Child playing with garden sprinkler. Preschooler kid running and jumping. Summer outdoor water fun in the backyard. Children play with hose watering flowers. Kids run and splash on hot sunny day.
Speech and language activities can be easily incorporated into your daily routines. Here are 5 ways you can target your child’s goals while having some summer fun:
1.) Water Play
- Ideas: use the water hose, turn on a sprinkler, water plants/flowers, use a water table and toys, use various sized cups and buckets, use water beads for an extra fun sensory experience
- Target goals:
- Vocabulary: wet, dry, half, full, empty, pour, spray, splash, jump, push, dump, squish
- Articulation: /k/ /p/ (cup), /s/ spray, splash-find props/water toys that start with your child’s sound.
- Basic concepts: wet/dry, empty/full
- Following directions
2.) Chalk Art
- Target goals:
- Vocabulary: colors, draw, picture, (any vocabulary word)
- Articulation: draw pictures of objects that begin with sound, create your own hopscotch or life size board game with speech words
- Turn taking
- Following directions
- Requesting
3.) Bubbles
- You can never go wrong with bubbles!
- Target goals:
- Vocabulary: bubble, pop, blow, run
- Basic concepts: up/down, open/close
- Practice taking turns blowing bubbles
- Requesting: more/all done
4.) Explore!
- You can: Play in the backyard or check out a nearby park and just explore.
- Target goals:
- Vocabulary: Find/found, see, look, explore, (new vocabulary terms found in the environment)
- Articulation: /f/ and /d/ (find), /s/ (see), /l/ and /k/ look, find things in the environment that begin with your child’s sound
5.) Sand
- You can: play at the beach or in a sandbox
- Target goals:
- Vocabulary: build, dig, pour, sand, soft, feel, castle; hide vocabulary flashcards
- Articulation: /b/ /d/ build, /d/ /g/ dig, /p/ /r/ pour, /s/ sand, soft, /k/ castle, /f/ feel; another fun idea would be to hide objects that begin with your child’s sound or even use laminated articulation cards
- Turn taking
- Requesting