The Speech Therapy Center

Schools are closed, playgrounds are off-limits, and there isn’t enough Wi-Fi to go around. Though, one thing is for sure – our children need to continue to grow and meet their developmental milestones. Speech and language skills are established through one-on-one interactions; therefore, children need our help to improve them! We can promote vocabulary, sentence formulation, articulation, grammar, syntax, social skills, and much more with some simple at-home activities.

1. Charades, anyone?

• Like charades, act out a familiar routine and have your child guess what you are doing. For example: brushing your teeth, painting nails, sweeping the floor, etc. Use props as needed!

• Ask your child to describe the action and then have them take a turn acting out their own routine.

2. Let your imagination run wild

• Set up the environment with a pretend play toy such as a doll house, plastic food set, farm animals, etc.

• Follow your child’s lead! Show interest in what they are interested in. Imitate their actions and their speech.

• Model pretend play scenes as needed (e.g., Make the plane fly; feed the baby doll; say “I’ll be the cow and you be the farmer”).

3. Where’s Waldo?

• Take turns hiding a toy throughout the house.

• When your child finds the hidden object, have them explain “where” it is. Model prepositions and location phrases as needed (e.g., “Bear is in the living room, under the table”).

4. I Spy Something…

• Target attributes and basic concepts by playing “I spy” in your home (e.g., “I spy something that is yellow; it’s long; you can peel it; and it’s a fruit”).

• If your child is working on specific speech sounds then you can find their sounds in objects throughout the house (e.g., Go on a treasure hunt and find anything that starts with the “s” sound).

5. Dust off your favorite classic board game

• Depending on your child’s age, this can range from throwing a ball back and forth, playing a cooperative game like Candy Land, or teaching them something new like checkers.

• Have your child request “my turn” and “your turn”.

• See if they can explain the rules and objectives of the game before starting.

• Model appropriate social language (e.g.; “nice try”, “that was a good turn”, etc.).

6. Take a look, don’t read the whole book

Instead of reading the book cover to cover:

• Ask and answer questions

• Point to identify (i.e; Show me the ____)

• Retell the story and act out the scenes

7. Have a fashion show

• Arrange an area full of clothing, accessories, costumes, parents’ shoes, etc.

• Your child can request what they want to wear by creating a descriptive sentence (e.g., “I want the big striped shirt, the red boots, and the clown hat”).

8. Who said, “Don’t play with your food?”

• Create an opportunity to play with real food rather than eat it.

• Make a sensory bin with rice, oatmeal, dried beans, spaghetti, or anything else in your cupboard.

• Hide toys in the bin, describe what you find, and take turns getting messy!

We hope this list gets you started with some fun ways to expand your child’s speech and language skills at home. Feel free to contact us if you need help with programming or have any specific questions regarding your child’s current level of functioning.