Parents are conscious of the growth of their children from the beginning. They can’t compromise on their child’s well-being. This is why overcoming speech delay can be quite a stressful phase for both children and parents around the world.
Speech delay is often regarded as alalia. This refers to the delay in the use or development of the mechanisms required to produce speech in babies. Here, parents should not misunderstand the meaning of speech with language. Speech refers to the ability to make sounds with the help of organs and body parts like lungs, vocal cords, tongue, mouth, teeth, etc.
If your child is also going through this issue, the following factors can help you choose the right kind of products while buying toys for a speech delayed child:
Avoid Toys with Batteries
It is not necessary for a toy to make weird sounds or movements to overcome a speech delay problem in a child. This is why you can avoid the use of batteries in the toys. Don’t worry if you have a toy that has batteries in it. Just remove the battery and use it normally. However, if the toy makes use of batteries for something good like a unique feature that clicks the photographs of the child or records his voice with the help of a microphone, using the batteries can be helpful too.
Go For Traditional Toys
Surprisingly, traditional or simple toys can also be a good choice to opt for. These toys are open-ended and benefit your child in a lot of ways. Open-ended toys allow the children to play in more than one way. These toys don’t have any top, bottom, or middle portion to restrict usage.
A few popularly known traditional toys include wooden blocks, cars, trucks, trains with simple tracks or without tracks, farm set, animal set that your child likes, legos, kitchen set, food toys, doll house for your baby girl, play dough for the creative ones, tool set, dress up clothes, tea set, baby blanket or baby doll. It is easy to shop for such products both offline and online.
Don’t be Gender Specific
Yes, it is true that you don’t have to pick gender-specific toys for speech development in your child. The aim is to encourage play and look for toys with the ability to foster creative expression, social interaction, prompt problem-solving, etc.
There have been several discussions regarding the selection of apt toys for speech and language development. Surprisingly, these brainstorming sessions concluded that girls were more responsive and elicited to play with male-oriented toys like construction sets, cars, and trucks. So your toys collection should have a mix of all kinds of toys and not just gender-specific ones.
Pick Cautiously
Your selection of toys for a speech delayed child should encourage the child’s movement from one place to another even indoors. It should not be monotonous. You can buy an indoor ride toy or make tunnels and forts that help a child with speech delay at home.
Some Great Toy Suggestions for Speech Development
- Farm Set: This is one of the most exciting toys for a child’s speech development. It allows the children to make use of different ideas and abilities. In a farm set, children are made to arrange animals and other things outside the house. This can help them learn various actions like eating, drinking, and sleeping.
- Blocks: It is a traditional and evergreen speech development toy for toddlers. It helps children with social interaction, problem-solving, and concepts like big, small, taller, shorter, etc.
- Bubbles: You can buy no-spill bubble containers too. This simple toy would help the child to imitate mouth movements. Don’t go for an automatic bubble blower toy as it won’t be that beneficial.
Lastly, try to indulge your child and make sure he plays with these toys to the fullest!
