Holiday Gift Guide 2022
Check out our top 45 gift ideas with
speech, occupational therapy, and feeding targets!
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Gift-giving is uniquely personal. It’s a way of sharing something with family and friends that helps them be the best version of themselves with a thoughtful and engaging gift.
Arise Therapies has selected our top 45 gifts for this 2022 season! Listed below are terrific gift ideas to help your child succeed in 2023 by strengthening skill sets while having fun!
Gift ideas are divided into speech, occupational, and feeding therapy categories with specific targets for each, as well as a category at the end for “books with a purpose”. Let’s get started!
1. Speech Gifts Under $100
Name: Toniebox
Age Range: 3+
Speech Targets: “Fill in the blank” with familiar songs; engage in song play with sustained attention; label character names, and describe the size, shape, and color of the character.
2. Speech Gifts Under $75
Name: The Butterfly Pig Inclusive Doll and Accessories
Age Range: Any age (however, the doll is high quality and made of vinyl so be aware of that!)
Description: The doll itself (that comes in all different nationalities and even includes dolls with Down Syndrome features!) ranges anywhere from $35-$50, but accessories (including hearing aids, baha hearing device, cochlear implants, AAC devices, G-tubes, inhalers, tracheostomy tubes and more!) range from $5-$20.
Speech Targets: Engage in pretend play, label body parts, help your child better understand disorder/device he or she uses, and feel more included in their world.
3. Speech Gifts Under $50
Name: Magna-tiles
Age Range: 3+
Speech Targets: Imitating actions such as sorting or stacking, labeling colors and shapes, and target action words/prepositions (i.e. up, down, fall, go, stop, in, out).
Name: Take-Along Tabletop Railroad
Age Range: 3+
Speech Targets: Spatial concepts (over, under, through), descriptive words (fast, slow, long, short, first, last), action words (stop, go), opportunities to request “more” train cars to make a longer train.
Name: Paw Patrol Wooden ABC Truck
Age Range: 3-5 years
Speech Targets: Spatial concepts (put on, put in, etc.); learning early phonological skills with letters on blocks, engage in pretend play; making environmental sounds (beep, honk), action (go, stop) and descriptive words (fast, slow).
Name: The Fidget Game
Age Range: PreK to 3rd Grade
Speech Targets: Early literacy skills (learning sight words), turn-taking.
Name: Spelligator
Age Range: 5+
Speech Targets: Practice sounding out words, participate in word building, review spelling rules, includes various levels of difficulty, CVC activity cards for sound and letter recognition in three letter words.
Name: Domino Train
Age Range: 3-12
Speech Targets: Identify and label colors, counting, actions and adjectives (go, stop, fast, slow, push), spatial concepts (over, under).
Name: Fisher-Price Little People Play House
Age Range: 1-5 years
Speech Targets: Repetition of play routines (night night… wake up!), exclamatory words for early talkers (whee!, uhoh, yum!), household vocabulary, prepositions (in, on, under), following directions, and so much more!
Name: Tapple Game
Age Range: Ages 8+
Speech Targets: Categorical word finding, rapid word retrieval, strengthen semantic/phonological networks post stroke, family fun.
4. Speech Gifts Under $25
Name: Dot Markers
Age Range: 3+
Speech Targets: Label colors, develop hand/eye coordination, target action words/nouns (i.e. go, dot, push, circle).
Name: Wooden Burger Stacking Toy
Age Range: 3+
Speech Targets: Following directions and learning prepositions (i.e. first put burger on, then put lettuce on).
Name: Learning Resources Peekaboo Learning Farm
Age Range: 2+
Speech Targets: Labeling animals, continue & sorting, prepositions (i.e., in/out, on/off), color recognition, imaginative play, fine motor skills, great stocking stuffer!
Name: Learning Resources Counting Surprise Party
Age Range: 3+
Speech Targets: Labeling items, counting & sorting skills, target prepositions (i.e., in, out, on, behind), color recognition, great stocking stuffer!
Name: Color Matching Mosaic Peg Board
Age Range: 2+
Speech Targets: Counting, color recognition, target action words/prepositions (i.e., in, out, push, take out/in), turn-taking, hand-eye coordination, find motor skills.
5. OT Gifts Under $100
Name: Harkla Hug Sensory Chair
Age Range: 3+
OT Targets: Proprioceptive/body awareness input, self-regulation.
Name: Sand Table
Age Range: 24 months+
OT Targets: Sensory play, fine motor coordination, bilateral coordination, strengthening.
Name: Spinner-X Sit and Spin Toy Bigger SizeToy Bigger Size
Age Range: 3 years +
OT Targets: Vestibular input.
6. OT Gifts Under $75
Name: Turtle Steps Balance Stepping Stones
Age Range: Toddler+
OT Targets: Balance, gross motor coordination, motor planning, sequencing.
