toy ideas for late talkers please?

[lingle]

Come back television, all is forgiven....

The SALT has said that playing trains isn't particularly good for DS2's (3.2, just starting to put two words together eg train gone, where's doggie, dirty bowl, open nappy") speech.

I guess I can get him a toy kitchen....

And go back to allowing some age-appropriate tv (probably better than CDs as at least tv matches the picture to the words). No Shaun the sheep, sadly.

He loves the software from inclusive.co.uk where you make your own story by clicking on choices ("Old King Cole or Ba Ba Black Sheep") as did his brother before him. They have it at nursery though and I think he'd be obsessed if it got into the house. Plus he'd need his own computer so as not to wreck mine.

Ideas please!

Hi lingle.

Not sure about toy ideas,although picture lotto helped DS2 with identifying objects, following simple instructions and turn taking.

His SALT told me that the best way to encourage speech/conversation was by watching what he was playing with and just talking to him about it. For example, DS2 loves Power Rangers, Crazy bones (you can tell he has an older brother ), so when he is playing with those, I ask him what he is doing, what the ranger is doing, etc.

HTH

dd likes this even though she has no speech

oh and she likes her tool kit, hammer, drill etc. I think a tool bench would be good.

best toy mty ds got was thomas lap top and he learnt letters and sounds through this

i was advised to play trains but make ds ask for another peice of track encourage him to say colour of train or count wheels etc

basically verbalise every thing you do from makin g tea to blowing nose lol

as soon as they understand the words to actions it becomes clearer for them with in about 2 weeks of continuous verbalising ds went from 1 word sentences to 2 but with more word trecognition as alot of his words had no real understanding

around 4 mths later his on 5-6 words with a much better word recognition and usage

my ds has asd and loves his v tech and his laptop was a godsend taught him so much althoughn no longer plays with it now but he was always on it until he learnt what he had to i guess

his now glued to my computer lol

Thank you everyone.

What I should have said - and failed to - sorry - is that he can do numbers, colours and shapes and tends to focus in on those rather than basic talking skills - so we basically need to avoid those toys - and funnily enough most toys are designed to help with numbers, colours and shapes!
There is a statement saying something along these lines on the main Hanen website.

Perhaps the ideal toy would be a more patient lingle . Anyone seen one in the shops?

I am not an expert at all but my ds 2.4 is a little late talking and we have had some success with the ELC happyland things.

I've been using the Hanen 'It takes two' and looking at the 'Goals' for functional and imaginative play suggestions and adding a few of these these in each time when we play together.He loves the farm and I've got him a few more bits for Christmas like the police station ( his new favourite word is police car).

We do things like

the tractor needs petrol - more,all full ,
drive the red tractor to the barn - lets go,faster,slower,
the duck is swimming- splash etc.
the farmer needs to go for lunch - he is eating his biscuit

and I try and rack my brain for simple things to say to make it fun!

With his trains it is a bit crash,stop, go and lots of Thomas names and I find it harder to make stories up as there aren't any people.

He isn't interested in his sister's kitchen but also enjoyed playing with a till (the money) at playgroup so I'm getting his sister's old one out for him.

I'm watching this thread also for any other ideas.

your ds is musical, isn't he? are you wanting to encourage (in a toy way, i know you do anyway) this? because that could be one way to go.

dd1 has this and loves it (when she isn't being noise sensitive )

something that interests him! DS wasn't really into toy kitchens at that age. If he's interest ed in animals toy animals can be good - animals walk, run, jump, get hungry, eat, drink, sleep, lie down etc. A nice spinning top came in handy as well, to get DS talking about it stopping/going etc, and requested me to spin it again. Anything that needs your help is good as well - so you can feed him the vocab to request help. If your DS likes bubbles then you cvan get plenty of vocab from that. More bubbles, big bubbles, want bubbles, wet, dip, dip wand, put wand in, pop, lots of bubbles etc.

Did the SALT explain why trains aren't suitable? I would have thought they would be quite good for encouraging some speech:
"Where is the train going? It's going to the station."
"What is the driver doing? He's driving the train."
"The train is going under the bridge and through the tunnel. The passengers get on the train." For example.
One of Ds1's first communicative two word sentence came when he was nearly four, playing with toy trains in his nursery: "C broken!" to say that another lad had trod on one of the trai ntracks .

im must say my ds is also obsessed with numbers letters and shapes and colours he has HFA

the best thing i did was verbalise everything i did not so much a toy but to understand what iwas doing and saying helped him

he loved the shopping list game as we could say each item put in the basket etc turn take

trains i was told to encourage him to say more track then add more track please so when he is able to do the 2 words add one

but doing letters and numbers and shapes is his fortee so couldnt steer him from that but drawing a house etc blue windows green doors worked with what he was comfortable with

but also alot of time on computer playing games helped with his speech alot as he would copy instructions better than me talking

something special dvds worked a treat as he learnt to say and sign

but when he got to 3.5 his understanding improved so much his speech over night took a different turn what are you doing mummy, its too high oh i cant reach it

he would never have said that but its all learnt from watching and listening so best thing is just to keep verbalising

oh i was also told to simplify what i was saying to around 3 words so he could understand what iw as saying as too many words meant nothing to him he could follow instruction with more words but to understand speech to use it i was told to simplify it

as instructions you can pick out the words you know so not actually understanding whole sentence goa nd get your shoes please

to him get shoes

so make what your doing simpler making cup tea , ouch kettle hot, etc

it really did work with my ds noticed straight away his attempts to use more words

good luck it may not work but worth a try

ds2 loved his ELC postbox, we used the plastic solid things that came with it but also the SALT gave us some picture cards & he was only allowed to post them once he had said them.

