Mr. Potato Head has been a toy in distribution since 1952! The Toy Story franchise has made it’s popularity continue among children for many years. Did you know this simple toy could teach children so much with no lights and sounds? Since there are no buttons to push to reinforce children with a familiar song or a flashing light, this is a toy for the parent/caregiver to engage and interact with using the familiar sound of their voice. Receptively(an understanding of language), you can give your child simple directions to follow, such as “Get the shoes” while limiting the visual choice of the parts to 2-3 depending on their age. Help them to push or pull the pieces in and out, while over exaggerating the actions and words as you help them. Pretend you are having a hard time with the pieces as if they were heavy. They may even begin to imitate the words since you are being silly while modeling it. You can also assess their understanding by telling them to pull out a certain piece one at a time when taking it apart after completing it. Expressively(use of language), model the names of each piece as they put them in or take them out. Ask them to choose which piece they want by showing them two and asking “Which one?”. If they don’t independently choose using the word, label each part while holding it close to your mouth so they can see how you are saying the words. Show them some of the same parts on themselves and you. As they get older, you can expand from single words to modeling word combinations(Shoes on, Green hat, Two ears, etc.). This is also a good turn taking activity(My turn, Your turn) with you as the caregiver or between siblings. If they know Toy Story, they will love playing with one of the characters in it!
TIP: If your child has a shorter attention span, start slow. If they only do a couple pieces at a time, it’s o.k. You can build on it over time. Also, it’s o.k. if they put the pieces in the “wrong” spots-it can be a “silly” potato!
Words/sounds to include: hat, shoes, glasses, teeth, mouth, eyes, nose, tongue, hands/arms, in, out, push, pull, again, all done, colors, etc.