Topic “Exploration”

Activities to develop early choice making between two items

Activity/strategy name and materials required	How to do the activity	Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Choosing Between Toys - Desired and undesired toys, other objects	To begin with hold out a liked toy and a neutral object like a piece of paper - encourage the child to reach for what they want. When they can do this consistently hold out two toys - encourage the child to reach to choose.	Vary which side you hold the toys out to ensure that the child doesn't always reach in one direction. Occasionally, when the child has been reaching for what they want swap the toys around and see whether they still reach for the same one. Always label what they choose for example "snake ... you want the snake...".
Choosing Between Food - Two types of food	Login or register to see the instructions for this activity.	As above Always label what the child chooses or reaches for. For example: 'Oh, rice, mmmm' Make appropriate sounds like 'mmmmmm', 'yum yum' etc.

Activity/strategy name and materials required	How to do the activity	Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Box and Bricks Box Bricks	Empty the bricks on the floor or table Help child pick up a brick and place it in the box... Remember to use simple words like 'in', 'more'... When all the bricks are in the box say 'all in, no more!' (or something similar!) Then help child take them out again - say 'out', 'more' etc	Initially he might need to be helped (hand-over-hand) to pick up brick, place hand in/near box and prompted to drop it The aim to develop child's ability to do this more and more independently...
Post Box Commercial or home made post box, pictures or objects to post	Login or register to see the instructions for this activity.	Remember to use simple words and comment on what is happening...
Monkey Eating Monkey box and plastic food	Login or register to see the instructions for this activity.	Remember to use simple names ( 'apple') and 'in' and noises like 'mmm', 'yum yum' etc

Thank you for visiting Commtap.

Please read this message as it is extremely important.

Visitor donations mean we can continue to host over 1,000 free activities to support speech, language, and communication development.
Visitor donations mean we can continue to provide free resources to address a wide range of communication needs, including limited speech or language, interaction challenges, and needs associated with conditions such as developmental language disorder, autism, and cerebral palsy.
Visitor donations mean we can continue to provide resources to support the work of speech and language therapists, teachers, teaching assistants, parents, and carers.
Visitor donations mean we can continue to provide the free key word sign dictionary (bks.org.uk) which has over 2,000 Makaton and Signalong signs.

We know that not everyone is able to afford to pay to access these resources, however, if you can, please make a donation to keep the site going.

Thank you