Name: Kid’s Art Easel
Age Range: Toddler+
OT Targets: Strengthening, fine motor skills, visual motor skill.
7. OT Gifts Under $50
Name: Squigz
Age Range: 3+
OT Targets: Bilateral coordination, strengthening, fine motor skills, visual motor skills.
Name: Melissa and Doug Let’s Play House! Dust! Sweep! Mop!
Age Range: 3+
OT Targets: Motor planning, bilateral coordination, midline crossing, pretend play.
Name: Little Tikes Indoor/Outdoor Wet or Dry Slide
Age Range: 18 months-5 years
OT Targets: Sensorimotor play, strengthening, motor planning. Love that this slide can be used indoors or outdoors and has a water feature for outdoor play!
8. OT Gifts Under $25
Name: Wooden Geoboard Pegs
Age Range: 3+
OT Targets: Bilateral coordination, fine and visual motor skills, visual perceptual skills.
Name: Pop/Noise Tubes
Age Range: 3+
OT Targets: Bilateral coordination, hand strengthening, pincer grasp to place items inside tube and sensory input via auditory, tactile and proprioceptive inputs.
Name: Tangram Puzzles
Age Range: 3+
OT Targets: Visual spatial and visual perceptual skills, fine motor coordination.
Name: Zoom Ball
Age Range: 3+
OT Targets: Upper body strength, bilateral coordination, motor planning.
Name: Melissa and Doug Lacing Beads
Age Range: 3+
OT Targets: Bilateral coordination, fine motor coordination, and visual motor skills.
Name: Theraputty
Age Range: 3+
OT Targets: Hand strengthening, fine motor coordination, tactile discrimination.
Name: Melissa and Doug Scissors Skills Activity Book with Child Safe Scissors
Age Range: 4+
OT Targets: Cutting skills, bilateral coordination, visual motor integration, fine motor control.
Name: Melissa and Doug First Shapes Jumbo Knob Wooden Puzzle
Age Range: 1-2 years
OT Targets: Great beginning puzzle, matching/visual discrimination, fine motor coordination.
Name: Tunnel
Age Range: crawling+
OT Targets: Strengthening, sensory input (tactile and proprioceptive), motor planning, creative play.
Name: Fisher Price Piggy Bank
Age Range: 6 months to 3 years
OT Targets: Fine motor skills, visual motor skills, cause and effect.
9. Feeding Gifts Under $50
Name: ARK's Y-Chew XT Oral Motor Chewy Tool
Age Range: 12 months+
Targets: Practice biting/chewing exercises, tool to decrease oral defensiveness and food aversions, strengthen lips, tongue, cheeks, and jaw.
10. Feeding Gifts Under $25
Name: Meals with Milton
Age Range: Any Age
OT Targets: Picky eating, utensil practice, model eating new foods.
Name: Honey Bear Cup
Age Range: 6 months+
Targets: Practice straw drinking, oral motor skills (e.g., lip rounding, tongue retraction), transition from bottles and sippy cups.
11. Books with a Purpose
Name: The Butterfly Pig by Mary Jenner
Age Range: Any age
Targets: Helps to understand and teach diversity, inclusion and friendship.
Name: Pete the Cat’s 12 Groovy Days of Christmas by James and Kimberly Dean
Age Range: 2-6 years old
Targets: All Pete the Cat books have great repetition to help teach early language and children can fill in the blank as you read; they also teach rhyming, verb + ing (i.e. rocking, grooving, rolling), counting (i.e. 12 days of Christmas), descriptive language (i.e. hot/cold, small/big) and plurals (i.e. girls, boys).
Name: Pete the Cat Save Christmas by James and Kimberly Dean
Age Range: 2-6 years old
Targets: All Pete the Cat books have great repetition to help teach early language and children can fill in the blank as you read; they also teach rhyming, verb + ing (i.e. rocking, grooving, rolling), counting (i.e. 12 days of Christmas), descriptive language (i.e. hot/cold, small/big) and plurals (i.e. girls, boys).
Name: Little Blue Truck’s Christmas by Alice Schertle
Age Range: 1-3 years old
Targets: Teaches children to imitate environmental sounds (i.e. beep, honk), verbs (i.e stop/go, ride), counting, and labeling colors, transportation vehicles and animals.
Name: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Age Range: 1-5 years old
Targets: Sequencing, inferencing, adjectives, s-blend sounds (i.e. snow, snowsuit, slowly).
Name: Moo, Baa, Fa La La La La! By Sandra Boyton
Age Range: 0-5 years
Targets: Repetition to learn early language; animal sounds, labeling animals.
Name: The Mitten by Jan Brett
Age Range: 1-5 years
Targets: Inferencing (i.e. where is the mitten?), labeling animals, describing pictures, sequencing.
Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas!
With love and appreciation,
Arise Therapies
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