*I am not a speech pathologist, doctor, or employee of Melissa and Doug. Please see my disclosure page for affiliate link and product information*
Yay for awesome toys! We do use these in our daily schooling and speech practicing. Tuesday May 14th is the first Apraxia Awareness Day, so I'm hoping to help give ideas to parents who are newer to this diagnosis than we are.
Apraxia is a motor planning disorder. Mr. T has fine and gross motor planning issues along with the speech issues. He has some receptive language and auditory processing issues that have also started coming up, but we use these toys to help with all of that. They are great motivators for speech practicing! Above, you can see the See & Spell
, the Basic Skills Board
and our flashlight and Stacking Emergency Vehicles
. Mr. T loves his letters and we use the See and Spell to practice letters and words because having tactile cues really helps Mr. T, as you can see below. When he is focused his pronunciation of familiar words is beginning to get very clear!
Here we've got the awesome Knob Wooden Farm Puzzle
, Mr. T has loved and used this since he was a year old and Mr. F is a big fan, too! Mr. T has been learning about farms and animals lately and he came and got me to show me the farmer milking the cow. He's got quite an imagination!The Beginner Pattern Blocks
are great for problem solving and motor development, as are the Floor Puzzles
. A great way to utilize these during at home practice is to give him one piece of the puzzle at a time after he correctly imitates (or tries really hard) whatever sound or word you are working on. Mr. T has an infatuation with firetrucks and he's got the Fire Chief Costume
, too! He regularly "puts out" Mr. F with the extinguisher.
Here's our Easel
where we spend lots of time drawing and practicing writing. We've struggled with muscle tone and coordination and are finally getting a good grasp on straight lines and counter-clockwise circles. The quality of this easel is awesome, you should also look at the Accessory Set
. The other big bonus to Melissa and Doug toys is their quality and customer service. We have had nothing but great customer service when we have had an issue (there was a split in one of the easel legs when we received it and they sent us a new rainbow stacker because one of the rings broke) and they are a US company. Double bonus!
Mr. F gets in on all the fun, too. He's got a Rainbow Stacker and a fill and spill toolbox and Fishbowl
he loves, as well as playing with all the toys Mr. T thinks are just his. Mr. T has an Architectural Block Set
that he and Mr. J spend hours building with (that he will also imitate really well to play with) and an awesome Fold and Go Stable
that he and I make up stories about while we practice new words and sounds. 
We use all these and more on a daily basis. The benefits to having quality (non electronic) toys are many, and we have found a company and brand we love and will continue to use for a long time! Do you have a brand you support and love that you use for your speech practice at home? Let us know so we can check them out!
We are linked up here:
