9 Language Skills to Build with Potato Head
Potato Head is another staple in any speech-language therapist’s toy arsenal. Potato Head creates opportunities to work on different functions of language including identifying and labeling body parts/clothing, requesting, using descriptors (e.g. big, small, blue, brown), making phrases, creativity, pretend play, and more. Potato Head also encourages the development of fine motor skills!
Check out some of the fun sets available!
Potato Head Family
Disney/Pixar Toy Story Andy’s Playroom Potato Pack
Potato Head Tub
Here are some ways to work on your child’s language skills with Potato Head:
Modeling Language
Model words, phrases, and sentences while building your Potato Heads together
I want green shoes
Shoes on
Push push push
I need eyes
Nose on potato
Yours has a red nose, mine has an orange nose
Two ears
Put it on
Hat on head, I put a hat on his head!
Identifying
While building your Potato Heads, label each body part as you put it on the potato, then point to the body part on your body and/or your toddler, while labeling it again (e.g. eyes, nose, mouth, ears, arms, hands, feet).
After you’ve modeled identifying and labeling the body parts, see if your toddler can do the same
To work on identifying, ask your toddler, “Where is his nose?” or “Can you find the ears?” For toddlers that are more familiar with this activity, you can ask your child to find a specific body part from a group of the pieces for you to add to your Potato, for example, “I need eyes! Can you give me some eyes?”
Here’s a tip if your child is having trouble with this skill:
Repetition repetition repetition! Continue to label familiar objects frequently for your child. To help your child in the moment, try pointing to two choices (e.g. “Is this the nose? Or is this the nose?”), then finally guide your child to point to the correct body part on themselves or the Potato Head. Remember to praise them for finding it! (“Nice work you found his nose!”)
Remember: A child has to be able to understand the name of an object (i.e. point to/look at the object when someone else names it) before they can label it! Work on identifying, or making sure your child understands the words, before working on labeling.
Labeling
To work on labeling, you can ask your toddler, “What’s this?” while pointing to one of the body parts – just make sure your toddler doesn’t feel like you’re quizzing them! Try to stick to the 3 statements to 1 question ratio (e.g. Here are my eyes, here are Potato’s eyes, I’m putting on the hands. What are these?”). It’s best to work on this skill when your child is already starting to use some words on their own, and/or they’re imitating words pretty regularly.
You can also try using cloze statements by saying something like, “Look, I found the…” while holding up one of the pieces, pausing, and waiting to see if your toddler fills in the last word by labeling the piece you are holding.
Requesting
Potato Head is the perfect activity for creating opportunities to request. This skill is best to work on if your child is saying some words independently and frequently imitating words.
You can create opportunities to request by keeping the accessories (eyes, nose, hat, shoes, etc.) in a box or bag that you are holding onto. It’s best if the box or bag is clear so your child can still see the choices. You can model, “I need eyes!” and get the eyes and place them on your Potato. If your child does not independently request (e.g. “hat” to ask for the hat), try holding up two choices while saying, “What piece do you want?” If they still do not request, label the two choices, and slightly move and look at each item as you label it, so your child knows which one you’re labeling (e.g. “eyes or mouth?”). When your child imitates one of the choices, praise them by saying, “Eyes! Here are the eyes!” and give them the requested object! Repeat this for each piece as your child builds their potato head!
If your child is having difficulty using words to make requests, check out my post here on giving choices.
Descriptors
Also called modifiers or adjectives, there are opportunities to work on early developing descriptive words while playing with Potato Head.
Colors: Blue hat, green hat, red nose, orange nose, brown eyes, blue eyes
Size: big potato, small potato, big shoes, little shoes
Numbers: two ears, two arms
Making phrases
If your child is using single words, you can work on expanding your toddler’s utterances, which you can do by repeating their single word back as a sentence. You can also use the +1 strategy when you repeat back your child’s single word by adding 1-2 more words to it to make a phrase.
Here are some examples:
Child: “eyes,” Parent: “Blue eye,” “You put the eyes on.”
Child: “nose,” Parent: “push nose,” “You need the nose.”
Child: “shoes,” Parent: “Shoes on,” “I want some shoes, too.”
If your child is starting to imitate some phrases, try using the verbal choices strategy paired with descriptors or modifiers, while presenting the choices as phrases! For example:
“Want eyes or want shoes?”
“Blue hat or orange hat?”
“Big potato or small potato?”
Creativity
While you can use Potato Head to teach your child about body parts and where they go on the face/body, you can also let your child explore their inner Picasso! Children can have fun making the potato look however they want it to look!
Bonus Ideas!
Just because your toddler is already talking doesn’t mean that your fun with Potato Head is done! Potato Head can be used to help teach more advanced skills, too!
Pretend Play
Once you have built the Potato Heads, use them as you would any doll, action figure, or stuffed animal – have them talk to each other, go on adventures, have a tea party, or more!
Negatives No/Not
Use Potato Head to teach the concepts of “no” and “not.”
“Uhoh! My Potato has no shoes!”
“Which Potato does not have a hat?”
“Find the Potato with no eyes.”
“You’re right, he has no eyes! Let’s get him some eyes!”
Emotions
Flip your Potato’s frown upside down and right side up and talk about how he looks happy :) and sad :( See if you can make any other emotions with his face pieces! (surprised, angry, tired)
Potato Head is listed for ages 2 and up. They can also be used with children around 18 months of age, just make sure to supervise and play with your child, as some pieces could be a choking hazard, and they may need help putting the pieces on.
Check out more of my favorite toys to promote language development and how to play with them in my Toddler Toy Guide.
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