Written By: Kaitlin Bednarz M.S., CCC-SLP
Does your child enjoy playing with Legos or magnetic tiles at home? We love using these in speech therapy to target language and play skills! The next time your child reaches for the Legos or Magnetic Tiles, try using these strategies and routines to build language and play skills!
Sorting
When taking the tiles/Legos out of the box (or in some cases, after your child dumps the bucket onto the floor!), sort them into categories by colors, shapes, and size! Build phrases such as “blue triangle” or “small rectangle”. You can also target this while cleaning up (“let’s clean up all the small green Legos”).
Prepositions
Model the following prepositions: on, next to, behind, beside, in, under, etc. when building. For expressive language, have your child tell you where to place the tile. For receptive language practice, tell your child where to place the tile and see if he/she can follow correctly! You can also use preposition words to build larger sentences! For example “triangle on square” or “red next to yellow”.
Following Multi-Step Directions
Practice following directions by giving your child 2-3 steps to build. For example “first put the red Lego on, then the green” or “before you add the blue tile, put the purple tile on”.
Sequencing
Your child can practice sequencing by teaching you how to build! Ask your child “what should I do next?” Let you child walk you through the process.
Pretend play
There are so many things you can build with Legos/magnetic tiles to encourage play! Try building a house, castle, garage, car wash, playground, beach, etc. The possibilities are endless! Use the structure to engage in play routines (i.e., have cars go through the car wash or add figurines to the house).
We hope you never “lego” of these ideas and tips to help build language while playing with magnetic tiles/Legos at home!
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