Must Have Toys for your CF Year (or any time)

June 18, 2020

Do you ever look at instagram posts, Pinterest pins, or YouTube videos of immaculate speech rooms and shelves full of toys and wonder… how the heck am I going to afford all of these things, they haven’t even started paying me yet! Well, you’re in luck, I’ve broken it down in to the top 5 must have toys for your CF Year (or any time), and you can get all of them for under 50 bucks!

Now, if you’re more of a visually/auditory learner, go ahead and check out this video. I break down the same list, but with a little more flare.

But if you’re more of a reader, let’s dive in!

bubbles

Bubbles are the magic sauce of the speech world. Every kid loves bubbles. Plus, they are DIRT CHEAP. You can get a giant bottle or a 6 pack at Michaels or Target for a buck. Can’t beat that. They are perfect for requesting, reinforcing, movement breaks, and MORE.

Pro Tip: Get your self a no spill bubbles container. My favorite brand is FUBBLES. You only have to buy it once and you can refill it with cheap-o bubbles from then on. Just trust me, you’ll thank me later.

stickers

I don’t use stickers for rewards like most people. More on that later. But they are great, and again, cheap. You can use them as a reward for a certain number of trials and your students get to build a scene with them as they practice. You can give them a sticker and a direction of what to do with it. Or they can describe e x a c t l y what sticker they want without ever pointing to it (make them sit on their hands, just do it).

The reason I don’t use stickers as a “reward” on kids shirts is that a teacher friend kindly asked me to please stop doing that. I was putting them on kids heads because I thought I was funny and, fun fact, stickers D O N O T stick to sweaty kid heads. They were all over her floor. So if you’re going to give stickers as a reward, may a kindly suggest a sticker chart? I may have just saved your relationship with your school maintenance person. You’re welcome.

dot markers

These are the QUEEN of my speech room. I don’t know if other teachers/professionals just don’t use them, but my kids f l i p when I pull them out. They make any worksheet more engaging, any craft project quicker, and really anything more fun.

A bit of advice: teach your KIDS how to use a dot marker or you will end up with puddles of paint all over your table AND your kiddos. We pull out a blank sheet of paper at the beginning of the year and fill it up with “gentle dots”. A pound of prevention my friends…

play doh

Everyone loves play doh. Like, even high schoolers love play doh. I love play doh.

First, its super hard open a play doh container and it comes in tons of colors… HELO requesting. Its great to make mouths for articulation and speech helper teaching. I also love to use it for fluency therapy to talk about bumpy versus smooth speech.

puzzles

Specifically, Melissa & Doug chunky puzzles. They are basically two toys in one. A puzzle plus individual toys. I am all for more bang for your buck, especially during your CFY.

These don’t only need to be used for lower level kiddos and play based therapy though. I love to use them for articulation therapy and have them earn pieces as they say their speech sounds. You can play hide and go seek with the pieces. And my favorite is the describing game. I throw all of the pieces in a bucket. Each student takes a turn picking one out and not showing the group. They have to describe what they have and everyone else has to guess. BONUS: the empty puzzle board serves as a built in visual choice board for those friends that need that level of support. It doesn’t get better than that my friends.

If you’re interested where I find any of these things I’ll leave the links below. What are your must have toys for your CF Year (or any time)? Let me know!

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