Growing Together: Fun Daily Activities to Build Language, Connection, and Emotional Skills

Simple daily routines offer rich opportunities to support your child’s emotional development, vocabulary, and independence. 

Use these practical ideas at home to connect, play, and learn together.

1. Exploring & Understanding Emotions

Children learn to regulate their feelings by first identifying them. Practicing emotions through play builds empathy, communication, and self-control.

• Mirror Play: Stand together in front of a mirror and practice making faces for different feelings: happy, sad, mad, and silly.

• Pair Words with Gestures: Help your child recognize what feelings look and feel like using body language:

  • Happy: Big smile and clapping hands (e.g., celebrating a new toy or fun outing).

  • Sad: Gentle frown and slumping shoulders (e.g., dropping an ice cream cone).

  • Mad: Furrowed brow and folded arms (e.g., losing a favorite toy).

  • Tired: Hands pressed to the side of the head with a gentle snore.

  • Surprised / Scared: Hands to the cheeks with wide eyes and an "Oh wow!" (e.g., seeing something unexpected or hearing a loud car wash).

  • Dirty: Rubbing hands together with a playful "Yuck!" motion.

• Normalize Feelings, Set Boundaries on Actions: Remind your child that it is always okay to feel angry, frustrated, or upset—all feelings are welcome. However, behaviors like hitting, biting, or spitting are not okay. If you have a kiddo who shows big emotions (hitting, kicking, biting, crying easily, yelling, screaming, throwing or breaking items, or hurting themselves when they are upset), learning appropriate reactions is important! The goal is to provide new, better ways to react when upset. For example, if you have a little one who hits or bites others when they do not get their way, it is a big WIN when they stomp their foot when frustrated!  

  • Helpful Read: The Best Behavior series (such as Hands Are Not for Hitting by Martine Agassi) is an excellent resource for reinforcing these boundaries.

• Understanding "Bids for Comfort": Young children often say "I hurt" or point to a spot that was bumped earlier, even after the physical pain is gone. Often, this is not about an actual injury—it is a request for closeness, reassurance, or connection. A quick hug, a kiss on the finger, and a comforting "all better!" routine provides the emotional check-in they are craving.

2. Building Language & Memory

Using familiar everyday experiences helps children learn how to organize their thoughts, tell stories, and expand their vocabulary.

• Create a "Me Book":

  • Gather photos of your child, family members, pets, favorite toys, snacks, and places they love to visit.

  • You can create this digitally on a tablet, assemble an inexpensive printed photo album, or use free photo-printing apps (such as FreePrints) to make a dedicated softcover book.

  • How to use it: Look through the book together. Point and name the who, what, and where in each picture. Ask prompting questions to build receptive language: "Where is Grandma?" or "Can you show me where you were eating your snack?"

• Dinnertime Storytelling:

  • Take turns sharing about your day around the dinner table.

  • Help your child describe their day by offering guiding prompts rather than yes/no questions: "What was the first thing we built with your blocks today?" or "Who did you play with at the park?" If your little one is not yet talking, it is totally okay to ask and answer. Example: "What was the first thing we built with your blocks today?" (pause for your child to think and have time to respond. Your little one might look at you, look at where the blocks were earlier when you played, or babble back to you like they are answering you) "Oh yeah! We built a tall tower first! Then, we used a lot of blocks to build a house together. What did we put in the house?" (pause again for your child's turn to respond) "Yes! We put Bluey and Bingo in the house." 

3. Dramatic Play & Multi-Step Games

Play that involves sequencing, rules, and imagination strengthens attention span and social communication.

• Act Out Songs and Stories: Bring simple stories, nursery rhymes, or favorite songs to life using exaggerated facial expressions, playful voices, and dramatic physical reactions (e.g., gasping and touching your face in surprise). This helps children tune in to nonverbal social cues.

• Introduce Multi-Step Games: Play card or board games that require remembering three or more rules (such as Candy Land, Go Fish, or simple Checkers). These games teach vital executive function skills: waiting, taking turns, handling disappointment when losing, and following a sequence.

• Participate in Pretend Play Routines: Use play items such as baby doll, blanket, and bottle; pretend plates, pots, and play foods; or trucks, blocks, and a playhouse/barn to walk through dramatic play routines. (This is also great for children to understand words and follow simple routine directions!) Talk about feelings and emotions, narrate what your child is doing using verbs, walk through simple directions, and overexaggearte your actions and sounds (i.e., Wow! Yummy! Yucky! Opps! Uh-oh! and sounds for the toys/items such as Broom-Broom, Beep, Crying, Aww!, Slurping, Stirring)

  • Baby doll, blanket, and bottle: 

"Hello!" and "Bye-Bye!": Gently wave the doll's hand and say "Hello!" or "Bye-bye!" to them. This personifies the toy in a simple, engaging way.

"Baby's Tired/Happy": Narrate simple emotions for the doll that they might understand from their own experiences ("Oh, baby's looking sleepy," or "Baby is so happy!").

Model simple tasks with a baby doll or stuffed animal and play My Turn, Your Turn with your child having them copy your motions and sounds:   Feed the Baby: Pretend to give the baby a bottle or a spoon with a small, pretend bite of food. "Nom nom nom, baby's hungry!"

Burp the Baby: Gently pat the doll's back, making a small "pat-pat-pat" sound. "Time to burp the baby!"

Rock the Baby: Gently cradle the doll in your arms and sway back and forth. You can hum a lullaby or say, "Rock-a-bye baby."

Cover Baby with a Blanket: Take a small blanket and gently tuck it around the doll. "Night night, baby, time for sleep."

• • Pretend plates, pots, and play foods: While playing, ask and answer questions about cooking, talk about what is "yummy", model simple directions, and use action verbs ("chop," "mix," "cook," "wash") and descriptive words ("hot," "cold," "sweet," "crunchy," "soft"). "Let's chop the carrots!" "Is it hot?"  

 "Cooking Dinner": "What are we cooking for dinner? Let's make some soup!" (stirring actions).

"Restaurant Play": "Welcome to our restaurant! What would you like to order?" (You can be the waiter/customer). 

• • Trucks, blocks, and a playhouse/barn: Narrate play with a dump truck, picking items up, and delivering them to a new location. Drive the truck to the blocks, model "in, in, in" while loading the truck, say "time to drive the blocks to the barn", drive the trick across the floor to the barn modeling sounds such as "Beep, Beep, Coming through!", and dump the blocks at the barn to start building with them. 

4. Encouraging Independence at Home

Children love to feel capable and involved in family routines. Giving them real roles builds confidence and motor coordination.

• Everyday Helping Hands: When doing housework or yard work, invite your child to take on small, manageable tasks independently:

  • Emptying light, unlined wastebaskets into the main trash bin.

  • Brushing breadcrumbs off the table with a small hand brush or cloth.

  • Putting shoes in the shoe basket or carrying clean napkins to the table.

• Focus on Effort: Celebrate their willingness to help rather than requiring perfection. Feeling like a contributing team member builds pride and lifelong responsibility.