In My Therapy Bag | Liz from Brightsong

Today I am so excited to have the first speech-language pathologist stopping by to participate in the "In My Therapy Bag" series. Liz McMahon is the clinical director and speech-language pathologist for Brightsong, LLC. Brightsong is a private practice providing PT, OT, ST, and Developmental Therapy for children from birth to age 18 in the greater Memphis area. You can find out more at www.brightsong.net and on their blog, Milestones and Benchmarks.

What's in my therapy bag?

Balls! Playing ball is a lot of fun for both children and adults. There are many important developmental skills targeted during ball play. Throwing, catching and kicking may be the first ones that come to mind, but balls are also great toys for speech therapy.

Your child’s speech-language pathologist might use balls during therapeutic play activities to work on the following skills:

Requesting:  Encourage your child to ask for the ball by vocalizing or signing "more" or "ball." Encourage and praise any and all attempts to vocalize and sign. You might need another adult to provide hand-over-hand assistance to help your child sign or hand a picture card to the other person to complete the request. As your child gets older, encourage them to combine words and signs to produce "more ball, ball please" or "I want ball." 

Concepts & Following Directions: Gather a ball and a container large enough to hold the ball. Encourage your child to place the ball "in, out, on top, under, next to, behind, etc." You can also work on "up" and "down" and "fast" and "slow" while playing ball. Work on following directions by encouraging them to "put in, give it to me, push the ball, give the ball to daddy, etc."

Speech Sounds:  Playing ball can target a variety of speech sounds.Work on the /b/ sounds for "ball, bounce, bye-bye, bye ball, etc." You can work on /p/ with "pat, push," /m/ for "more, my ball, me, my turn" and /k/ for "kick, catch." 

Turn-Taking: Playing ball is great when you have someone else to play with. This is a great toy to work on turn-taking skills. Rolling, throwing, catching and kicking are great ways to work on "my turn" and "your turn."

Identifying, Matching & Sorting Colors: Gather balls with different colors and different colored cups. Ask your child to "get the red ball" and "put in red" (place it in the red cup). Continue until all the balls are sorted into the correct colored cups.

Understanding Sizes: Gather balls of different sizes. Talk about "big" and "little" size differences and which ones are "in the middle." Encourage your child to place them in order from smallest to largest and then largest to smallest. 

Here are a few of my favorite types of balls to use:

Tinsel Pom-Poms and an empty cheese container. An occupational therapist friend showed me how great an empty shredded cheese container can be. I like to use the tinsel pom-poms and work on requesting, following directions and identifying colors with this activity. Kids of all ages like this activity. Older kids can work on “poking” smaller balls into the small holes on the lid. Please monitor your child and make sure they do not put these pom-poms in their mouth. They come in different sizes and can be a choking hazard.

The O-Ball is great because it's easy for kids to catch, hold and throw. They make some with rattles built in - which are fun to shake. The material is brightly colored and flexible. Your child may like to chew on it as a teething toy - that's okay because it's very easy to clean.

Light-Up Balls have a fun cause-and-effect aspect. You have to hit or bounce the ball to activate the light. Some kids do become too mesmerized by the lights and may try to hold the ball in front of their eyes for a long time. If you see your child doing this, redirect it and have them roll or throw it to you.

Textured Balls are fun because they have rough or spiky texture your child may enjoy holding in their palm. Some kids may be reluctant to hold the textured balls and may need a few minutes to warm-up to this type of ball. Your child may start to pull on the textured "strings." When they pull on these textured strings, there is a cool "popping" sound, but they can also break off. Check the balls to make sure there aren't any loose strings before your child plays with it. These balls can be difficult to clean, so watch your child and make sure they do not put it in their mouth.

It doesn't matter what type of ball you and your child are playing with, all that matters is that you are spending time together. So, the next time your child wants to play ball, try working on some of the above skills and see how well your child is requesting, following directions, understanding concepts, identifying colors and taking turns. Have fun and let's play ball! 

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: The recommendations are for informational purposes only. Brightsong, LLC does not receive a commission on any of the products reviewed or listed. The Brightsong team only recommends products or services we personally use and believe will add value to the families we work with. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Note from Editor: Amazon Affiliate links have been inserted for the reader's convenience. Please read full disclosure here. 

Connect with Liz at Brightsong:

Website: www.brightsong.net
Blog: www.brightsong.net/milestonesandbenchmarks
Facebook: www.facebook.com/brightsongllc
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/brightsongllc
Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbmemphis

Be sure to check out all of the other great posts in this series to find out what must-have items therapists have in their therapy bags, including how an occupational therapist uses ping pong balls and how a physical therapist uses a playground ball! 
Do you have an item in your therapy bag that you'd like to share? I'd love for you to share it in an upcoming post! Just send me an email, AbbyPediatricOT {at} gmail {dot} com for more information. Open to all therapists! You don't have to be a blogger to participate!