Spring is the perfect time to engage in fun and interactive activities that promote speech and language development with your child. It is the perfect time to incorporate fun and interactive speech therapy activities into your child’s routine. Here is a list of ten easy activities that you can do at home to enhance your child’s communication skills while enjoying the beauty of the season.
The first place everyone wants to go after the Winter months is outside.
Get outside
- Nature Walk and Talk: Take a stroll in your neighborhood or a local park. Encourage your child to describe what they see, hear, smell, and feel. Use descriptive words and ask open-ended questions to stimulate conversation.
- Picnic with a Twist: Have a picnic in your backyard or a nearby park. Use this opportunity to practice requesting items, describing food textures and flavors, and engaging in social conversation during mealtime.
- Gardening Together: Plant flowers, herbs, or vegetables in your garden or in pots. Use this activity to practice naming different plants, describing their features, and following sequential instructions.
- Outdoor Scavenger Hunt: Create a list of spring-themed items for your child to find outdoors, such as a yellow flower, a buzzing bee, or a chirping bird. This activity promotes vocabulary development and observation skills.
But, we all know Springtime brings showers. There are still many Springtime activities to do inside!
Rainy Day Ideas
- Springtime Story Time: Read books about springtime themes together. Pause and ask questions about the story, characters, and predictions about what might happen next. Encourage your child to retell the story in their own words.
- Art and Craft Fun: Create spring-themed art projects like painting flowers, making a butterfly collage, or decorating a birdhouse. Encourage your child to talk about their artwork and the process of creating it.
- Sensory Play with Spring Materials: Set up a sensory bin filled with items like grass, flowers, and seeds. Encourage your child to explore the textures and talk about how they feel using descriptive words.
- Spring Cleaning and Sorting: Engage your child in spring cleaning activities like sorting toys or clothes. Use this opportunity to practice categorizing items, following directions, and using descriptive words.
Indoors or out, getting creative and having fun is a must at ALL times of the year!
Creative Play Indoors or Out
- Springtime Sing-Along: Sing songs about spring or make up your own spring-themed songs. Singing helps with speech rhythm, language comprehension, and memory.
- Role Play with Spring Characters: Use props or dress up as springtime characters like a butterfly, a bee, or a gardener. Encourage your child to use role-specific vocabulary and engage in imaginative play.
This is only the beginning of the hundreds of activities you and your child can enjoy together. Practice makes permanent, so repeating an activity is encouraged. Talk to your Speech Therapist for more ideas specific to your child. Remember, the key to these activities is to keep them fun and engaging. Tailor them to your child’s interests and abilities, and don’t be afraid to get creative!
