What to Do With Pop Tubes: Speech Therapy at Home

 Pop tubes are one of my favorite tools for speech therapy with toddlers and preschoolers, which is funny because many parents see them as throw-away junk! While they aren't the sturdiest of toys, their open-ended nature gives them so many possibilities for play. Let me show you what to do with pop tubes to help support your child's language development.

Basic Actions and Sounds:

Pop tubes at the most basic level are such a simple joy! You can pull the accordion apart and push it back together. They aren’t called a fidget for nothing, it’s very satisfying to watch and hear them pull apart and push back. When playing with it in this way you can model for your child “pull it” and “push it”. Use a verbal routine like, ready…set…go! If your child struggles to pull the tube apart you can model, “help” with a sign and the word or phrase. Practice rolling the pop tube lengthwise down a table, add a ramp, and see who’s tube will go furthest!

Make a Circle

Connect the two ends of a pop tube to form a circle. Now you have a wheel that you can roll and spin! 

You can pretend the circle is a steering wheel and you are driving down the road... practice exclamatory and play sounds such as “beep beep beep!” or “vrrroooom!”.

Pop Tube Fashionista

Transform the circle into a crown, necklace, belt, or bracelet. Practice "on, off" as you create simple phrases like "Mommy's hat", "My necklace", or "Look at my bracelet." When pretending the pop tube is a crown I like to say that I am a queen and will practice a haughty wave and "hello", kids particularly like to imitate me during this activity!

With two pop tubes, connect the two ends of each pop tube to form two small circles. These magical circles are now glasses ready for a game of peek-a-boo. You can put them on your eyes and practice “peek…a…BOO!”. You can practice each taking a turn with the glasses, and practice pronouns or names, “my glasses”, “your glasses”, “Kiki’s glasses”, and “Mommy’s glasses.” You can also practice turn-taking phrases such as my turn/your turn!

Hello, Is Anyone There?

Create a pretend phone by holding one end near your mouth and the other near your ear. Say a loud and funny "Helllloooo!”. I particularly love to use the pop tube phone as a way to practice our articulation words because kids are able to hear themselves a lot more clearly.

Sometimes I will extend the pop tube all the way out and then I can whisper silly words into their ear from far away. This is a great opportunity to practice auditory bombardment activities when working on speech sounds.

DIY Hoops

Link a few tubes together to make a big hoop! Practice throwing soft toys "in” and “out" or jumping "in” and “out" of the hoop. You can make up a little game like musical chairs if you have many pop tubes, turn on the music, and have kids hop to each of the hoops. When the music stops and they aren’t in a hoop, they’re out!

I also like to practice the concept of big and small with pop tubes. You can use just one with the accordion pushed in and talk about how it is small. Then you can extend out the accordion and talk about how it is bigger. Connect two together and you can say wow, now it’s even bigger! Put three or four out of different sizes and discuss which is small, the smallest, big, or the biggest. You can arrange them by size and practice small, medium, and big!

Oh No... There’s a Fire!

Use the pop tube in imaginary play schemes!

• Aim the pop tube like a firehose, making the sound "sssshhhhh."  It's a thrilling sensory experience that engages both imagination and coordination. This helps in building oral motor skills and breath control.
• Pretend the pop tube is a spyglass and you are a pirate and have spotted land! Yo ho, land ahoy!
• Pretend your pop tube is a microphone and you are performing on a stage! My client performers love to sing into pop tubes because it creates an interesting echo effect.
• Link tubes in a line to create a long snake, and compare them to just one pop tube snake (big vs. small). Add sound effects with a hissing "sssssss". 
• You can also transform the pop tube into a train and say, "Choo choo!" (this helps boost symbolic play skills!).

Bubble Wand Pop Tube

Dip one end of the tube in bubble solution and blow through the other end. It's a little bit tricky, but usually, I put some bubble solution in the cap of the container and practice words like "dip", "blow", and usually "uh oh" because pop tubes don't make the best bubble wands...but failure can be fun! If you manage to blow a bubble be sure to model, "woohoo" and "pop!". This facilitates oral motor skills and breath coordination.

Pom Pom Challenge

Pom poms are always in my speech therapy tool kit. When playing with pop tubes I typically practice with toddlers "put it in", "push", or just "in". Then I like to blow the pop tube so that it becomes a pom pom launcher! You can really launch pom poms far and kids LOVE playing this game.
Challenge your preschooler to catch it on the other side. Cheer them on with "Catch it!" or practice sound effects like "pow" or "boom". This hones hand-eye coordination and attention skills, while also being a fun connection game.

Another thing you can do with pom poms is put one on a table and see if you can blow the pom pom across it. This is great for preschoolers and kids working on breath control. Sometimes we'll make it into a mini race and try and compete with each other who can get the pom pom across the finish line fastest. I like to use phrases like, "Blow it", "watch it go", "whoa" and "woohoo!".

Problem-Solving and Vocabulary: Fixing and Celebrating

Pop tubes aren’t the sturdiest of toys, and sometimes the plastic will get squished when you’re attempting to connect two tubes together or when pulling them apart. That’s OK! Part of life is figuring out how to fix something when a problem has arisen. You can use vocabulary related to fixing it (oh no! It got squished! Let’s fix it. Push it. I got it! Woohoo!). Use mishaps, like a squished pop tube, as opportunities to teach vocabulary related to problems and solutions.

Choosing the Right Pop Tubes

Not all pop tubes are created equal. I tried out ordering from Temu and…it was a bad decision on so many levels! The pop tube quality was so poor, that simply looking at them would make them crumble! I really love the pop tube set from Target, the plastic is a bit thicker so I don’t have the same issue with these. I also like that the diameter is wide enough to get a small pom pom through!

With pop tubes, the play is not just about pulling and pushing; it's a journey of imagination, language development, and sensory exploration. Embrace the giggles, celebrate the pops, and let the adventures unfold with every stretch of these magical tubes!