Georgina Durrant (qualified teacher and former SENDCO, now SEN tutor, and founder of The SEN Resources Blog) is a huge fan of Orchard Toys! She often writes about how our games and puzzles are of excellent quality, colourful, fun for children with different abilities and ages, and fantastic for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). In particular, Georgina highlights how our puzzles encourage fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, and encourage the use of speech and language when playing with friends or family!
Here are her top 5 recommendations for this Christmas!
- Old MacDonald Lotto
Old MacDonald Lotto is a farm-themed early learning matching game that is perfect for young children. Players must match all their cards to their playing board, followed by the farmer to win the game! Georgina loves the simplicity of this game, but also the wide range of skills it encourages children to develop whilst playing! The large, sturdy cards can help children practise their fine motor skills; as well as aiding concentration and memory skills by remembering where different cards have been placed, and what cards the child has on their board. The turn-taking element of the game also encourages social skills.
- My First Snakes and Ladders
My First Snakes and Ladders is a classic family board game, and makes for the perfect introduction to board games and traditional gameplay for younger players! Georgina particularly loves that the Orchard Toys My First Snakes and Ladders has a bigger game board than most versions, and chunky playing pieces making it much more accessible for some children with SEND. This game really is all-inclusive and also helps to practise numeracy skills.
- Unicorn Fun!
Unicorn-themed items (games, clothes, or anything in between!) seem to remain very popular amongst children and this bumper box has three games in one! Georgina writes in her blog how the game helps develop a wide range of skills such as memory skills in the Unicorn Party board game; counting skills in Unicorn Snakes and Ladders; and speech, language and communication skills in Build A Unicorn, which is a creative and imaginative extra activity where children will build different outfits for their unicorn character.
- Dress Up Nelly
Dress Up Nelly in matching outfits in this fun, first colour-matching game, perfect for preschoolers! Georgina feels this game is ideal for promoting speech, language and communication skills through play! While children match the colours and are perfecting Nelly’s outfit, there are many opportunities for encouraging speech and communication, as well as broadening their vocabulary and developing confidence in communicating with others.
- Christmas Eve Box
The SEN Resources Blog for the Top 5 Games this Christmas wouldn’t have been complete without mentioning the Christmas Eve Box! Featuring a reindeer race game, a 25-piece jigsaw and a Christmas Activity Book, Georgina says “This Christmas Eve Box does all the hard work for you!”. The ready-made festive fun bumper box is high quality, will be played with time and time again and is great fun (whilst still being educational!).
To read Georgina’s Blog “Top 5 Orchard Toys Games for Christmas” just click here.
