1.) More - These are awesome for early communicators that are working on signing, saying, or using AAC for "more." Simpy wind it up. When it stops, encourage them to ask for more.
2) Help - Let the child try to wind it up themselves. Chances are, they won't be able to do it on their own. This makes a perfect opportunity to work on signing/saying/AAC for "help."
3.) On/Off - Since you can hear the toy moving, it's easy to identify whether the toy is "on" or "off." I'll model "on" and "off" for them often throughout play and encourage them to say "on" when they want more.
4.) Stop/Go - I'll target stop & go much the same way as on/off. I'll wind the toy up and hold it, waiting for the child to say/sign/use AAC for "go."
5.) Articulation - I'll lay down 10-20 articulation cards and allow the student to wind up the toy and let it go on the cards. Whichever card it lands on/is closest to, the child will practice 10 times before moving on. You can also do this with articulation worksheets.
6.) Language - I'll do the same thing as I did with the articulation cards, but substitute language cards.
7.) Target practice - I'll lay down my giant paper target. Then I'll let my patients wind the toy up and see how close they can get to the bullseye. Of course, the closer they get, the more words they have to say (the target has a number in each ring). You can do this with articulation or language targets.
8.) Races - I will have wind up toy races with my patients as a reward for work completed. Whoever's wind up toy goes the farthest or makes it to a pre-determined destination first wins.
9.) Waiting - Wind up toys are great for kids who need to practice social skills such as waiting. Either the patient or I will wind the toy up and set it down. The patient must wait to touch the toy until it is done moving. Wind it more and more to extend the length of time they have to wait.
10.) Being Gentle - For my kiddos that are a little rough with toys, we will practice playing gently. These toys seem to break somewhat easily - but even if they don't, it's easy to pretend it isn't working. After a child throws it or slams it down, I will pretend that I can't wind it up anymore and model "broken" for them. This helps teach them that they have to be gentle or the toy won't work anymore.
11.) All done - I'll model "all done" for my patients after the wind up toy stops moving. Encourage them to sign, speak, or use AAC to tell you when the toy is "all done."
12.) Verbs - The variety pack I bought has some toys that hop, run, walk, flip, etc. We will use multiple toys to model these verbs for my patients. I will encourage my patients to imitate the actions and use verbs in their speech.
13.) WH Questions - Because this package has a variety of toys, I will use them to target "wh" questions. I will give my patients 2-3 choices of wind up toys to answer my question. After they choose the correct one, they can wind it up as a reward.
14.) Fast/Slow - The toys often move faster when wound up more and slower when wound up less. I can control the speed this way to target fast/slow with my patients. After they get better at this, they can choose whether the toy moves fast or slow themselves.
15.) Spatial Concepts - My patients and I will design an obstacle course with various random objects (blocks, stacking cups, etc). We will wind up the toy and let it go. Then we will talk about where it is - "its walking BY the green cup, it's BETWEEN the two cups," etc.
16.) Early Exclamatory Phrases - For my early communicators, we will work on some of those early phrases. I will purposely wind up the toy and place it so it will walk off the table. We will practice "uh oh," "oh no," "oops," "ouch," etc when this happens.
I hope this post gave you some fun ideas of ways to use wind up toys in therapy. Thanks for stopping by!
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