Following Directions with Potato Head

Mrs. Potato Head was one of the very first treatment materials I bought as a brand new clinician. I haven't regretted my purchase! I use Mrs. Potato Head to target many goals. Here are just a few ideas for using a potato head toy in your therapy room: 1) Following directions. I used Boardmaker to create visuals for following multi-step directions. 2) Requesting. I usually offer a field of 2 possible choices (eyes or mouth?). You can work on pointing to a desired item, or requesting using sign, vocalization, a communication board, or a combination of methods. I also love using sentence strip visuals, which I create on Boardmaker. 3) Labeling. Mrs. Potato Head is a great way to work on labeling body parts- and she also comes with some accessories that are pretty awesome! 4) Early Language Modeling. Talk about what you are doing- or what the child is doing. I use this technique all the time! "Hat. I want the hat. I'm putting the hat on. The hat is on! I put the hat on!" 5) Describing. You can talk about the colors and sizes of potato head parts. You can also throw in some comparatives/ superlatives (the shoes are small, but the hands are smaller, and the earrings are the... smallest). 6) Answering basic Wh- questions. "What do we see with?" Again, you can offer a field of 2 choices depending on the assist level needed. 7) Basic analogies. Eyes are to see as nose is to _________. How else do you use your potato head in therapy sessions?

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