Holiday Gift Guide 2021
Arise Therapies is here to help make
holiday shopping merry and meaningful!
Tis the season to be shopping for those near and dear! Listed below are great ideas to help your child succeed in the coming year by strengthening skill sets and having fun!
Take a look! We have divided toys into categories and noted specific speech and occupational therapy targets. This way we can purposefully develop skill sets through play.
Let’s get started! The gift categories include:
Gift with Multiple Pieces
Surprise Element Gifts
Gifts with a Theme
Think Outside the Box Gifts
Books, the Gift of Reading
1. Gifts with Multiple Pieces
Ages - 3 - 5 years old
Speech Targets - Requesting, using descriptive language, expanding sentences, pronouns (I, you, mine, yours)
OT Targets - Bilateral coordination, visual motor and hand precision skills
Ages - 1 -5 years old
Speech Targets -Requesting, using descriptive language, expanding sentences, pronouns (I, you, mine, yours)
OT Targets - Fine motor and visual motor skills, motor planning, following directions
Ages - 2 - 4 years old
Speech Targets - Prepositions: on, off, in, on. Action words: play, push, pop. Early CV/VC/CVC word: up, pop, on, up. Following Directions, color matching
OT Targets - Finger isolation
Ages - 1 - 5 years old
Speech Targets - On, off, up, down, labeling animals, action words like jump, run, walk, fall down, go up and other 2-word combinations with animal + verb, color + animal. Receptively identifying animals in choice of two.
OT Targets - Pretend play, purposeful play
Ages - 1 - 5 years old
Speech Targets - Requesting for colors - more blue, more yellow, etc.; one blue, two purple, etc. Producing 1-2 word combinations - blue dot, purple dot, yellow dot, green dot. Identifying colors in choice of 2 - where’s the blue one?
OT Targets - Color matching, fine motor grasp and dexterity, eye hand coordination.
Ages - 2 - 5 years old
Speech Targets - Prepositions (in, out, open, close), label (food, colors), describing words (hot/cold), pretend play
OT Targets - Opportunities for sharing and playing with peer / sibling. Joint attention. Bilateral coordination and sequencing multiple steps.
Ages - 1 years old +
Speech Targets - Action words: find, dig, smash, squish, push + Following Directions + Prepositions
OT Targets - Tactile play / exploration. Bilateral coordination and strengthening of hands/wrists with using tools / hands to fill/dump containers
2. Surprise Element Gifts
Ages - 9 months +
Speech Targets - Requesting, colors, counting, describing, verbs, prepositions
OT Targets - Cause and effect, eye hand coordination, encourages gross motor movements through pushing toy
Ages - 4 years old +
Speech Targets - Requesting (I want…) superlatives (big, bigger, biggest), prepositions (in, out), labeling (colors, numbers)
OT Targets - Turn taking, sharing, joint attention, opportunities to work on sportsmanship and winning/losing
Ages - 4 years old +
Speech Targets - Requesting (I want…) superlatives (big, bigger, biggest), prepositions (in, out), labeling (colors, numbers)
OT Targets - Turn taking, sharing, joint attention, opportunities to work on sportsmanship and winning/losing
Ages - 1 - 3 years old
Speech Targets - Labeling, requesting (i.e ready, set, go), turn-taking (i.e. my turn, your turn), learning actions such as fly, run, jump
OT Targets - Eye hand coordination, visual spatial awareness. Gross motor movement and accepting winning/losing
Ages - 18 months +
Speech Targets - Requesting, labeling, color identification, animal identification, requesting, inference
OT Targets - Grasp/release, eye hand coordination, graded fine motor control, finger isolation
3. Gifts with a Theme
Ages - 3 years old +
Speech Targets - Using verbs, requesting, following directions, labeling and identifying objects, pretend play, describing
OT Targets - Motor planning, sequencing, fine motor coordination
Ages - 3 years old +
Speech Targets - Requesting, labeling, colors, numbers, verbs, early sounds, turn-taking, and pretend play
OT Targets -Eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, sequencing, and a fun way to work on drawing shapes/lines/patterns
Ages - 2 years old +
Speech Targets -Requesting, following directions, animal sounds and names, action words (eat, sleep, ride), pronouns, and prepositions (in, on, etc.)
OT Targets - Fine motor coordination, grasp/release, and stacking
Ages - 18 months old +
Speech Targets - Prepositions and actions (up, down, in, on), following directions, requesting, compare and contrast, and fine motor skills
OT Targets - Eye-hand coordination development, visual perception and discrimination, bilateral coordination and fine motor graded control
4. Think Outside the Box Gifts
Speech Targets - Expressive: modeling in, out, smash, wow and other exclamatory words, open, naming objects placed in tin. Also good for receptive skills: color circles on the individual muffin
OT Targets - Use tongs to place items into muffin tin for fine motor coordination. Place tape over top of muffin tin openings and use scissors to snip tape to find hidden surprise or peel tape off to work on pincer grasp.
Speech Targets - Make craft time fun by following directions, narrating what the child is doing, requesting, color identification, describing (big, small, short, long, etc.)
OT Targets - Use tongs to pick up poms for fine motor coordination.
Speech Targets - Make craft time fun by following directions, narrating what the child is doing, requesting, color identification, describing (big, small, short, long, etc.)
OT Targets - Fine motor coordination, gluing
Speech Targets - Make craft time fun by following directions, narrating what the child is doing, requesting, color identification, describing (big, small, short, long, etc.)
OT Targets - Fine motor coordination, dexterity, scissor skills for cutting
5. Books for the Gift of Reading
Ages - 4 - 8 years old
Targets - Answering questions (who, what, where, when and why); describing visual scenes, pronouns (he, she, they), verbs, and prepositions (over, under, in, out, above)
Ages - 4 - 7 years old
Targets - Describing, past tense verbs, categories, holiday vocabulary, along with labeling and identifying verbs, objects
Ages - 4+
Targets - Story about a little girl with cochlear implants. Activities provided at end of book for listening skills, categories, prepositions, and comprehension
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!
With love and appreciation,
Arise Therapies
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