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Speech is one of the most important milestones in a child’s life.

This is because the bulk of speech that children develop during their first 3 years of life greatly influences their social, emotional, and cognitive development, and also largely impacts later performance in school and critical thinking skills.

For this reason, speech-language pathologists encourage parents to expose their kids to as much words as possible and encourage talking during this critical first 3 years in order to instill a rich vocabulary in their child. One good way of going about that is by investing in the following language teaching baby toys.

best types of toys for developing language

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1. Toy Sets

When it comes to encouraging early speech and language development in your child, toy sets offer a great option.

This is because toy sets set the stage for language rich play whereby kids get the opportunity to use those words they have been hearing and learning functionally in a variety of ways. Whether it’s a kitchen, farm, fire station, or tea party set, a child will have to use words at one point or another either to make a request, exchange play ideas, make a comment about the game, ask for help, engage in role play, and so on.

Therefore, with the continued use of play sets, your child will start stringing little sentences through the exchange of words that happens during playtime.

2. Talking Toys

For a child to start talking and develop speech, he/she must first learn different words as well as their meanings.

This is where talking toys come in. Available in a variety of options (e.g. Educational Insights ReMARKable Smart Talk Charts, Fisher-Price Little People Animal Sounds Farm, VTech Infant Learning Touch and Learn Storytime, Learning Resources ABC Chalk Talk Electronic Learning Chalkboard, among others), talking toys teach letters, words, sounds, and shapes, in a fun and easy way that kids can identify with.

3. Musical Toys

According to research, music stimulates multiple areas of the brain (which is great for language development), breaks down words into sounds and syllables that are easier for children to process, and allows kids to hear and learn the similarities and differences between sounds. These music benefits combined make musical toys effective tools for encouraging language development.

With a wide variety of musical toys available ranging from ‘Remo Drum’ to ‘Easy Karaoke’ to ‘Melisa and Doug’s Deluxe Band Set’, the trick to selecting a good musical toys it to go for options with a clever rhyme that is captivating and easy for a small child to process.

4. Dolls

While it may not seem like it, dolls have powerful speech teaching capabilities.

This is due to the fact that dolls allow kids to replicate various real-life experiences that they go through every day. These include things like bathing, dressing, feeding, naptime, and so on. These little re-enactments create opportunities for language-development as kids will not only act out the real-life experiences but also try to mimic the conversations carried out during the time.

In other words, a child will say to the doll what mom, dad, or a caregiver usually says during bath, nap, feeding, or dressing time.

The key to ensuring your child gets the most out of a doll is to go for options that talk or come with accessories such as little cups, strollers, combs, cradles, outfits, dollhouses, etc. Such dolls increase play options, which in turn brings about more language building opportunities.
Do you know what the best types of toys are for developing language?

If you have a small child who is just starting to talk, any toy that falls in the above listed categories can tremendously help your little talker.

So, head on out and start shopping! As a guideline for toy shopping, go for those options that encourage interaction, provide flexibility during play, and foster imagination and creativity. Such toys offer the most benefits when it comes to speech stimulation.

If you're trying to help your little one with their language skills, check out these 4 best types of toys to develop language.
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Kori

Digital Product Creator at Kori at Home
Kori is a late diagnosed autistic/ADHD mom. She is currently located in Albany, NY where she is raising a neurodiverse family. Her older daughter is non-speaking autistic (and also has ADHD and Anxiety) and her youngest daughter is HSP/Gifted. A blogger, podcaster, writer, product creator, and coach; Kori shares autism family life- the highs, lows, messy, and real. Kori brings her own life experiences as an autistic woman combined with her adventures in momming to bring you the day-to-day of her life at home. Kori is on a mission to empower moms of autistic children to make informed parenting decisions with confidence and conviction.

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