Shout out to Play-Doh! We LOVE Play-Doh here at Circle Creek Therapy.
Exploring creativity, encouraging imagination, providing kids with a sensory outlet - no wonder it is hands down one of our all-time favorite therapy materials. The best part? You can easily use it at home, too. Play-Doh is so versatile - we use it in therapy to target language, social skills, articulation, and fluency with our preschoolers and school-age children.
Some ideas:
-Squash Play-Doh with items that make fun imprints for each target sound (think: dino feet, fork)
-Work phonology goals into your activity (working on final sounds is a good one with words like cut, pat, push, tap, red, etc.)
-Model simple language for preschoolers while you play (“blue fish,” “squish ball,” “cut, cut, cut,” “roll, roll roll”)
-Make a pretend pizza and add fun toppings (talk about veggies, parts of the pizza)
-Use balls of Play-Doh to represent multi-syllabic words, squish each ball while saying the word
-Build fall vocabulary by making pumpkins, spiders, little marshmallows roasting on a stick, etc.
-Target sequencing and following directions
-Encourage your child to answer “wh” questions - “Where do snakes live? What do they eat?”
-Target fluency with bumpy and smooth Play-Doh lines
-Shape letters to build early literacy skills
-Find Play-Doh mats to print out online to use while you play
Make Play-Doh part of your home-programming! It’s a budget friendly item, relatively easy to clean-up, and kids love it.
Most importantly, HAVE FUN!