Once he had filled the postbox he was allowed to open it & empty it, he loved that bit as he had a thing about keys at the time

He has also has one of those microphones with both normal & voice changer.
He loves the voice changer mode & will try much harder when he sounds like a dalek.

"Anything that needs your help is good as well "

And the nominations for bad mother of the week award go to.....LINGLE!!!!!!!

Because the awful truth is that I wanted a toy I could leave him with with a clean conscience thinking that it might belp with his basic speech!!!!

I recognise and have (more or less) got the hang of the way my play with him can help him speak. But I want to sneak off and do something else! [debates here whether to pretend it's housework or admit she'd like to catch up with the papers].

I guess I'm really wondering about voice-activated stuff. Something where you have to give commands/responses to get a result. Like watching tv but not passive...... I know they try to do it on Dora the Explorer but something where the action stops unless you speak.

I love him dearly, and am managing to enjoy a lot of our play/talk time together, but recognise my limits. There's always more I could be doing, more I could be helping, but I've learnt that when I pretend to be a nicer person than I am and do too much "overtime" it all goes pear-shaped....#

[secretly hopes someone else will admit to feeling that talking in two-word and three-word sentences for the next year is not the vocation they'd have chosen]

i know what you mean but it really does help i do leave my ds alone alot to play mostly on v tech or computer it seems to help him and his brain responds better

but when dealing with him when cooking cleaning or whatever then shorten your sentences

my ds does love his games and tends to spend alot of time on them but it has helped his speech and understanding and i get to do housework [or read magazine] lol

what about bubble dvd console there interactive

lingle, as an aside, did you see the times yesterday? Interesting article on why some children, esp boys, should start school a year late. The more interesting bit was by a columnist who started her own child late (July b day) as she just didn't feel he was ready. No mention of reason.
Have cut it out to show/discuss with ed psych on Tuesday. Will try and link, hope this works -www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article4958834.ece

Ds2 talked v late (asd) and we did things like putting stuff out of reach on shelves, so if he wanted it he'd need to ask us (any attempt ok).
We were strongly advised not to rely on talking toys - it's not really language, is it? just words?
Wouldn't avoid subjects he's interested in personally, if he's motivated by it use it to expand conversation. Who's going to be more likely to want to talk about stuff they're not interested in?
That's what we've found worked for ds2; he doesn't stop talking now. But you are going to need to talk to him.

Lingle, if there was a toy that helped with speech, we'd have it! One toy that has been brilliant for both of my letter obsessed boys when it comes to listening is the V-tech alphabet desk, though. Aside from the usual simple button pressing and counting games there is one where you have to listen to clues to find the letter. The clues might be "I am next to the yoyo" or "I begin with the letter X" or "I make this sound" and I love that it's given my non-verbal, developmentally delayed, probably ASD 2.5 year old DS a chance to shine, since he can actually play that game. It also teaches simple telling the time, which is cool.

And you don't have to feel bad that you can't spend every moment working intensively on language skills. Sometimes your son needs a few moments without someone constantly in his face as much as you need the break! My 2.5 year old has not only learnt his letters but has learnt to dress himself exploring his own interests in those moments!

"Lingle, if there was a toy that helped with speech, we'd have it! "
Well, I knew that if it existed, one of you would have found it!! So at least I asked the right people.

This is what it says on the Hanen site.

"As a parent, you can have an enormous impact on your child?s ability to communicate ? but not by getting out the flash cards or by buying computer programs or toys that teach numbers, colours and shapes. Those things don?t help children learn the kind of language they need to communicate with others in everyday life."

Isn't that interesting? I'd been weaning him off tv on to other toys, and feeling proud of myself but looking at those toys (inherited from DS1) they do very often teach numbers, colours, shapes and letters - presumably because that's where the market is - parents who want to feel their child is progressing in areas that will matter at school. The toy-makers don't think about late talkers and why would they?

I've come up with an idea after chortling about how this thread has exposed my crap mothering - more formal mealtimes. Today and yesterday I got DH to sit down at the table with us (he's on a sort of sabbatical so at home a lot) and prised his journal from his hands. We all sat down and talked together. I think this could be the way forward since it seems like mealtime is when DS2 particularly develops his language and we all have to spend the time eating anyway. It's great for noun+verb combinations like "pick up your spoon".

Part of me wishes I had the personality to spend every moment of the day in a language game with him but only part - I've seen friends sink into depression after trying too bloody hard to be the perfect mother and "give everything". When I've picked him up from nursery, taken him on yet another train ride ("open door" "shut door" "off we go" "train ticket") and spent half an hour walking home commenting on all the fast cars and red cars I just want a guilt-free cup of tea.

kt14, thanks for the link, I hope you have a productive chat.

I find it hard to talk with other late-talker mums about the starting age thing because my views are now so settled and I don't want to become evangelical and I'm at risk of forgetting that my son is not typical.

The forms for Bradford come out in November apparently. Once I get that letter confirming he can start reception at 5 stand by for a "dancing for joy" emoticon. I'm still so scared that whoever it is in the Council that opposes their flexible stance might still prevail.

You shouldn't put pressure on yourself to be 'perfect' or to turn every moment into a learning moment but I do agree that at least for my DS1 (ASD) talking toys are no use as he is not motivated by programmed voices.

Here is the nursery rhyme software that DS2 loves. DS1 loved it too when he was a late talker.

www.chooseandtellseries.com/index.htm

Dd was a very late talker. At first, she'd only make a sound for what she wanted. Don't worry or get upset if nothing happens for a while. Take things one day at a time. I read to DD a lot and talked to her about the book. I'd also look at what she was doing and ask her questions. I had to do this over and over, but eventually it worked.