Language Activities For Kids

Last updated on September 26th, 2023 at 01:09 pm

Does your child get frustrated when they are unable to express themselves clearly? They simply want to be understood by others, especially those close to them. To help them develop their language skills, it is good to both set a good example and make practising speech and language skills fun!

Melissa Feuerwerger M.S., CCC-SLP , a speech and language pathologist, shares some activities you can do with your child to help them improve their skills in a fun way as well as tips for us to follow to help them gain confidence in their efforts.

• Go on a “sound hunt” to find items in the home, park, beach, community, etc. that start or end with the target sound. Have a contest to see who can find the most items! For instance, you can find many “s” words at the beach, such as shell, sea, glass, sun, sand, salty, splash, surf, swim and “k” words like crab, castle, cup, walk, skip, rock.
• To help with categorizing/vocabulary, you can go on a “word hunt” when reading or at the store/park/beach/etc. For example, you can say, “Let’s find things that are fruits” or “Help me find things that you can hear”.
• Play a game! Visit Adventures in Speech Pathology to find board games you can print out for each sound/blend. Your child can play the game by saying the word he lands on or making a sentence with the word he lands on.
• Art projects and baking or cooking are great activities to help your child practice language skills. You can have him talk about the activity while he’s doing it, list the materials he will need, and have him re-tell the steps of the project after you’re finished. Some good websites for art projects are DLTK kids, Enchanted Learning, and  Crafts for Kids.
• Visit the library on a regular basis to expose your child to new literature. Enjoy both fiction and non-fiction with your child as ask questions about the pictures and what he hears. Encourage him to retell key details after you have read the story like who was the story about, where were they, what happened.
• Provide good models when speaking to your child and to other children and adults. Talk slowly when you speak to your child.  This will help them hear the sounds correctly coming from your mouth.  As adults, we tend to speak quickly, and children may miss hearing their target sounds.
• Have you child repeat after you like an echo.  You can make it into a game where the child repeats you and then you repeat after the child.
• Let your child touch your mouth or throat as you make sounds.  This will help them understand where the sound is expected to come from when they speak.
• Encourage your child to use targets, but do not correct errored sounds excessively; he may become discouraged. Remind him that you want to understand his message if he becomes frustrated.
• Provide verbal praise when your child communicates his message appropriately.
• Self talk- talk about everything you do using simple sentences.  For instance, when you are at the store, you can say, “I’m looking for some apples. Wow, these red apples are big! Hmm, I wonder how many bananas are in the bunch. One, two, three…”
• Encourage your child to make his/her needs known verbally rather than anticipating them.
• Don’t let family members talk for them. Be patient and allow him to finish what he is saying before you respond or model correct language. Remind family members to let your child say what he wants to say, even if it’s hard to understand or takes a long time.
• Be a good listener. Too often, we are focused on what we are going to say without listening for our communication partner finish his message. Show your child that what he has to say is important!