What To Buy?! The Pediatric Therapist’s Guide to Gift Giving
Authored by Chani Selengut, M.S., CCC-SLP Speech Therapist at The Village Therapy Center
What To Buy?! So Many Choices!
Gift shopping can (and should) be a super fun experience😊 It also can be (and often is) a tremendous source of stress-too many options and not knowing what the best choices are. This article aims to clarify what your focus should be as the gift-giver with some valuable gift recommendations as well.
When buying gifts for your child, it is best to think about what will enhance your child’s development and be a catalyst to his/her progress.
As a parent, you are strongly encouraged to decrease your child’s screen time and increase his play time. Additionally, meaningful caregiver/child interaction throughout the day enhances a child’s development.
The American Academy of Pediatrics states in an article titled Media and Young Minds that “It is important to emphasize to parents that the higher-order thinking skills and executive functions essential for school success such as task persistence, impulse control, emotion regulation, and creative, flexible thinking, are best taught through unstructured and social (not digital) play, as well as responsive parent–child interactions.”
All the skills listed above are foundations for speech/language and overall development.
You may want to rethink the new tablet or Leapfrog leappad in your Amazon shopping cart…
Consider buying some of the following gifts that are recommended by the American Speech and Language Academy :
Wind up, pop up and pounding toys
Shape sorters, ring stackers, and nesting cups
Blocks and balls
Building Toys (Lincoln logs, magna tiles, Legos)
Basic arts and crafts supplies
Toy musical instrument
BOOKS
Chunky wooden and knob puzzles
Toy vehicles, garages, and train sets
Animal and family sets, toy farms and barns
Figurines, dinosaurs, dolls, and puppets
Pretend play toys
Doctor kit and doctor gear
Pretend tools, construction gear, workbench
Pretend money and cash register
Costumes and dress up supplies
Toy food and kitchen set
You may be saying to yourself, “This is a really long list, how will I decide what to buy?”
The goal for your child’s play is that the play experience should be fun and enjoyable, thereby creating a platform for learning.
When buying new toys, think about what toys are developmentally appropriate for your child. Just like all development, play skills come in stages.
Generally, a child will first be interested in cause-and-effect toys (toys that the child’s action causes something to happen). When developmentally ready, he/she will become more interested in building toys and eventually he/she will be interested in toys that foster pretend play.
Have in mind that the toys will not do magic and teach your child. Rather, the learning will happen when you get down on the floor and play with the toys together with your child. You will need to talk to your child throughout the play and engage your child through fun and enjoyable back and forth play interactions.
This is the ideal way for you to work on your child’s speech and language goals- via FUN and INTERACTIVE play activities.
For more information on maximizing toys and play, watch a great video (link to video is below) created by Kelli Meyer that will teach you how to buy the right toys, use a toy rotation, and foster a playful environment to increase speech and language skills among many other skills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVoPecqDD9c&ab_channel=TheSpeechScoop
About Us:
We, at The Village Therapy Place, located in Bergen County- in Wyckoff, NJ, aim to provide integrative, neurodevelopmental, individualized, pediatric therapy in a warm, fun, and collaborative environment.
We offer pediatric services that include physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, feeding therapy, and DIR Floortime.
At The Village Therapy Place, we utilize current and evidence-based treatment techniques to help treat your child during his PT, OT, speech therapy, feeding therapy and DIR Floortime session. These include sensory integration, reflex integration, therapeutic listening, Kinesiotape, craniosacral therapy, NDT, BrainGym, feeding therapy, PROMPT, to name a few.
Our expert pediatric therapists offer a variety of treatment options, including 30/45/60 minute sessions, group classes and virtual therapy to best suit a child’s needs.
The pediatric physical therapists, occupational therapists & speech therapists at The Village Therapy Place are in constant contact with a child's caregivers to facilitate lasting change.
Call us today at (201) 201-8220 or email us at office@thevillagetherapyplace.com to speak with a pediatric expert who truly cares!