Christmas Themed Toys for Toddlers with Language Delays
Anytime we introduce “theme” toys during therapy time or any time, we’re automatically increasing novelty (becuase it’s new!) which usually drives interest and participation for toddlers.
In case you’re looking for a few new holiday items to add to your rotation, here are my favorites from the last few years!
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I love, love, love this cute plush Santa set. It’s not the best for therapists to use since it’s plush and not quick to sanitize, but if you’re a parent, I bet you’ll love it too! The house provides a built in play routine – taking the characters out and then putting them back in. The handle makes it fun for toddlers to carry around … a favorite activity for sure! I like working on clothing items with this toy (hat and boots are easy to teach with this set!), in addition to names of the characters, and of course, in/out.
I love this set too – a Christmas choo choo! I have lots of additional pieces to this set I’ve collected through the years, but this one is a great starter set. Key words of course are choo choo, Santa, reindeer, elf, in, out, go, push.
I don’t have this tree, but it’s close to the one I’ve used — and now passed along to my sweet grandbaby this Christmas! With this tree, you’ll be focusing on vocabulary expansion with new nouns for the ornaments, plus the verbs push and pull, and of course, on and off.
Poke A Dot books are fantastic for teaching and practicing pointing as well as maintaining attention to pictures for our little ones who are too busy for books! I have lots of these and I’m adding the Christmas version to my inventory now that I’ve seen it in my research for this list! More books below…
Here’s are two more options for a Christmas trees. If you don’t have time for the real DIY version (as in you go buy and cut out all the ornaments), these options look pretty good! My homemade versions are always a hit with toddlers. I love this one because it has velcro spots for the ornaments. The snow men will be a nice extension for January or for families who don’t celebrate Christmas.
An Advent calendar is similar to this activity. Hide the ornaments in the pockets… always a fun play routine. Watch a video with a similar calendar for therapy ideas.
If you’re in to wind-up toys like me, here’s a darling Christmas set. You can assess a lot with a wind up toy! Read more here…
I love my Fisher Price nativity set for older toddlers and preschoolers. Match the characters/animals to a book as you read or reenact the story. Great for Christian families, faith-based programs, and therapists like me 🙂
My favorite Christmas books are listed here too. You can work on anything with books…. attention/participation, receptive language (Find the ____), naming games where the child points to the picture and you name it, imitating actions with pictures (Kiss Santa!), and of course, vocabulary expansion as a child names the pictures. One of my favorite things to do with books is to gather objects that look similar to the pictures for matching or reenacting the story…. such a great language expansion activity!
I made a video about this one!
AND… this puzzle that I’ve loved since 2016… but it’s no longer available on Amazon. Listing it here in case you can find it somewhere else… it’s worth it! I use it for teaching a child to imitate actions as described in this video.
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