places, items, and actions.  Books with simple, repetitive language are great for teaching early literacy skills and for setting a stage for communication.  Don't be confined by the words written on the page, you can always change a book to suit the interests and learning level of your child with just a little imagination.  Let loose and use silly voices, sounds, and songs to help engage your child.  Encourage interaction with the book by pointing to pictures, pretending with the pictures, and acting out the actions in the story.  Books can be adapted for children with physical challenges in a variety of ways, including adding binder clips or velcro between pages to make them easier to turn and securing books to a table top easel so that they are easier to see and flip through. 

 5.  Mr. Potato Head

Mr. Potato Head is another great, versatile, constructive and pretend play toy!  Practice body part names and concepts like putting in and taking out.  Talk about spatial concepts like the eyes are over the nose, the ears are on the side, and the shoes are on the bottom.  Use larger sets of Potato Head pieces to compare the differences between eyes, shoes, and ears, such as their shape, size, and color. To make Mr. potato easier to grab and hold, attach a handle on his back with a shower curtain ring or wooden knob by using hot glue. You can also use velcro on the head and pieces (soft side on the head, bumpy on all of the pieces) to help the pieces stay in place.  Once you build your Potato Head pieces, combine him with other toys to expand pretend play.  Have him crash your block tower, make him a meal with play utensils and food, or take him for a ride on a toy car! 

 6.  Crayons & Paper

Other than the obvious use of coloring with the crayons on the paper, I like to use this simple toy to expand the play of other toys.  If you are playing with a train, draw a train track for it to chug on!  If you are playing with a rubber duck, how about drawing a pond for him to swim in!  Using drawn environments with physical toys helps kids meld the lines of real and abstract and really gets their brains making connections!

 7.  Play Doh

Play Doh can be used with children of young ages as long as you supervise!  This toy is a favorite of ALL kids and a great tool for enhancing many developmental skills (not to mention, a cool sensory experience).  The play and language modeling possibilities are limited only by imagination!  Use play doh as a tool to create a platform for pretending!

 8.  Toy Figures

Toy figures like animals, action figures, and people are also very open-ended toys for practicing pretend play.  They can be combined with other toys and settings in the home to create wonderful play scenes and opportunities for learning and communication. 

 9.  Common Objects Box

Dishes, toy food, a brush, keys, a hat-you name it!  Kids learn language and other developmental skills by watching daily routines and imitating them.  A clear plastic bin or drawstring laundry bag with a variety of common household objects and small toys inside is a great tool for open-ended play, pretending, and learning life skills. 

10.  Wooden Puzzles

Puzzles can be tricky for kids with special needs but I LOVE them for setting the stage for interaction.  Use wooden puzzles with large knobs that display pictures that interest your child.  Pretend with the puzzle pieces, hide them in pockets, containers, or around the house, and use silly voices and sounds to help engage your child in puzzle play.  You can adapt puzzles with small pegs for handles by adding rubber pencil erasers (the kind you put on top of your pencil when the eraser runs out) with hot glue to each peg.  This makes a nice surface for kids with motor challenges to grip pieces. 

Read more about these toys and buy them online at the SNEAK aStore.  :)  When you purchase items by linking to Amazon through the SNEAK aStore, you help support our blog at no extra cost to you. 

Want to know more specifics about how to adapt these toys and use them to play with your special child? 

Awesome Holiday Gifts for Special Kids

Parents often ask me what toys to buy for their special kids, as many traditional toys are not made with special needs in mind.  I came across  a link to the 2011 Gift Guide for Individuals Living with Paralysis (compiled by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation) and I was inspired to share the link, and to also compile a list of my own. :)  Below I have listed some web resources that I have used to help guide the gift buying process.  Check these out and share them with the families you serve.  I will follow up with my own tips and tricks on adapting my Top 10 Traditional Toys to suit the special needs of kid's with cognitive and physical limitations (that and more, in a later post. :) 

Toys R' Us Toy Guide for Differently-Abled Kids is an amazing compilation of great, traditional toys (non-adapted) that is compiled by Toys R' Us with the professional guidance of the play experts at Lekotek.  This guide is available in Spanish and English, Flash version and PDF, which makes it great for sharing with families.  You can also order print version of the guide (free or charge) to distribute at your school or center.  The greatest part of this guide is that it showcases toys that are easily accessible for most families as they can be purchased locally and don't usually cost as much as adapted toys.  The guide is conveniently organized so that toys are accompanied by symbols to help parents find those toys that promote different skills, such as Auditory, Language, Social, Creativity, and Fine and Gross Motor Skills.

Fisher Price Toys & Playtime Tips for Children with Special Needs is a web resource provided by Fisher Price with the guidance of the experts at the Let;s Play Project.  Although it does not currently provide specific toy suggestions, it allows parents to pick the level of support their child needs in certain developmental areas (Hearing, Seeing, Talking etc...) and then provides general toy buying tips on features to look for in toys to make them more accessible.


Visit the SNEAK aStore to find these great toys, and other, hand-picked toys for special needs kids that you can buy easily from Amazon!

Adapted Scribbling-You Don't Always Need an App for That

In my previous post, I mentioned that ever-present hurdle of getting our kids with significant cognitive and physical challenges to engage in drawing and coloring activities, or any arts and crafts project for that matter! The fact of the matter is, these activities are really hard for our kids, challenging many of their sensory, cognitive, and motor systems all at once, and, frankly, the effort tends to outweigh the reward. I had the great fortune of working as lead teacher in a small language enriched, special-needs preschool program in Florida, which gave me the unique opportunity to do something many speech therapists don't generally get to do-make "coloring" my business! :) Well, at least for the 15 to 20 minutes of the school day reserved for art time. You might be wondering(especially if you are a speech therapist, always focused on verbal output) "what's the big deal about coloring anyway?".

I recently stumbled across a unique web article, "When Children Draw" By Sandra Crosser, Ph.D (out of Ohio Northern University) which provided some nice insight on the role of "doodling" in well-rounded child development. We know it is important, not only to motor skill development, but also to cognitive, emotional, and social development. So how can we bring this developmental gem to our kids with challenges in a way they can manage, and more importantly, enjoy?

One way is certainly through Apps like Glow Coloring and others which add unique visual elements and modify the physical requirements usually needed for traditional scribbling, such as grasping a crayon and applying enough pressure to make a mark. But prior to using the iPad for adapted art, I found many "lower tech" adaptations that seemed to do the trick for many of my kids. One product I just HAD to have the moment the ad rolled across my TV screen was Crayola's Color Me a Song. By adding music to scribbles, Color Me a Song got many of my clients on the Autism Spectrum to pick up a crayon (and use it for awhile:)! I even used this cool tool t to teach color concepts by having my kids match the musical instrument button to the crayon color and show me what "blue" sounded like. As the scribbles speed up and slow, so does the music, making this a great tool for teaching qualitative concepts like fast, slow, quiet, and noisy in a multisensory way. Adapted crayons and paper stability can be used for those kids requiring more motor support. Other than that, for under 20 bucks (including flat sided, chunky crayons which come in the storage compartment!), you might just be surprised at how motivating this simple toy can be. What other adaptations (high, low, or no tech) have you used to help your kids catch the creativity bug?