Supporting Sensory needs with chomper champs in speech therapy!
When I started incorporating more sensory activities into my speech therapy sessions I really noticed a big difference in my clients’ participation and engagement each week! SLPs know that many of our speech kids NEED multi-sensory support to learn new skills, but we’re not traditionally well trained in how to implement sensory supports into speech therapy sessions. For speech therapists working with preschoolers or young children, incorporating sensory rich activities into sessions can improve outcomes and make therapy more fun and effective.
What is Multi-Sensory Learning?
Incorporating sensory activities into speech therapy means engaging multiple senses in the process of learning - sight, sound, touch, and sometimes even smell and even taste when we’re feeling really adventurous in the speech room! In my time as a speech therapist, I have found a lot of value in multi-sensory learning strategies in speech sessions because it allows children to interact with speech sounds, vocabulary, and concepts in a hands-on way that keeps them engaged!
How to Use Chomper Champs in Multi-Sensory Activities
Chomper Champs is the perfect companion to sensory-based speech therapy activities! Here are a few fun, multi-sensory activities you can try with Chomper Champs to target various speech therapy goals:
1. Digging for Treats in Sensory Bins!
I have a love/hate relationship with my old friend, the sensory bin. As a newer clinician I felt like it was fun for a short time but we would end up aimlessly digging through the bin and it could be hard to transition away from. But I learned to LOVE using a sensory bin with Chomper Champs! We hide his treats in the bin and dig to find them to target our speech and language goals and the kids have so much fun feeding him is treats. We will target speech sounds with mini objects or the Chomper Champs Articulation Workbook cards, we can even work on other levels than production including discrimination where we pull out items to see if we hear their target sounds (prompt: “Puppy only wants to eat sounds that have the /k/ sound in the front!”). There are many opportunities for language with the the sensory bin too, we will target themed boxes for seasonal vocabulary, describing, and language processing concepts! Adding Chomper Champs to a sensory bin gives the activity an end goal and the activity has a designated end, which can be helpful depending on the situation!
2. Pom Pom Treats!
I love using craft pompoms with Chomper Champs as a sensory-rich treat - Many times in the speech room I have had children who do not show interest in traditional activities and the simple act of feeding Chomper Champs a sensory treat like pom poms is a great sensory-rich activity to expand vocabulary and support gestalts! While we feed Chomper Champs the pom poms we’re working on gestalts like “I’m so hungry” or “time to eat” while supporting the child’s preference for sensory play over traditional neurotypical play! For this activity we can also target tons of traditional language goals including auditory comprehension “Puppy wants the BIG red treat” or we can sort them into different colors and sizes. This is a fun activity to feed him his pom pom treats and target tons of goals!
3. Play-Doh Treats!
We all love play-doh in the speech room! Whether it’s a free play activity or smash mats to support more structured targets, kids always love play-doh activities and it’s a go-to favorite of mine. I will do a “backwards smash mat” where I cover the words up with play doh and then the child and I will discover them as we feed the play-doh to Chomper Champ! We also love making Chomper Champs some cookies with play-doh cookie cutters to target speech and language goals.
Final Thoughts
Incorporating more multi-sensory learning into speech therapy sessions isn’t just fun—it’s highly effective and I have seen great improvements in my kids’ progress over the years when I honor their sensory needs. When you engage multiple senses in an activity, you help children build connections faster for learning new concepts. Chomper Champs is the perfect tool to integrate into these activities and offers open ended opportunities for speech and language therapy goals!
By using Chomper Champs in sensory bins, pom pom feeding activities, and smash mat exercises, you can create speech therapy sessions that are not only productive but enjoyable for your patients. The more engaging and interactive your sessions are, the more progress your preschoolers will make, all while having fun and building their communication skills.