Rock Chalk Speech Talk

Sharing Speech & Language Therapy Ideas!

  • Rock Chalk Speech Talk
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Get on the List!
  • Contact

Popper Toys

You guys. How have I gone so long without popper toys in therapy?!  I am in love with the pig and penguin poppers I got for Christmas, and so are my students. We had to set some ground rules at first– you know, things like “We don’t aim the ball at teachers or our friends” and discussions of, “No, the animals are not “farting” or “pooping” but are just blowing out of their mouth.” (Sigh.. little boys and their early obsessions with bodily functions.. ha ha).  Once the ground rules were set, though, the poppers have been a HUGE hit in therapy over the last few weeks!

Initially, I just thought they’d be fun as a reinforcer.  Turns out, they’re good for a lot more than that! Below, I’ll share some different ways I’ve used the poppers!

1.  Articulation
If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw this recent post:

One of the first activities I did with the popper was put some artic cards up on my door and have kids aim the popper at a card of their choosing.  For mixed groups, I designated each student a color and they had to aim for their color when it was their turn.  My particular poppers also work great for /p, b/– ball, pop, penguin, and pig! You can use a carrier phrase like “Hit the ___” or “Pop the ___” when you aim at cards, too.  Carrier phrases are a great strategy to use with apraxic kids or your artic kids working at the phrase level.

(PS– Lisette from Speech Sprouts had an AWESOME idea to practice the /p/ sound with her poppers- check it out on Instagram!)

2.  Pronouns
I’ve stuck pronoun cards on the door, too, to work on “he,” “she,” and “they.”  BUT, I’ve also worked on that pesky “I” (If you gave me a dollar for every time I heard “my” or “me” instead of “I” in preschool… Well, I’d have enough to buy myself a couple Starbucks beverages on a daily basis ;-)).  You can have students aim at cards on the door, or, depending on the room setup, you can aim at different objects around the room- posters, the door, cabinets, a chair, etc…. and have them say “I’m aiming at ___”

OR, you can decide to designate your popper animal as a female or male, and practice using he/she.  For instance, “He hit the ___”  This would be an easy way to work on pronouns in a mixed group with artic students without having to get out extra materials (because, in the words of Sweet Brown.. “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”)

3.  Increasing MLU
There are so many short 2-3 word phrases that you can incorporate while using the poppers with your late-talkers that may only be using single words…
“My turn” / “Your turn”
“Ball please” “Pig (or whatever your popper is) please”
“Ball in” “Put ball in” “Pop out” “Pop ball out”
“Green ball” “Black ball” (or whatever color balls come with your popper)
“Pop pig” “Pop penguin” “Pop ball”
“Hit ___”

4.  AAC- Core vocabulary
You may have seen this idea on my Instagram, too– I used the poppers in conjunction with AAC with one of my nonverbal kids, and oh man, did he LOVE it! We targeted “in” to put the ball in the mouth, but you could also target core words such as: out, my/my turn, want/want turn, go, put/put in, more, and play.  My one little guy kept verbally saying “ooooh!” and “whoah!” when we played– it was the most verbal I had heard him all school year!

5.  AAC- PECS
I’ve also used the poppers with students using PECS.  They had to exchange a picture of the ball in order to get one to place in the popper’s mouth.  It’s a highly motivating activity, trust me!

Which one is your favorite popper animal? Have you used them any other ways besides the ones I’ve listed? Let me know in the comments below!

**
PS- An exclusive, behind-the-scenes shot (I know- you’re really hitting the jackpot with this one- ha!) of trying to take a photo of the poppers at home, with Bruce, one of my dogs, who just wants to play with them SO badly but was already told “no.”  Hilarious!  #puppylife #rufflife

PPS- A couple days after I had to tell my dog not to play with them, my husband came upstairs with one of them and shot it at me while I was working on this post– Popper toys are fun for both dogs and humans…kids and adults.. a multi-faceted toy anyone can enjoy! 😉

«
»

Filed Under: Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe Via Email

Categories

Search

Latest on Instagram

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle- that’s the saying isn’ Reduce, Reuse, Recycle- that’s the saying isn’t it? (Earth Day pro over here, clearly 😅)

REUSE…. Your spiders that you probably have from Halloween or even from your bug theme, and use them for Itsy Bitsy Spider!

Grab those spideys and a tote lid for a ramp aka your “spout,” and walk them up the ramp.  Use “up up up” as your verbal routine each time. (Taking turns making a spider walk up is great motor imitation with objects, too!) Once it’s at the top of the ramp, let go so the spider slides down your spout. 

