Everything About Toys As Materials For Speech Therapy

By Manuel Chuy


There are a number of tools and materials, which are designed for speech therapy in the market right now, thus giving the therapist a lot more options when it comes to choosing the equipments that could best maximize his services. One various materials are toys. High are various reasons for the increase in its use.

The Toys along with their Functions

Before the therapy starts, an exam of the patient's oral motor structures is generally done. This is where the therapist inspects various structures that are inside and around the patient's mouth that are employed for speech. Some of these are the lips, tongue, teeth, jaw and cheeks.

For your structures to be seen more accurately, a penlight is generally used. The only problem with it would be that the child may not find it very pleasant to possess a flashlight in his mouth. This really is now why there already will be the colorful and jelly-like oral light system, which provides the same amount of light without the presence of metallic appearance.

The study of these muscles also usually requires gloves and tongue depressors; by which kids do not appreciate both of whose smell and taste. This is now the reason why colorful and fruit flavored gloves and tongue depressors already are available.

After the said oral motor examination has become performed, the therapist might find a weakening in one or a few of the structures. Some seemingly ordinary materials and toys may aid the strengthening of these muscles. One of them is the straw, that may come in all colors and designs. It serves two purposes.

The initial purpose is for the rounding of the lips. This activity is essential for the articulation of vowels as well as the semi-vowel /w/. Another function is the act of sipping. In this activity, the velum, the muscle right above the throat is exercised. This muscle is utilized when producing vowels and back consonants like "k" and "g".

Another frequently used material is a toy, containing to be blown. An example could be the whistle. The whistle is considered a difficult blow toy. It indicates that among the toys that really work when blown, it is among those, which requires more effort for this to perform its function.

The whistle, such as the straw, aids in the exercise in the muscles of the lips. Another structure, who's strengthens, is the cheeks. It maximizes the ability of the cheeks to hold in air and also to gradually blow it out.

Other materials that are more commonly used are picture cards and interactive books. They often contain pictures of words, which represent all the speech sounds. When prepaid cards are used, all the therapist must do is to show the picture and have the child produce the word together with the speech sound within the word.

Why Play?

When the patient sees the materials they have got for therapy are colorful and fun toys, he can come to think that the reason he could be in the clinic is to play finally, enjoy yourself. And having the child thinking this, will allow the child to cooperate with all the therapist.

Play is a universal activity that blends social, cognitive, linguistic, emotional, and motor components. It is an integration of the many aspects of a youngster. Play serves as a representation with the thoughts and abilities of a child. Through play, the therapist will be able to know how to approach the concerns of his patient.




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