When I’m packing my therapy bag I’m always interested in toys and resources that can be used flexibly for a variety of speech, language and communication targets. And playdough absolutely fits that bill! Beyond the usual action words and colour vocabulary, there’s lots of other things that we can do with playdough to support communication, especially when we start adding other toys to it. In this video I share five ways that I use playdough in my speech and language therapy sessions.

Lots of the children that I meet are just starting to put two words together, so practising action words (roll, squish, stretch, splat, chop) is a great way to start practising simple ‘noun+verb’ phrases.

We can also use playdough to practice following instructions. To help children be really successful with this early on, I might act out the instruction with my own playdough set, so that child can see what’s happening as well as listening to the language involved. As children become more confident in their language skills I might ask them to give me some instructions. Explaining how we do something is an essential step in language development and also a great excuse to practise sequencing language (e.g. first, then, last).

Another useful aspect of playdough is asking for help. This is a skill that many of my children need to practise (as they’re more inclined to simply struggle on themselves, rather than ask for help.) The lids on playdough pots are tricky to open, which gmakes them a great resource for this particular target.

Playdough is also a perfect resource for building on a child’s shared imagination. We can build the most spectacular and unusual creations together and the language that this involves provides lots of opportunities to learn together.

Check out this blog post on balloons for more play ideas.

What would be the most useful words for your child to be able to say? What would they like tell you about? Having in mind a handful of these core words is really useful. It helps us model consistent vocab and notice when your child starts attempting these words on their own. We want to help your child to request things that they want and talk about things they find interesting.

In this video I share with you my ideas for five first words to teach your toddler: words that are motivating, useful and fun. I’ll also show you the Makaton signs for these words (and if you’re wondering whether to teach your child some signing, then do check out this blog post).

Do you have a list in your head of words to model to your child? You might like to use some of the ones from this video (I know ‘wow’ is a favourite!) and I bet there are lots of other favourite toys or actions that your child would like to talk about. If you have any vocab suggestions and would like to know the Makaton signs for them, then do comment below and I’ll make a video with more ideas in the future.

Being able to reflect on past events is an important part of how we all learn and grow. When I was training to become a Speech and Language Therapist, there was a huge emphasis on becoming a reflective practitioner. I didn’t appreciate its importance at the time. Being able to talk about what had gone well and what could be improved didn’t feel nearly as important as the nuts and bolts of What To Do with the child sitting across from me in the therapy room.

But, over the years, I’ve become increasingly appreciative of reflective practice. Regardless of whether a therapy session goes well, there’s always lessons to be learned for next time. I’ll never stop learning!

Reflecting on past experiences isn’t just a postgrad training skill. It’s a valuable habit that we can help children develop from an early age. In this video, I share with you my all-time favourite way to help children reflect on their own experiences and become more resilient when things don’t turn out as expected.

Two stars and a wish is a child-friendly framework that can apply to so many things. Where could you introduce this idea in your own daily life?

If you like this idea, check out this daily routine that builds positive communication and resilience in your child.

Exploring books together is a fantastic way to support your child’s talking. When we look at books together in a playful way, all sorts of fun conversations can happen. I particularly like books with very few words, because this frees us to talk about the pictures, rather than getting stuck on decoding the words or telling the story ‘exactly so’.

In this video I share my top tips for sharing books together in a way that builds their sentence construction and their vocabulary.

First suggestion is to sit next to each other. It’s lovely to have that cosy lap time when you’re sharing books, but for speech and language development, it’s really useful to sit next to each other. It makes it easier for you to notice what your child is interested in and for them to watch your face when you’re modelling words and sounds.

Second suggestion: abandon your agenda! It’s easy for us to ask lots of questions and quiz a child when we’re looking at books. But, when we let the child be in charge of the book and how they want to share it, we create lots more opportunities to support language development.

Third suggestion: notice what they notice. Sometimes it’s surprising what children particularly enjoy in a book. When we slow down and follow what a child’s interested in, then it’s easier for us to give them a word or sound that they’re really motivated to learn.

Finally: reflect and expand. This is a really useful tip for supporting language in all sorts of situations. Whether your child is using single words or long sentences, we can build their learning by acknowledging what they’ve said and then adding in some useful details of our own.

Does your child love exploring books together? Then, you might like to try turning a favourite into a sensory story. Find out more here.