10 Toys That Promote Language Development

Stacking cups provides endless opportunities for learning language! Focus on words like "up" "on" "off" and "in", as well as colors and sizes. You can also hide toys or objects underneath the cups to target other vocabulary words and model asking and answering questions like "What is underneath?" "What did you find?". 

Building with blocks is a great way to encourage imaginative play and build social skills! You can also target language skills like describing the blocks' colors, shapes, and sizes. Focus on position words such as "over," "under," "top," or "bottom" when building. Have your child describe the parts of the zoo or the castle they build, like the "door," "gate," and "window". Be sure to choose blocks that come in all different sizes, shapes, and colors! 

A farm set is another great way to encourage imaginative play while also targeting verbs. The farm animals can eat, drink, jump, fly, dance, gallop, sleep, and make tons of fun noises! This is also a great way to work on simple sentence structures and grammar such as "The pig is eating" or "They are inside".

These include cars, trucks, buses, trains, planes, and more! These toys are great for working on following directions, describing, and counting. You can also sort the vehicles by size, color, or type! Playing with these toys also gives your child plenty of opportunities to say fun words like "vroom" "beep" "whoa" "uh-oh" and "crash".

 Puzzles strengthen vocabulary, such as shapes, colors, animals and transportation.  Most puzzles target a single category like ocean animals or vehicles. Use this as an opportunity to talk about how these items go together and what category they belong to. You can also target location words such as top, bottom, middle, corner, and between when talking about where each piece goes in the puzzle! 

Playing with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head will allow your child to explore, manipulate things with their hands, and be creative while having fun and being silly! Use Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head to target a variety of language skills such as identifying body parts, following directions, and answering questions. You can also work on important words like "on" "off" "in" and "out".

Playing with a shape sorter allows your child to strengthen their hand-eye coordination, fine motor and problem-solving skills, as well develop their vocabulary knowledge! Focus on shapes, colors, counting and words like "in" "out" "more" and "push". 

All children enjoying play with food, likely because it is relevant and familiar to them! Playing with a kitchen set provides endless opportunities for pretend play, learning new vocabulary, and practicing verbs. You can also practice categories by having your child sort the food into different groups like "fruits" "breakfast" or "sweets". 

A dollhouse is a great way to practice labeling, prepositions, and verbs while building pretend play skills!

Our children see us using our language skills on the phone all the time. A toy phone is a great way to get your child imitating and interacting with you!