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"This book is an invaluable resource for families and all professionals working with young children. The chapters are very reader-friendly and language is taught across all developmental skill levels and makes learning fun!"
--Susan Emery, SLP
Montgomery County Infants and Toddlers Program
"On a special day, when my children were young, I would discover a toy that opened the passageway between my world and theirs. For my first son, it was puzzles, Duplo blocks, or trains. For my second son, it was Play Doh, balls, or cars. Dolls or drawing with crayons were the conduits with my daughter. The New Language of Toys, published by Woodbine House, reveals the magic of how to stimulate language development through play with toys to parents of young children with special needs. Professionals, such as speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, and early childhood educators will also benefit from the information in this book. In addition to new toys, this edition also includes language-stimulating video and computer activities, and websites.
The book begins with clear explanations of receptive language, expressive language, and speech so parents will be attuned to the difficulties and progress made in these three areas and be better prepared to work with their child's speech and language pathologist. This is followed by a guided-tour through language and physical development in children from birth to 6 years of age. Causes of language delay related to cognitive delay, physical disabilities, sensory deficits, and environment are discussed along with how to recognize speech and language problems early and how to understand the various components of a speech and language assessment: receptive language, expressive language, oral mechanism, and speech sounds.
The concept that a child's work is play and that play is important for emotional, physical, social, cognitive, and language development is an important one. Toy dialogues--what you say as you play with the toys with your child--are included throughout the book. This was one of the hardest tasks for me as a parent, knowing which carefully chosen words would be important for my children with special needs. I always admired the speech and language pathologists who could do so much with a few precious words. Some of the therapy techniques highlighted in the book include:
- 1. Start with simple words and phrases
- 2. Use actual names of things
- 3. Use varied repetition of key words and single concepts
- 4. Speak in short sentences
- 5. Pause between phrases
- 6. Focus on one toy or activity at a time
- 7. Play at your child's eye level
- 8. Play for a few short periods of time
- 9. Know when is the best time to play
- 10. Offer praise and encouragement
- 11. Keep the fun in learning! Be enthusiastic!
For each age level, different toys (some of them homemade and some of them electronic) and corresponding dialogues are presented along with pictures, concepts, vocabulary, and books. There is a chart to help parents summarize developmental progress. There is also great information on using language throughout the child's day through daily activities at home, while driving in the car, and while on outings. In the resource appendices, Dr. Schwartz suggests materials to make toys, sources for books and toys, national organizations, and alternate sources for toys to defray the cost to the parent. There are beautiful color photographs showing the fun interactions between parents and their children while playing with various toys.
The author writes, 'Computer technology has enabled mute children to talk, children with physical disabilities to move, blind children to read, and deaf children to hear.' She advises that computer software should be open-ended and exploratory, easy for a young child to use independently, focused on a broad range of skills and concepts, technically sophisticated, age appropriate, and fun to play with while promoting the child's success and self-esteem.
One of the resources is the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) www.cast.org. CAST is located here in Massachusetts and is dedicated to using technology to expand opportunities for children with disabilities. Many types of assistive technology, such as using a computer with children as young as two, and the Sensational Beginnings keyboard and small mouse available for them, are mentioned.
I highly recommend this book for parents and professionals. It is wonderful when you find a resource such as this, which truly helps parents identify the abilities and the interests of their child through what occupational therapists call the 'just right challenge.' The more your child enjoys playing with that special toy with you, the more you can build your relationship with your child while facilitating his or her development in all areas. My children are no longer young children, but those early toys helped shape the young teenagers that they are becoming. To this day, my first child still loves the challenge of a 200-piece puzzle, building things, playing with model trains, and riding on real trains. My second son loves basketball and cars. My daughter is an accomplished young artist who collects dolls. They all have been helped by assistive and computer technology in overcoming their academic challenges."
--Newsline, Winter 2005
Federation for Children with Special Needs
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