Using Stacking Cups in Speech Therapy

Stacking cups are always found in our speech therapy bags and this is why! This single item allows you to target so many goals! Not to mention there are SO many ways to use them across speech therapy activities across your entire caseload. 

Early Intervention: I love using stacking cups with my EI kiddos! They provide so many opportunities for language modelling and repetitive early language strategies. E.g., as you stack each cup say "up-up-up" and then when you knock it down say "dowwwn"!! Or practice spatial concepts "on-on-on" and "off-off-off". Model core words "more" each cup, "uh-oh" when they fall down or "hi/bye-bye" when hiding animals under the cups. 

Preschool: There are so many wonderful ways to adapt stacking cups for your preschool students. Use the cups to work on spatial concepts: have a cup that is upright and two cups upside down. Practice placing objects IN, ON, UNDER the cups. Take it to the next level and have the child close their eyes and "hide" an object around the cups - "where did the teddy go? - ON the cup; UNDER the cup; IN the cup. Practice following directions: put the blue cup on the red cup; put the teddy bear on the purple cup then put the blue cup on the yellow cup. 

School Age: Work on basic concepts: tall tower/short tower; small cup/big cup (sort items that are small in the small cup and sort items that are big in the bigger cup); in/out; on/off. Work on superlatives/comparatives: big-bigger-biggest; small-smaller-smallest. Practice temporal concepts: before/after, first/last - place the cups in a line and talk about which cup comes before the blue cup; which cup is first in line. Practice describing: hide objects under/in the cups, have the child choose a cup and describe the mini object hidden inside. 

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