Language Skills part1 - Preschool & Early Elementary

***If your (preschool/early elementary aged) child is working on language skills….

• (Exact language skills targeted in your child’s IEP will vary, but may include things like increasing overall understanding & use of vocabulary words, answering & asking WH questions, understanding how items go together in categories, understanding how two things are similar and different, using correct verb tenses, expanding the length of sentences, describing, and more.)
• PLAY: Many language skills can be targeted through playing together with an adult! Choose an activity such as Lego blocks, Play-doh, catch, dinosaurs, or action figures, and follow your child’s lead. Have your characters interact & talk with each other, narrate aloud what you are doing or creating, or sort things into groups that are alike (ex: all the big dinosaurs, or all the red pieces). P
• When interacting with each other, model full sentences and expand on what your child says (add 1-2 words). Child: “Her can fly.” Adult: “Yes, she can fly fast!” Child: “Here a cookie.” Adult: “That is a big cookie! Can you make a small cookie too?” Child: “Here!” Adult: “Thank you! I love chocolate cookies.” Child: “Uh oh! Tower all gone.” Adult: “Oh, the tower fell down! How can we fix it?”
• Playing simple games such as Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, Memory, Hi Ho Cherry-o, Go Fish, & Uno can provide great opportunities to practice turn taking skills, following directions, asking and answering questions, using full sentences, understanding concepts such as more/less and next/first/last, and many more skills!
• READING: Reading books together is one of the best ways to build language skills! Choose a picture book to read together. Read the words, but also talk about the pictures; read books more than once! • Point out details you notice, and try to guess together what might happen next (ex: “Look, she has a raincoat and rain boots. What kind of weather do you think it is outside? What season is it?”). • Connect details from the book to your life (ex: “Look, they are going to the petting zoo! Remember when we went? What were your favorite animals?”). • Talk about how the characters might be feeling (ex: “Oh, she lost her favorite toy! How would that make you feel?) in the different situations in the story.

****TIP: Sometimes we might use ”communication temptations” in therapy – where we might deliberately leave a tight lid on a container or put something out of reach on purpose - so the child will need to request help.