You don’t need to have toys

When I was taking my SLPA classes my teacher would tell us how we would need to use everything and anything to do therapy. We weren’t supposed to bring toys into the home because they would just be taken away when we left and then if the kid had nothing, they were back to nothing. I’ll admit I brought in toys. I’d go through phases when I really tried not to, but I always had a bag of toys to fall back on.

Now with teletherapy, I don’t have my bag of toys to bring in. I’m completely dependent on what the family has. I have a lot of great families but you can also have fun and learn with other things as well. Most everyone will have these things in their house no matter what their economic status is. You can work on the same goals and get out of the toy box.

Ball toss- It’s super easy and really you don’t even need a ball. You can use some balled up socks and any type of container. You can use a box, basket, bucket. Everyone has something. I’ve even done with a family that used a laundry basket and some toys. You can work on words like “in, out, dump, under, boom.” You can take turns and work on joint attention. You can work on following directions “Put the ball in the box.” If the box closes you can work on “open, close.”

Mirror Play- Everyone has a mirror even if it’s only the bathroom mirror. You can practice making different faces. For a little one imitating the actions of different faces is good. Some kids with autism avoid looking at people but sometimes they like silly faces in the mirror. For older kids, you can talk about emotions, happy face, sad face. Can you show me your happy face?

Empty paper towel/TP roll- Empty rolls can be so many things. You can use it for “I Spy”, looking through it and describing something for them to find “I spy a blue ball.” Or pretend you’re pirates on a ship. Put two together and you have binoculars. You can use it as an instrument “Doodoodoooo.” Turn a box upside down and you have a hand drum and beginning of your own little band.

Get in the kitchen- Empty Tupperware and a spoon can work for pretend play, cook some dinner. It can be a drum for your band. You can give your little one some empty spice containers, a couple of empty containers, and a spoon while you cook dinner. They can cook too. I’ve also seen on Pinterest putting pipe cleaners in the holes of a strainer. Also, q-tips in the holes of an old Parmesan container or pompoms in an empty coffee creamer bottle.

Stack it up- You don’t need blocks for stacking. You can stack cereal boxes, cans of soup, those empty Tupperware containers. The list is endless. The goals are still the same, stack items, say “up, on top, fall down, boom, big, little…..”

What are some other things that can be used in a different way for therapy?