Of all the toys in my speech cupboard, the one that I most often go to is the trusted old Mr Potato head. The reason being that Mr Potato head can be used to work on so many different areas of speech and language and the game can be played over and over again with a different resulting character every time. Mr Potato head indeed has limitless potential!
Some of the reasons why this game is useful include:
- Colourful characters and pieces that are engaging for all ages
- Limitless combinations of pieces to make different characters
- Expansion packs available with more obscure items to add to possible vocabulary used in each game play such as moustaches and heart eyes
- Easily attachable pieces for children with poor dexterity
Here are some areas of speech and language that you can work on using Mr Potato head:
- Vocabulary expansion can be targeted for body parts and items of clothing by getting the child to name the desired item to be placed onto the potato base of Mr Potato head.
- Spatial language concepts can be targeted by asking questions about where each of the pieces are going to be put and the child can respond with a phrase containing concepts such as on top, under and on the side of Mr Potato Head’s body.
- Speech sounds can be targeted at phrase, sentence and conversation level when the child requesting each of the pieces of the game. The response just has to be altered to fit the level e.g. for phase level when targeting the ‘sh’ sound for example an appropriate response might be ‘I want shoes’ and for sentence level it can be ‘can I have the shoes please’.
- Speech sounds can be targeted at sound and word level as well by using each of the pieces as a reward for a correct sound production within the word or a correct production of the sound in isolation.
Contact us for results focused speech therapy
This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have questions about language activities, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.
