Playing With Words 365

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Marble Race: One of the BEST Tools I Use in Therapy

April 3, 2012 by Katie Filed Under: Games, Therapy Materials and Product Recomendations 7 Comments

Hands-down one of the BEST investments I have made to my therapy materials collection is my marble race set. I got mine for only $20 at Toys R Us about 5 years ago. You can find the one I have HERE.

The marble race game comes with many different track pieces that come in several different shapes and colors as well as connector pieces, bases, and tops/launch pads. This provides a TON of opportunities for language. I have used this marble race game to increase and target:

  • vocabulary
  • MLU
  • requesting skills
  • questioning skills
  • basic concepts
  • following directions
  • diving directions
  • problem solving
  • predicting
  • sequencing
  • counting
  • color ID
  • eye contact
  • joint attention
  • articulation
  • fluency

Here are some of the specific ways I use this toy:

  • I begin by giving the child(ren) three bottom/base pieces. I explain what they are called and that we need to always start building the race with three bases (it comes with 6 but I always use three…I have found that making it in a triangle makes it most stable and allows for it to be built very high, which the kids love).

  • We then review the names of all the track pieces. One of my little guys on the spectrum was the one to help me name all the pieces 🙂 Here are the pieces and the names for each.

The River

The Spinner

The “S”

 

The Loop-de-Loop

 

The Zig-Zag

 

The Windmill

 

  • After the review, we begin building. Each child needs to request the piece the want to use by name (or by using a picture if the child is non verbal) and at the level that they are working on (i.e. 2,3,4, or more word utterances).  If the child(ren) are working on articulation only, then the child will have to say a word 10 times before they can pick a piece. (You can also target any thing else you want before they pick their piece).
  • After they put a piece of track on, they will need to put cylinders on for support. Depending on the child’s goals, I may make them ask for each cylinder, ask for them my number or color, have them say an artic word so many times or answer some other question, or just give them so many.

The Cylinders

  • I continue to go around and around until the race is built. At the end, I make sure to leave 5 minutes to actually race the marbles and then one minute or two for clean up.

  • Predicting: 1) You can ask them how many cylinders they think it will take to go from the bottom of one piece to the top of another piece. 2) you can predict which marble will “win” the race.

How many cylinders do we need?

  • Building Tip: I teach them that the end of the piece that they can put their finger through (or the side you can see through), is the end that needs to be attached to the highest point of the building.
  • Play Tip: If you buy this exact set, I recommend you buy yourself a set of glass marbles to use with it. The set comes with plastic marbles and quite frankly, they suck. I like to use both the plastic ones and the glass ones and teach kids how the heavier ones go faster than the plastic ones.

  • Storage Tip: I bought a plastic file box with a handle which is exactly big enough to store the game. I also store the marbles in a zip lock bag.

What toys do you love to use to teach?

Cheers!

About Katie

Katie is a licensed, credentialed and certified pediatric speech-language pathologist and mom to four (8, 6, 3 and 6 months). Her passion for educating, inspiring and empowering parents of children with all abilities led her to start her blog playing with words 365 where she shares information about speech & language development & intervention strategies, parenting, photography and a little about her family life too. Katie has been working in the field of speech pathology for 12 years and is certified in The Hanen Centre’s It Takes Two to Talk ® and Target Word ® programs and holds a certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). In addition to blogging and being a mommy, Katie works part time in her small private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

Comments

  1. Suzanne Herman says

    April 3, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    I have an old set made by Discovery Toys and it has been a favorite therapy tool of mine for the past 13 years. It is highly motivating for all clients but it is especially helpful with the children on the autism spectrum. Even the most resistant child will come around when I pull this out. I will use it already constructed when teaching PECS. The child will quickly learn to exchange the picture as a request for a marble.

    Reply
    • Katie says

      April 4, 2012 at 8:04 am

      I too use it while teaching PECS!! 😀

      Reply
  2. Kristina says

    April 4, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    Never thought to use this as a speech tool for my son… but, it was his FAVORITE toy for a long time!
    Kristina recently posted.."Disease Proof Your Child" and Healthy Snack IdeasMy Profile

    Reply
  3. Marcela says

    May 23, 2012 at 1:50 pm

    Thank you!! I have a 4 year old son and he wants this toy so much that I was considering buying it, now we must have it!! He is having difficulties to learn and focusing at school and now I know I can use this as a therapy and motivation tool, thank you so much for the helping tips 🙂

    Reply
  4. Sarumathi says

    December 28, 2016 at 1:12 pm

    Thank god I found this website. I have lots of toys but don’t know how to play with my son using different vocabulary.Could you please include a print button on the screen so that it would be handy for everyone? Thank you! Keep up your good work.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Using Train Sets to Stimulate Language Skills says:
    April 25, 2012 at 3:02 am

    […] off I went to buy myself my own set. This, along with my Marble Race Game are two of my most used toys I have ever used in therapy. Both of these toys have multiple parts […]

    Reply
  2. Marble Races to Encourage Speech « The Sensory Spectrum says:
    May 22, 2012 at 5:07 am

    […] Marble Race: One of the BEST Tools I Use in Therapy […]

    Reply

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