21/01/2025
Using animals with kinetic sand in a session can be an engaging and sensory-rich activity to target a variety of speech and language goals. Here’s how you can incorporate them:
1. Target Vocabulary
• Animal Names: Use plastic animal toys to name and identify animals (e.g., “cow,” “lion”).
• Action Words: Describe what the animals are doing (e.g., “jump,” “dig,” “hide”).
• Descriptive Words: Focus on size, colors, and textures (e.g., “soft fur,” “big elephant,” “brown cow”).
• Prepositions: Practice spatial words as animals interact with the sand (e.g., “on,” “under,” “in,” “behind”).
2. Articulation Practice
• Choose animals that match target sounds (e.g., “snake” for /s/, “bear” for /b/).
• Incorporate the target sounds into phrases or sentences while playing (e.g., “The snake is sliding through the sand”).
3. Sentence Building
• Use animals to create simple or complex sentences.
• Simple: “The horse is in the sand.”
• Complex: “The small horse is hiding under the big pile of sand.”
• Encourage the child to describe what the animals are doing or create a story.
4. Social Communication
• Practice turn-taking: “My turn to bury the lion. Your turn to find it!”
• Encourage asking for help: “Can you help me dig up the zebra?”
• Use animals to role-play scenarios like sharing, helping, or pretending to feed the animals.
5. Following Directions
• Give 1- or 2-step directions involving the animals and kinetic sand.
• “Bury the tiger, then find the monkey.”
• “Put the bird on top of the sand.”
