Gift Guide for Language Growth: SLP-Approved Tools for Every Age

Explore SLP-approved gifts that support speech, language, AAC, play, executive functioning, and communication growth for toddlers, children, teens, and adults.

Holiday shopping can feel overwhelming — especially when you want gifts that are meaningful, supportive, and actually help build communication skills. The good news? Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) consistently recommend simple, open-ended, engaging tools over flashy, overstimulating toys.

Whether you’re shopping for a toddler, a school-age child, a teen, or an adult — communication grows through play, interaction, creativity, problem-solving, and social connection. And gifts that support these skills make an impact that lasts well beyond the holiday season.

This SLP-approved gift guide is designed for all ages, including AAC users, neurodivergent individuals, bilingual families, and adults seeking cognitive-linguistic, voice, or communication support.

These gifts help build:

✨ Vocabulary

✨ AAC engagement

✨ Social communication

✨ Narrative skills

✨ Executive functioning

✨ Emotional expression

✨ Problem-solving

✨ Articulation carryover

✨ Cognitive-linguistic skills

✨ Confidence

Let’s explore the top communication-supportive gifts — backed by research and SLP experience.

🎁 Why Certain Gifts Boost Communication Skills

Research shows that open-ended, interactive, symbolic, or functional play supports language development, processing, memory, and executive functioning (ASHA, 2023a; NAEYC, 2020).

The best communication-boosting gifts are:

• Open-ended → can be used in limitless ways

• Socially interactive → invite conversation

• Hands-on → support sensory and motor development

• Flexible → grow with your child, teen, or adult

• Non-overstimulating → allow calm, focused engagement

• Supportive of autonomy → allow users to lead, choose, and explore

Avoid toys that “do the talking for the child,” such as heavily scripted electronic toys that talk over the user.

Let’s break down SLP favorites.

🎁 SLP-Approved Gifts for ALL Ages

1. Open-Ended Toys (Great for Toddlers, Kids, Teens, Adults)

These build symbolic play, creativity, problem-solving, and communication.

✔ Magna-Tiles

✔ Wooden blocks

✔ LEGO kits

✔ Play dough / modeling clay

✔ Animal or people figurines

✔ Train sets

✔ Sensory bins (snow, rice, beads, pom-poms)

Why they help:

Open-ended play invites narration, storytelling, requesting, describing, and social interaction — foundational for expressive and receptive language (Vygotsky, 1978).

2. Board Games That Build Social + Language Skills

Perfect for all ages, including teens, adults, and AAC users.

✔ Guess Who

✔ Hedbanz

✔ Spot It

✔ Zingo

✔ Sequence

✔ Taboo

✔ Scattergories

✔ Uno

✔ Connect 4

Why they help:

These build turn-taking, strategy language, cognitive flexibility, describing, and pragmatic communication.

3. Books (All Ages)

Books expose users to expanded vocabulary, grammar, storytelling, perspective-taking, and emotional expression.

For toddlers:

✔ Lift-the-flap books

✔ Repetitive language books

✔ Simple picture books

For older kids, teens, adults:

✔ Graphic novels

✔ Poetry collections

✔ Short stories

✔ Conversation-starter books

✔ Cookbooks (great for sequencing)

4. Craft + Creativity Kits

Great for emotional regulation, following directions, joint attention, and expressive communication.

✔ Painting kits

✔ Jewelry-making

✔ Slime kits

✔ Clay and sculpting

✔ Sticker or scrapbook books

✔ Model building kits

5. Sensory Tools + Regulation Items

SLPs recommend these for all ages, especially during transitions or overstimulation.

✔ Noise-canceling headphones

✔ Fidgets

✔ Weighted lap pads

✔ Chewelry

✔ Liquid motion timers

✔ Light projectors

✔ Kinetic sand

These items support nervous system regulation, which improves communication readiness (Porges, 2011).

6. Real-Life Play Items

Great for toddlers, kids, and AAC users — but also fun for teens and adults in social or executive functioning therapy.

✔ Toy cash registers

✔ Kitchen sets

✔ Doctor kits

✔ Tool kits

✔ Cleaning play sets

✔ Pretend phones

✔ Grocery carts

These activities promote symbolic play, problem-solving, vocabulary expansion, and sequencing.

7. AAC-Friendly Toys + Tools

These encourage modeling, exploration, and communication autonomy.

✔ Simple cause-and-effect toys

✔ Switch-adapted toys

✔ Light-up or musical buttons

✔ Single-message buttons (“more,” “stop,” “help,” “again”)

✔ Visual timers

✔ Portable core boards

AAC is beneficial for people of all ages and does NOT stop verbal development (ASHA, 2023b).

8. Teen + Adult Communication Gifts

Communication growth doesn’t stop at childhood.

✔ Journals

✔ Conversation card decks

✔ Adult coloring books

✔ Strategy games (Catan, chess, Rummikub)

✔ Brain puzzles

✔ Voice care kits (humidifier, water bottle, straw phonation tools)

✔ Smart speakers for reminders / communication prompts

Great for:

• voice therapy

• cognitive-linguistic recovery

• executive functioning

• social communication

• memory support

9. Technology That Supports Communication

Used intentionally, tech can be a powerful therapeutic tool.

✔ Speech therapy apps

✔ AAC apps

✔ Visual schedule apps

✔ Digital drawing tablets

✔ Story-building apps

✔ Smart notebooks (like Rocketbook)

🎁 How to Turn Any Gift Into a Language-Rich Experience

It’s not just the toy — it’s the interaction.

You can boost communication by:

✔ Modeling language

✔ Narrating actions

✔ Asking open-ended questions

✔ Offering choices

✔ Using AAC alongside play

✔ Engaging in pretend play

✔ Expanding their sentences (“Car go” → “Yes, the car is going fast!”)

This works for kids, teens, and adults.

Gifts that promote communication don’t need to be expensive or electronic — they need to be interactive, imaginative, functional, and flexible. These SLP-approved tools support growth for toddlers, school-age children, teens, adults, neurodivergent individuals, and AAC users.

When a gift encourages play, connection, creativity, or problem-solving, it becomes far more than a present — it becomes a communication-building experience.

Best Communication-Boosting Gifts for Every Age (SLP-Approved Holiday Guide)

Works Cited:

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2023a). Spoken language disorders.https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/spoken-language-disorders/

American Speech-LLanguage-Hearing Association. (2023b). Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/augmentative-and-alternative-communication/

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2020). The power of playful learning in early childhood. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/play

Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

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