My Little Bag of Tricks

Here is my little bag...

It is filled with all sorts of engaging toys/activities to stimulate language and communication through play-based therapy! I am going to share with you what is in MY little bag. I am going to share a lot of things that rotate through my bag, but please know that I typically pick out about 5 things to have in my bag at any given time. This bag and I make miles throughout the elementary school I work in because I bring it with me every time I go down to the room where most of my kids on the spectrum do a lot of their learning. In the Autism classroom I work verbal students, nonverbal students, and AAC users. Along with each picture I have included a very short blurb about what skills I use the specific toy/item to target, however obviously it is not an exhaustive list-just something to give you some ideas! Almost all of the items in my little bag were purchased with my own money, however I am a total bargain shopper so I got great deals on all of them (rummage sales, Goodwill, etc)!
1. Bubbles-these are a staple in my bag, they never get taken out because they are SO motivating!
Skills targeted while using bubbles: joint attention, requesting help, requesting more, taking turns, following directions, expanding utterance length, requesting bubbles (verbally/sign/picture exchange)

2. Board Books-another staple in my little bag-not because they are quite as motivating as bubbles BUT they are so wonderful to target so many skills I always keep at least one in there.
Skills targeted while using board books: joint attention, pointing, following directions, labeling, vocabulary, basic book handling skills, expanding utterance length

3. Puzzles/Shape Sorter- I also almost always have a puzzle or my shape sorter in my little bag. I think that puzzles are an awesome way to get a lot of bang for your buck in therapy. I was so sick of losing puzzle pieces I came up with a new way to store them. I put a small velcro piece on the corner of my puzzle, then a small velcro piece on a big ziploc bag and reinforced the sticky-ness of the velcro with a staple. I remove the bag when working with that puzzle and stick it on top filled with the pieces when we are not using the puzzle. So far, its been working great! This is pictured with my sound puzzle.
4. Sentence Strips- I have found these really helpful in reducing my verbal prompting with students when we use them in predictable/repetitive activities such as puzzles!
Skills targeted with puzzles/shape sorter: requesting pieces, requesting help, vocabulary, problem solving, persistence to a task, "all done" when finished, expanding utterance length, matching

5. Pink Pig Toy-words cannot even begin to describe how much my students LOVE this pig! It makes noise when you put the coins in and has several different settings (mine is permanently on the music mode, but there is a "learning" mode and silent mode as well). The pig makes noise depending on how you manipulate it. The coins are all different colors and have animal pictures on them.
Skills targeted: requesting more, "all done", vocabulary- colors, animals, in, open, shut, requesting help (to get the coins out), expanding utterance length

6. Balls-I almost always have a ball in my little bag too! These are two example of balls I rotate through in my bag. One is a "Koosh" ball and the other one lights up when it is bounced. I don't know what it is about balls, but I have had the best luck it getting my students to socially interact with each other by playing catch/rolling a ball back and forth! I have also found this to be a good activity to help my students interact with their regular education peers.
Skills targeted with balls: requesting an object (verbally/sign/picture exchange), joint attention, turn taking, expanding utterance length

7. Vibrating duck toy- This is another toy similar to the pink pig, I don't know exactly why, but almost all of my students LOVE this toy!
Skills targeted: Requesting (verbally/sign/picture exchange), turn taking (my turn/your turn), vocabulary (duck, yellow, quack, eyes, on, off, etc)

8. Velcro Food- I think this stuff is so fun I just had to pick some up when it as on Zulily!
Skills targeted: Requesting (verbally/sign/picture exchange), requesting help, matching (I will put 3 pieces out of the table, 2 that match and 1 that does not), vocabulary (food labels, cut, half, whole, etc), expanding utterance length

9. Stringing Beads- I like this task because it merges fine motor skills with speech and language. As you can see, I have "things that go" beads, but any beads would do-just make sure they are large enough they aren't a choking hazard if you have any students who mouth objects in your classrooms.
Skills targeted: Requesting (verbally/sign/picture exchange), requesting more, requesting help, "all done", vocabulary (on, string, bead, labels, etc)

10. Mr. Potato Head- I love using Mr. Potato head during therapy!
Skills targeted: Requesting (verbally/sign/picture exchange), making a choice (bring 2 different eyes etc), vocabulary (body parts on toy and on self, on, off, etc), expanding utterance length, following directions ("put the eyes on")

11. Light up textured toy-This is almost always in my bag because my kids love it. When they hit it on the table (or any surface), it lights up.
Skills targeted: Requesting (verbally/sign/picture exchange), vocabulary (color, on, off), expanding utterance length, cause and effect

12. Photos of my students! This is obviously not a photo of my students (it is a photo of my husband and me). I love seeing how interested some of my students become when I pull out photos of them with their families/friends! I have kept student photos in several different formats depending on skills we are working on and weather or not parents want them back. Sometimes parents send me actual photographs in student back packs, and other times parents will email me the photos and I will print them out for them. If you try to get photos from parents but don't have any luck, you could always take photos of the students doing things they like at school!
Skills targeted: Requesting "more", pointing, receptive vocabulary/following directions ("point to mom"), expanding utterance length, vocabulary

I hope you have enjoyed finding out what is in "My little bag of tricks" and please let me know if anything caught your attention, you have any questions, or if you have any ideas/experiences to share by commenting below!