Skills Guide

Learn more about the skills our toys are designed to develop!

Cognitive

Speech & Language

Creativity & Imagination

Fine & Gross Motor

STEM

Cognitive

Speech & Language

Social & Emotional

Creativity & Imagination

Fine & Gross Motor

STEM

Speech & Language

If you’re looking for toys that promote speech and language development, you’ve come to the right place! Our speech language toys are excellent educational tools for practicing phonics, building vocabulary, and more.

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What is speech?

Speech is one of the tools we use to communicate with each other [3,4]! It’s made up of three main elements:

Articulation

How we move our tongue, lips, and mouth to say words

Voice

The quality of the sounds our vocal cords make (for example, soft, hard, loud, and quiet)

Fluency

Keeping a steady rhythm of speech

What is language?

How do we make sense of the sounds we make? Through language! Language is a system of spoken, written, or hand (American Sign Language) symbols used to express thoughts and ideas [1,2]. Receptive language is how we understand language (listening and reading), while expressive language is how we communicate through language (speaking and writing).

Language is made up of five parts:

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the social aspect of language! It includes all the social skills children need to participate in a conversation, such as making eye contact, taking turns, staying on topic, and starting and ending a conversation [2,4].

Semantics

Semantics refers to the meaning behind words. Words can have different meanings in different contexts, for instance, when they are used figuratively instead of literally (for example, “It’s raining cats and dogs!” vs. “I love my dog.”).

Morphology

Morphology deals with combining words and/or parts of words to make new ones. For example, the prefix “re-” means again, so adding it to “try” results in “retry,” meaning, to try something again.

Phonology

Phonology deals with phonemes, which are basic speech sounds; for example, the “duh” sound in “dog.” Perceiving these sounds, understanding the connection between a letter’s written and spoken forms, saying a word’s phonemes in order (“duh” before “og”), and combining phonemes to create words (“duh – og, dog!”) are all essential skills in children’s language development.

Syntax

Syntax is concerned with language rules that tell us how to correctly arrange words and phrases in a sentence. For example, the sentence “The cat is hungry.” follows English language rules and makes sense to English speakers, whereas “Is hungry the cat.” does not follow the rules and would cause confusion among English speakers [2,4].

What is language?

How do we make sense of the sounds we make? Through language! Language is a system of spoken, written, or hand (American Sign Language) symbols used to express thoughts and ideas [1,2]. Receptive language is how we understand language (listening and reading), while expressive language is how we communicate through language (speaking and writing).

Language is made up of five parts:

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the social aspect of language! It includes all the social skills children need to participate in a conversation, such as making eye contact, taking turns, staying on topic, and starting and ending a conversation [2,4].

Semantics

Semantics refers to the meaning behind words. Words can have different meanings in different contexts, for instance, when they are used figuratively instead of literally (for example, “It’s raining cats and dogs!” vs. “I love my dog.”).

Morphology

Morphology deals with combining words and/or parts of words to make new ones. For example, the prefix “re-” means again, so adding it to “try” results in “retry,” meaning, to try something again.

Phonology

Phonology deals with phonemes, which are basic speech sounds; for example, the “duh” sound in “dog.” Perceiving these sounds, understanding the connection between a letter’s written and spoken forms, saying a word’s phonemes in order (“duh” before “og”), and combining phonemes to create words (“duh – og, dog!”) are all essential skills in children’s language development.

Syntax

Syntax is concerned with language rules that tell us how to correctly arrange words and phrases in a sentence. For example, the sentence “The cat is hungry.” follows English language rules and makes sense to English speakers, whereas “Is hungry the cat.” does not follow the rules and would cause confusion among English speakers [2,4].

In Conclusion…

Language helps us understand and be understood by others. Despite not being an actual language, body language (facial expressions and body movements) can also help us communicate with one another!

Our Collection of Speech & Language Toys

ABC Railway

Alphabet Learning Train Set

Alphabet Fishing

Magnetic Alphabet Fishing Game

Bright Explorer

Educational Light Box Playset

Dive & Discover

Ocean Learning Color Changing Book Set
Hot

EggXpress Yourself!

Match & Learn Eggs

I Am Responsible!

Magnetic Responsibility Chart

I Can Plan!

Magnetic Calendar

Knock-Knock Who’s Inside?

Lock & Latch Board

Lace-Up & Learn Animals

Fine Motor Wooden Lacing Toy

Learning Ladybug

Ladybug Counting Toy
Hot

Locbloc Counting Blocks

Educational Building Block Set

Mini Barista

Wooden Barista Playset

    References:
    [1] Farmer, T. A., & Matlin, M. W. (2019). Cognition. John Wiley & Sons.
    [2] MacRoy-Higgins, M., & Kolker, C. (2017). Time to Talk: What You Need to Know about Your Child’s Speech and Language Development. AMACOM.
    [3] USCF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. (n.d.). Speech and language difficulty commonly affects individuals with dementia and other neurological conditions. https://memory.ucsf.edu/symptoms/speech-language
    [4] American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). What Is Speech? What Is Language?. https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/speech-and-language

    References:

    [2] MacRoy-Higgins, M., & Kolker, C. (2017). Time to Talk: What You Need to Know about Your Child’s Speech and Language Development. AMACOM.
    [3] USCF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. (n.d.). Speech and language difficulty commonly affects individuals with dementia and other neurological conditions. https://memory.ucsf.edu/symptoms/speech-language
    [4] American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). What Is Speech? What Is Language?. https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/speech-and-language