With the holidays quickly approaching, you might be in search of some family-friendly games that your child will love that will also double as enhancements to their speech and language skills. Below is a list of toys recommended by speech-language pathologists that you can use with your child to enhance their speech and language skills while also promoting family fun!3Title of Toy: Zingo

Price of toy & where you can purchase it: $19.99 from Target

Language Ideas:

• Labeling the different vocabulary words & identifying them by their function (e.g., Find something that flies in the sky)
• Expand utterances by using a carrier phrase, “I have a _______” or “I don’t have a ________” and fill it in with the picture presented from the board

Speech Ideas:

• Work on production of simple CVC and CVCV words

Pragmatic Ideas:

• Turn-taking while pushing out the chips
• Work on requesting (e.g. Can I have the kite?) once it comes out of the board

Title of Toy: Ned’s Head

Price of toy & where you can purchase it: $17.69 from Target

Language Ideas:

• Describing objects in Ned’s Head while you’re feeling them (e.g., hard, soft, small round, squishy) and then other players have to guess what object it is
• Use the above idea and reverse it by describing the object and having other player find which object that you are describing

Pragmatic Ideas:

• Turn-taking while taking items out of Ned’s Head

Title of Toy: Pop Up Pirate

Price of toy & where you can purchase it: $13 from Amazon

Language Ideas:

• When you pull out a pirate sword, you have to think of an item that is the same color (e.g., if you pull out a red pirate sword you could say “apple”)
• Use the above idea and reverse it by saying “Grab a sword that is the color of the ocean” and have another player find the blue sword

Pragmatic Ideas:

• Turn-taking and waiting your turn before pulling the swords out

Title of Toy: Cooties

Price of toy & where you can purchase it: $12.50 from Amazon

Language Ideas:

• Vocabulary building by working on labeling and identifying body parts
• Describe body parts by their function and have another player find the body part that you are describing
• Work on basic concepts (e.g. big, little, long, short) by describing the different body parts

Pragmatic Ideas:

• Turn-taking while waiting to pick out the next body part

Title of Toy: Guess Who

Price of toy & where you can purchase it: $9.97 from Walmart

Language Ideas:

• Work on identifying “boy” vs. “girl” and “he” vs. “she”. This can be targeted by simply labeling or by asking a question such as, “Who has a pink hat?” and having the player answer “He does” or “She does”
• Describe people on the cards by their hair color, facial features, etc.
• Work on asking questions to obtain additional information (e.g. Does your person have blue eyes?)

Pragmatic Ideas:

• Turn-taking/patience while waiting for your turn to ask your next question
• Identifying emotions/feelings of the different players on the picture cards