I had a graduate school professor who used to say, “All you need for therapy is a cotton ball and some string”. I always thought, “I love that for you but what about actual toys?”. As I started seeing more and more children in an outpatient clinic with other SLPs, OTs, and PTs – I slowly started to realize what she meant – everything can be turned into a language building activity! You truly don’t need the latest toy that has been trending to help child build speech and language skills. I have had some of the most successful speech sessions without toys and usually with random items children are interested in. All you really need are strategies for how to interact with your child! Let the child pick what they are interested it – this is actually the first strategy – follow your child’s lead. Through everyday, routine interactions like getting dressed, eating, bathing, diaper changes, putting on shoes, etc., you and your child are creating perfect language building situations. You can also join in and play with your child and notice what he/she is doing and start having fun. You can play like the child, use fun words and sounds, pretend, bring in additional toys, imitate your child’s actions and sounds/words, interpret what they say/do, and make comments about the play. Get down on your child’s level and play with them in close interactions so he/she can truly join in with you and engage. During these interactions, match your actions and language to your child’s current skills, model simple language and fun sounds, and imitate your child’s sounds and words. For more structured play or for children who aren’t saying as many words, pick a couple of sounds and target words to focus on for that entire interaction and really saturate/bombard the situation with those terms. For example, choosing “bubble” and “pop” for bath time one day/week and then adding “shhh” for water pouring and washing sound effects. Setting up routines in play, nursery rhymes, daily life, and in books is extremely helpful for building language. When your child knows what to expect they are more easily able to participate in the conversation/interaction. This is why children’s books are so repetitive or why your child could sing “Wheels on the Bus” 1,000 times every day. They love repetition. Building a routine builds background knowledge and lets the child more passively take on information. Think about a situation where you don’t know what to expect, maybe the first time you drove a car. I bet there wasn’t really great conversation that you were able to have when you were figuring everything out. It truly doesn’t have to be a scheduled routine of what your life is every day. It can be as simple as knowing the steps and routine of bath time, a song, Peek-a-Boo, or finishing a familiar phrase like “ready, set, go”. Finally, one of the hardest for me, wait. You don’t have to talk the entire time. Give your child time to respond and learn natural conversational turn taking. I always find myself quizzing children and taking over the whole interaction by talking too much. It’s helpful to count in your head for 5-15 seconds each time you’ve set up a situation for your child to talk. Try to incorporate these into your day. It usually looks like nothing is really happening but I bet you will notice a difference!