**Disclaimer: Oriental Trading sent me these products for review. All opinions expressed here are my own
My 7 year old son, Sam (name changed for privacy), is diagnosed with high-functioning autism, or what used to be known as Asperger’s. I’ve been looking for ways to meet his speech goals in his homeschooling without breaking the bank. I found some wonderful materials at Oriental Trading that are so helpful in this area. As a matter of fact, Sam is doing in-home ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy, and his therapist is using a few of these things with him and loves them!
As far as speech and language is concerned, the biggest struggles for my son are vocabulary and conversation skills. I was specifically looking for materials that would target those areas. Here are the items I ordered to target those specific areas:
Vocabulary: Idiom Pocket Chart
Conversation Skills: Foam Question Dice
Both Vocabulary and Conversation: Sequencing Story Cards
All of these materials are very well made, and I’m very impressed with them. My favorites so far have been the Foam Question Dice, Sequencing Story Cards, and the “Caption This! Photo Cards”.
The Sequencing Story Cards come in three different levels, and they are labeled so that if the cards get mixed up, you will be able to put them back in order easily and know what level they are. The easiest level has three cards per story while the hardest has five. Each card has a sentence on the back describing what is going on in the picture – so you could easily use that side alone if you wanted to strengthen reading skills. First, I have Sam put the sequence in order. Before reading the back of the cards, I have him tell me what he thinks is going on (which helps vocabulary and makes him think). After that, I let him read the backs of the cards because he really enjoys that part. Today I added a twist and had one of the Foam Question Dice with me. After he read the cards, we took turns rolling the dice. Whoever rolled had to come up with a question (who, what, when, where, how, or why depending on what was rolled) about the story on the cards. The other person had to come up with an answer. For instance, if Sam rolled “where”, he might ask, “Where do you think the man will go when he is done with his painting?” I would use my imagination and come up with an answer. This game covers two areas for Sam – coming up with a “wh” question if he rolls, or using his imagination to describe if he has to answer one of my questions. We both had a lot of fun!
Sam’s ABA therapist has been using the “Caption This!” Photo Cards and the Foam Question Dice a lot. She has used them together and by themselves depending on what goal she is working on. The
photo cards are much bigger than I expected them to be and excellent quality. The storage box alone is really neat and won’t fall apart while being stored. There are questions printed on the back of the cards that can be asked of the child. There is also a card that comes with the set that gives additional ideas for using them. Obviously there is a lot that can be done with picture cards to strengthen speech in regards to vocabulary and conversation skills. The really helpful thing about these picture cards is that they cover a wide array of topics. There are pictures of caverns, kids playing, cars, etc. The possibilities really are endless!
Both the Idiom Pocket Chart and the Homophone Pocket Chart Cards are well made and really neat tools. I plan to use the homophone cards as flashcards as opposed to putting them in an actual pocket chart. They have a really nice storage box that makes it easy to use them that way. The Idiom Pocket Chart is already on my wall and has already struck up some interesting conversation among all of my kids.
The only thing I ordered that was not for Sam was the Giant Dry Erase Traceable Letters. I ordered these for my preschooler who is an emerging tracer of letters. The letters in the typical dry erase books are just too small for his hands that still need practice in the fine motor department, and I like the idea of not having to use my printer to print one or two large letters for every piece of paper. These letters come in a really nice storage box and have the uppercase letter on one side and the lower case on the other. The cards are very big and erase easily.
I was extremely impressed with all of the items I received from Oriental Trading. To be honest, I wasn’t aware that they had all of these items that would be such a help with speech and language. There are so many educational materials to choose from in all subject areas, and the price is right. After endlessly searching for materials to use for Sam, but only finding either expensive speech tools or things I’d spend hours printing and laminating, it was refreshing to find these things for such a reasonable price and be able to put them to good use. Whether you’re an ABA therapist, a Speech-Language Pathologist, a teacher, or a mom trying to help a child (or children) in these areas, I think it is worth your time to explore the materials that Oriental Trading has to offer.
About Mandee
Neat learning visual tools
I have bought many items for parties and celebrations from Oriental Trading but didn’t know they also had educational items. Thanks for sharing.