Suggestions to improve your child's language at home.

The following are suggestions for how to improve your child’s expressive language skills at home:

• Have your child name as many items in a category as they can in one minute. Time them and set goals to see if they can increase their score.
• Play a guessing game where you pick an object, person, or place and describe it to a partner. Have your partner try to guess the name of the item based on your description. Take turns being the describer/guesser.
• While on trips to the mall, grocery store, family event, or any place you might travel, see if you can find an item that starts with each item of the alphabet. Try to get from A to Z at each place. If you have a partner, you can take turns naming each item. For example, at the grocery store you could say: A-apple, B-banana, C-carrot, D-donut, E-eggs, etc. This can also be done in the car as a travel game.
• Try to set aside at least five minutes a day when you talk to your child without interruptions. Some suggestions for conversation starters may be “Tell me 3 things about your day” or “What do you want to do this weekend?” Make sure the conversation is reciprocal, and that you and your child ask each other questions and make comments. Use this time to model and encourage good speaking skills such as eye contact, turn taking, tone of voice, and facial expressions.
• Encourage your child to explain things by retelling a story, explaining a television show, relaying an activity in school, or teaching you how to play a game (video game, sport, board game, etc.). If your child has difficulty getting to the point and tends to ramble, you can help by saying something like "Tell me in 3 sentences."
• Expand your child’s vocabulary by naming: things in their environment, parts of whole (e.g. a computer has a keyboard, mouse, printer, monitor), synonyms, antonyms, naming rhyming words. Encourage your child to use words rather than gestures to communicate.

The following are suggestions for how to improve your child’s receptive language skills at home:

• Books are an excellent tool for increasing language skills. Whether your child is reading by himself, or you are reading to him, you can turn the story into a language lesson. Ask your child to retell the story in the correct sequence…”First….then…. and last …..” Ask comprehension questions, or see your child can make a prediction about what will happen next. Discuss new vocabulary words, and make reading an interactive experience. Audio books can also be used for these activities, especially if your child struggles to read, or if they need to work on improving their listening skills.
• Provide your child with directions of increasing length, and encourage them to use strategies to improve recall by: repeating the direction back to you, using visual cues (chart, pictures, etc.), making lists, creating songs or rhymes.
• After giving a direction, ask your child "now what are you going to do?"
• Improve listening skills by having your child identify things in the environment without looking at them. For example, ask your child to close his eyes and tell you what he hears. He may notice the sound of rain outside, or a clock ticking. Use music to help the child focus on hearing rather than seeing.

The following is a list of games that you can purchase at your local retail stores that will help your child build his/her language skills at home:

• Hedbanz
• Apples to Apples Jr.
• Charades
• Scattergories
• Go Fish
• Outburst Jr.
• Taboo, Jr.
• Guess Who?
• Where Are You?
• In a Pickle
• Sort it Out
• Tribond, Jr
• 5 Second Rule
• Blurt!
• Word on the Street
• Outfoxed

The following is a list of Apps for the IPAD that will help with your child’s Language.

• Auditory Memory Guide
• Wh Questions
• Prepositions Journey
• Magical Concepts
• Factory of Categories
• Describe with Art
• Olivia the Great (following directions)
• Eye Know
• Mad Libs (for grammar)
• Toca Boca series of apps (Toca Kitchen 2, Toca Hair Salon 3, Toca Tea Party, etc.)
• Dr. Panda series of apps
• Shoe the Goose series of apps
• My Play apps (Home, School, Stores, Hospital)