This Counting Surprise Party toy by Learning Resources is hugely popular with little ones and is a great addition to your therapy sessions. So I wanted to share 4 engaging ways you can use these Counting Surprise Party presents in your therapy sessions to support early language skills.
Note- This post is not sponsored by or affiliated with Learning Resources. I bought my own set and just love this toy, so I wanted to share some engaging ideas for using this toy in therapy.
What is the Counting Surprise Party toy?
These colourful presents from Learning Resources are a very popular toy to use in Speech Therapy sessions. The Counting Surprise Party toy comes with 10 presents, and each present has a little toy inside which can be talked about and played with too. These presents are a huge hit with little ones and I love that you can target so many different words with them. You can target core words (more, again, open, help, etc.), verbs (open, pull, look, etc.)., prepositions (in, on, out, etc.), symbolic sounds (sounds for all the different objects inside), object names, and so much more!
Note- May not be a suitable toy to use if the child is still mouthing due to small parts. Learning Resources recommend this toy for children aged 3-7.
I love my set of these Counting Surprise Party presents, so I wanted to share 4 engaging ways you can use this toy in your therapy sessions to support early language skills.
Put the presents in a bag and use it as a 'What's in the bag?' activity.
Rather than having all the presents within the child’s reach, put them inside a bag. Because, when you put the presents inside a bag, it becomes a communication temptation, which helps to encourage language skills. With all the presents inside a bag, the child cannot easily access them, so you are creating more reasons and opportunities for the child to communicate and interact.
Since all the presents are inside the bag, and you have control over the bag, you can…
- Offer a choice of two presents when you take them out of the bag. The child can respond by pointing, reaching, taking, or using words. Give the child the present they chose and put the other one back in the bag.
- Hold the bag, then pause and wait expectantly. You can shake it to draw their attention to the bag too. This gives the child an opportunity to initiate an interaction and make a request for another present.
- Act all excited when you open the bag to encourage and facilitate joint attention.
- Take out one present and pause and wait expectantly, to see if the child initiates an interaction by reaching or pointing.
You can then encourage the child to open the present, and talk about and play with the toy that is inside.
Put the presents in a sensory bin for added fun!
I love using sensory bins as they provide an engaging, sensory and language-rich experience for little ones. You can add the presents to the sensory bin; encourage the child to find a present, take it out, and open it. Then talk about and play with the toy that is inside the present. You can model so much language when playing with the presents in this way. For example, you can talk about what the things inside the sensory bin look/feel like, talk about what the child is doing, and talk about the toys inside the present.
Just be aware- A sensory bin may not be suitable if the child is still mouthing due to risk of choking on small parts.
Host a party with your toys and share the presents.
Who doesn’t love hosting a party? You can use your own toys, or get the child to bring their own special teddy bear/toy to the party too. Take turns giving the toys a present. Then open the present and talk about/play with the toy that is inside. This activity is great for expanding utterances, for example you can model and encourage short phrases such as “teddy’s duck”. If you want to work on receptive language, you can take the small objects out of the presents, and give the child instructions, such as “give the guitar to the dog”.
Hide the toys around the room and get kids moving!
Encourage movement in your sessions by “hiding” the presents around the room and encouraging the child to find them. You can comment on what is happening, and model target words, such as prepositions and core words. This is also a great activity for developing pointing and requesting help.
Other ways to use the Counting Surprise Party toy in therapy
There are so many fun and engaging ways to use these Counting Surprise Party toys in your therapy sessions. Here’s a few more ideas…
- Play with the toys inside the presents, model symbolic sounds while playing. For example, make the dinosaur “roar”, make the plane fly (“nnnewwww”), make the duck “quack”, pretend to drink tea from the teapot and model a slurp and “ahh” sound, etc.
- Use the small objects in play. For example, fly the plane, push the truck around, make tea with the teapot, etc.
- Practise prepositions by putting the objects in/on/under/next to/behind, etc. the presents.
- danikanin7 on Instagram shared this fun idea- hide the toys under the boxes, practise using verbs, requesting, & make the toys jump off each box.
- thespeechiecorner on Instagram uses the objects inside with the Expanding Expressions Tool (or to just describe) to develop language skills.
I hope you’ve found some fresh ideas for how you can use the Counting Surprise Party toy in your therapy sessions to support language skills. Do you have this toy? How have you used it in your sessions? Share your ideas in the comments.