Grab Your Students' Attention with Button Nail Art

I first heard of Button Art from my ABA SLP friend Rose Griffin. After I ordered this play set from Amazon, I was thrilled with the bright colors and motivating pictures. After using it a few times with my preschoolers, I wanted to share this engaging activity kit with you as well as highlight a few speech therapy goals that you can target with your young learners.(Amazon affiliate link). Toddlers and preschoolers will be highly motivated by the Allas Button Nail Art Play Set.  This product has 46 chunky plastic buttons, 10 pictures and a storage tray. I'ts appropriate for ages 2 years and up and requires supervision for toddlers who still put small toys in their mouths since the buttons could be a choking hazard. I love the variety of picture cards. The set includes common objects (umbrella, tree, house), animals (ladybug, frog, dinosaur, bird), and transportation (boat, underwater submarine, truck). The bright colored mushroom-shaped buttons are the perfect size for little hands to grip and snap into place. The cards and buttons fit inside a storage tray and can be easily stored with or without the box.

There are an abundance of speech and language  goals that can be targeted using Allas Button Nail Art play set. I've included receptive language, expressive language, cognitive, and developmental goals. As you can see, these activities can be used with individual clients or with a small group of students.

Receptive Language Goals

• Follow 1-3 step directions
• Identify quantity concepts (one, more, all, none)
• Identify basic concept pairs (big/little, large/small, top/bottom, left/right, in/out, empty/full, inside/outside, open/closed, above/below)
• Identify colors and shapes
• Follow directions with positional concepts (top/bottom, next to, behind/in front)
• Identify shapes and size (round/circle, square, triangle, rectangle, short/long, big/little)
• Following directions with temporal concepts (first-then, first-next)
•  Improve receptive vocabulary for categories 
• Identify similarities and differences
• Comprehend a variety of wh-questions
• Identify an object by it's description

Expressive Language Goals

• Increase MLU to label, comment, request, deny, and describe
• Increase expressive vocabulary for part/whole (The bird has a beak, wings, feet and feathers)
• Increase expressive vocabulary for object location 
• Increase expressive vocabulary to compare and contrast (compare the sailboat and the submarine)
• Increase expressive vocabulary for descriptive adjectives (size, shape, color, texture)
• Verbalize the steps needed to complete the task ("first I...then...")
• Answer a variety of wh-questions
• Describe actions using  age-appropriate morphemes -ing, -ed, plural -s (pushing, pulling, snapping, making)
• Describe actions using age-appropriate subject-verb agreement (one blue button/three blue buttons)
• Use appropriate word choice to formulate sentences 

Executive Functioning and Cognitive Goals

• Plan an activity and make choices
• Sequence steps to complete a task
• Attend to task for ___ minuets
• Switch focus and/or attention appropriately
• Transition between tasks appropriately
• Solve problems during an activity
• Complete a task in a specific amount of time
• Immediately recall information presented verbally 
• Recall information presented verbally after a time delay
• Matching shapes and colors to develop patterning skills
• Develop skills for color sorting, matching, assembling a puzzle, and artistic creativity

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Goals

• Identify beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words (what sound do you hear at the beginning of "blue"?)
• Blend sounds to create words (f-i-sh)
• Segment and blend syllables (um-bre-lla)
• Segment and blend phonemes (f-r-o-g)
• Segment and blend onset-rime (tr-ee)
• Segment and blend compound nouns (lady-bug, sail-boat)
• Identify and create rhymes (blue, shoe, two, boo)

Social and Pragmatic Language Goals

• Initiate and maintain topic appropriately
• Take turns in conversation and play
• Work cooperatively with others
• Hold joint attention to people and activities
• Ask and answer questions
• Maintain appropriate personal space
• Request items to complete a tasks
• Repair communication breakdown when not understood
• Switch or transition topics appropriately
• Speak at appropriate volume and rate 
• Demonstrate reciprocal responses
• Demonstrate ability to comment on topic
• Respond to conversational partner's non-verbal communication attempts (facial expression, body language and gestures)

Developmental and Motor Goals

• Stay seated during an activity for ___minuets
• Maintain appropriate body positioning during an age-appropriate task
• Demonstrate appropriate finger grasp for placing the buttons in the card
• Demonstrate appropriate in-hand manipulation of small objects to complete a task
• Demonstrate appropriate bilateral hand coordination to complete a task
• Demonstrate ability to cross left/right mid-line to complete a task

Articulation and Fluency Goals

• Produce age-appropriate phonemes in initial, medial, final position of words, phrases and sentences
• Self-correct production of ___phoneme given a visual/verbal cue and/or prompt
• Generalize articulation skills during a semi-structured age-appropriate activity
• Improve intelligibility of speech utilizing appropriate rate, volume, and meta-linguistic skills in semi-structured task
• Utilize fluency shaping techniques in semi-structured task (breath control, light contact, prolongations, relaxation techniques, etc.)
• Utilize fluency modification techniques in a semi-structured task (catch the stutter, slide out, cancellation, etc.)

The Allas Button Nail Art Play Set is a sturdy, multi-functional activity set that is appropriate for toddlers, preschools and special education students. It is reasonably priced and can be used as a token reward game to keep students engaged during structured speech tasks, or it can be used in your therapy sessions during play to target multiple speech and language games. 

If you have this play set or one similar to it, I'd love to hear how you use it in your therapy sessions. For more ideas on targeting basic concepts and preschool language skills, check out these blog posts below.

Top 10 Gifts for Young Children
Why do SLPs Love Play Dough?
Why do SLPs Focus on Categorizing Skills?

You may also be interested in my preschool speech and language resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers. Click HERE to view these products.

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Lisa, SLP

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