Verbal routines could look like…
“Up up up!” or...
“Up, up, up… whee!” or... 
“Up, up, up… down! Whee!”

What else would you use as a ramp besides a tote lid?
Need some basic, simple activities for a weather t Need some basic, simple activities for a weather theme? Use “rain” and plan around Itsy Bitsy Spider!

These “Never Touch A...” books are my 7 month old’s favorite (she repeatedly closes the book on me as we’re reading to feel the front cover again 😂), and they’re great to use at work, too, for introducing literacy to kids who don’t necessarily enjoy books yet. I’ve found that a lot of these kids are also sensory seekers, and the tactile component of these books gets them interested!

In the schools, I always got a lot of new late talkers on my caseload in the Spring from the birth-to-3 service transitions, so working on exclamatory words like “ew!” “yuck!” “ick!” “ooo!” is something you can do with this tactile book, too, for your little ones just starting to imitate!
If there’s a Little Blue Truck book that fits my If there’s a Little Blue Truck book that fits my theme, you bet I’m using it! The Springtime version, while not my all-time fave of the series, is perfect for a farm theme or in May for Mother’s Day with mama and baby animals! 🐤🐣

Annnnd to go with it, this Little Blue Truck BOOM deck can be used...
-in person or virtually
-for a ton of your preschool language goals 
-with ANY Little Blue Truck book (but fits especially well with the original and Springtime version of the books!)

Swipe to see a video of it in action!
Hi! It’s me again. Long time no see. I unexpec Hi! It’s me again.  Long time no see.

I unexpectedly took a long hiatus, and maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t (it’s cool if you didn’t). 

I kinda poured my heart out in a message to my email subscribers earlier, so I’ll give you an abbreviated version (mostly bc IG won’t let me have as many characters 😂🤷‍♀️)

I was playing the comparison game in pretty much every aspect of life which was so unhealthy for so many reasons so I had to take a step back. 

I was comparing myself to my coworkers who all seem put together each day while having young kids at home, as I feel like I’m riding the hot mess express every day and I’m lucky if I leave the house with makeup on!

I was comparing Olivia to other August babies- mostly worrying whether I was doing enough for her.  I had to mute the due date group I’m in on Facebook bc I’d start going down a rabbit hole of worry when I’d see threads of babies doing things she wasn’t yet- despite logically knowing she was well within the normal range for milestones and that an early August baby is way different than a late August baby. 

I was comparing myself to all of my other sweet and wonderful SLP TPT friends who are killin’ it, creating great, useful content to share and still managing families and work, and some days I felt like I was just spinning my wheels (but for real guys how do you do it 😂)

Essentially I felt like I wasn’t doing enough as a mom, a wife, a friend, a therapist, or a blogger.

But I’ve been feeling more like myself lately, trying to create some systems that work, and learning how to give myself some grace as I figure it all out. I love the little nugget in this picture more than I could ever adequately explain- so I’m working on some things for my own well-being so I can be a great mama to her!

I’m looking forward to being back- I hope you are, too!
Who else is reading The Day It Rained Hearts this Who else is reading The Day It Rained Hearts this week? Between this and Little Blue Truck’s Valentine, we’re delivering Valentine’s to LOTS of our animal friends! With all no prep or low prep activities, you can buy this set tonight and use tomorrow morning!
Easy to prep? ✅ Works for lots of your caseload Easy to prep? ✅ 
Works for lots of your caseload? ✅ 
Preverbal AND verbal kids can participate? ✅ 

I use this every year, at different times throughout the year, and just leave out the “Valentine’s Day” part of the line- voila, you also have an interactive book for a jungle/zoo anima theme or a pet theme, too! 🐵 🐊 🦁

Grab it with the link in my profile!
Olivia and I are Super Bowl ready! #gochiefs ❤️💛 Is the bow and tutu over the top? Yes. Do I regret it? No. 😂 

Since most people are just in it for the food and commercials.. Whats your favorite Super Bowl snack? Mine is buffalo chicken dip 💯!
This little lady knows what’s up and doesn’t w This little lady knows what’s up and doesn’t want you to miss out either!

⏰ The BEST bundle and the BIGGEST bundle is back for version 2.0! Get yourself materials from 23 SLPs-

Need speech sound materials? Gotcha covered ✅ 

Need language materials? Yep- covered there, too! ✅ 

Need both (and want a bundle of mixed group materials thrown in for free?) You got it! ✅ 

Buy the bundles at thisthatorboth.com where we have allll the info you need if you want more details!

Copyright © 2021 · Darling Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in