Putting Therapy Into Practice
While getting dressed, taking a bath, or brushing your teeth, talk with your child about different body parts and their functions (e.g. eyes to see, mouth to talk/eat). Use a fun song for bath time: “This is the way we wash our hair, wash our hair, wash our hair, This is the way we wash our hair, when we take a bath.” Try leaving off the last word for your child to fill in “This is the way we wash our ______!”
Monthly Activity
Snack time!
You will need:
- Red apples
- Peanut butter/Soy nut butter
- Little Marshmallows
- Knife
- Plate
Start by cutting the apple into thin slices. Spread a spoonful of peanut/soy nut butter on one side of each apple slice. Place little marshmallows over the peanut/soy nut butter to make teeth. Top the marshmallows with the other apple slice (nut butter down) to make a smiling mouth!
Talk about:
- What is looks like: whole/part, big/little
- How it feels: sticky, soft, hard, smooth, crunchy
- What it tastes like: sweet, yummy, yucky
- Parts of your mouth: lips, teeth, tongue
Kathleen’s recommended Toy/Activity
Playing grocery store is great for pretend play and imitating something we do on a weekly (sometimes more frequently) basis. You can use real or plastic food, a shopping bag, toy grocery cart, play cash register and even make pretend money. You can encourage the following concepts into your play:
- Sequencing: First get the apple, then the pizza. Before you get the oranges, put a cookie in the cart. Get the grapes after you get the bread.
- Questions: What did you get at the store? Where did you put it? What do we use to pay? Where do we buy food?
- Vocabulary
- Categories: fruit, vegetables, desserts, breakfast food, hot food, cold food
- Motor speech: Speak with your PROMPT trained clinician to determine which words to incorporate into the activity. Some lexicon ideas: yum, put it in, you do it, eat it, I see it, o/open, push, you push.