Receptive and Expressive Language
Impaired comprehension and/or use of spoken, written and/or other symbol systems
ASHA 1993Here are some general suggestions of activities you can try at home to practice receptive and expressive language skills:
- - Try out some games and activities on the computer. Visit the following websites for speech and language related activities,:
www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster2/sptherapy.html
www.PBSkids.org: BetweentheLions
www.StoryPlace.org
http://www.consonantlyspeaking.com
or play games on pbskids.org to focus on increasing vocabulary.
- Play board games that require language use, such as “Guess who,” “Guess where,” “Apples to apples,” “Taboo,” “Scattegories,” and any game which requires people to ask and/or answer questions.
- Take pictures of your child at the park, on a trip, at the zoo, etc, or create a simple scrapbook of ticket stubs, restaurant napkins, or leaves from a park. Use a cheap photo album to make a book of the experience. Help your child write one or two sentences about each picture (using specific vocabulary instead of “thing,” “stuff” and “place”). Help your child expand their sentences by adding detail about when, where, why, or how an event happened. This helps with sequencing, vocabulary development and sentence development.
- Help your child write letters and/or emails to friends and family describing what they have been doing over the summer. Focus on helping them use expanded sentences and specific vocabulary. If you have made a book about a trip you went on, have your child write a letter or email to a family member to tell them about the trip.
- If your child has a favorite book, character, or series of books, help them write a short story that includes that character, adds on to their favorite book, or could be part of the series of books they enjoy. Have them include illustrations or print out pictures from the internet to help pull out more details. Help them use a web or other visual method of planning out their story.
- Model expanded sentences. When your child uses a simple sentence without much detail, repeat it, but request a little more information. “We played.” “You played with ?”
- Read a book about animals (or other topic of interest), have him watch some t.v. shows about animals, etc. (like Wild Kratts or a nature show), then take a trip to the zoo. See how many reptiles, or animals, or felines, etc. your child can find. There are other shows that reinforce vocabulary (like Word Girl), and games such as Apples to Apples that focus on vocabulary. If you are doing any projects around the house, you can involve him/her and expose your child to tools, color names, hardware, kitchen appliance, etc. That way s/he's hearing and using the vocabulary in context.
- Visit museums, zoos, the aquarium, or attend story time or other free programs at your local library to help kids put vocabulary into context
- Read books that help develop specific language skills, i.e. “He Bear, She Bear, Berenstain Bears” for pronouns, or “Freda Plans a Picnic” by Stuart Murphy for sequencing. Both Leslie Patricelli and Brian P. Cleary have written several books on comparing and contrasting, opposites and synonyms.