In addition to the activities found in the monthly calendar, below are some suggestions for activities that are easy to incorporate into your daily routine that will help promote your child's language skills!
Reading Books is a great way to develop your child's language skills! While reading with your child, have them pay close attention to the following details:
Use books to teach vocabulary. Have your child point to items that you label.
Use books to work on following directions. Give your child 2 step directions (e.g., Point to the monkey then point to the giraffe.)
Use books as a description/labeling activity. Describe an animal then have your child name it. (e.g., Tell me the animal on this page that is big, grey and has a trunk.)
Ask your child questions about what you have read. These can be factual questions (Who? What? Where?) or inferential questions (Why…? How…? What might happen next…?)
Have your child retell the story to you. Try using sequencing words like first, next, last. Encourage them to think about characters, setting, problems, character feelings, actions and the resolution.
Games that you can play as a family are a great way to encourage your child to think about and use their language skills! Below are some simple and fun games you can play with your child that will reinforce what we are working on in speech:
Go-Fish and Memory: Great ways to work on describing and grammar! When playing Memory, have your child use a complete sentence to describe their match. Use a deck of cards for Go-Fish that can provide opportunities for more language. E.g., animals cards: Do you have something that swims in a bowl?
Letter Scavenger Hunt: Starting with A and working your way to Z, try to find all the letters of the alphabet on signs, packages, and everyday household items
Charades: Act out different animals, actions, jobs, etc. without making a peep!
I Spy: Pick a secret item and give 3 clues to help your partner guess your item
Cook/Bake something together
Practice following the directions of a recipe. Use sequential language such as, “First we add the tomatoes, then we stir it all together, and last we add seasoning.”
Use spatial concept words such as in, on, on top, next to, as much as possible.
Talk about the textures, tastes, smells, and colors of the foods. Use descriptive words.
Use Sidewalk Chalk
Draw pictures using sidewalk chalk and have your child describe the pictures using color, shape, and size words
Draw a hopscotch game and write speech words in each square. These could be words your child is working on pronouncing (ie. they contain their speech sounds) or vocabulary words that they then have to use in a sentence.
Go on a Scavenger Hunt outside or inside!
Give your child descriptions of things to find in your home. These could be vague, such as, “Find something large and blue” or specific, such as, “Find something that you use to dry your hands.”
If your child is working on speech sounds, have them find items that contain their sounds and then have them label the item.