6 Practical Activities to Elicit Language Opportunities at Home

 
a father plays with her daughter as she yells "more" while he throws her into the air during sunset at the beach, working on her speech therapy targets recently practiced with her speech language pathologist and her father uses strategies he learned
 

Whether you’re a parent looking for ways to carry-over activities your Speech Language Pathologist has given you to practice with your child at home, a parent who has concerns about your toddler/child’s speech and language development, or a Speech Therapist looking for helpful strategies to help out a parent in need, these activities offer creative approaches to working with limited resources.

We don’t all have access to the latest and greatest material, toys, or resources - let alone the dollars to spend on them. Sometimes, we need to make do with what we already have, or get creative with it! These six activities give you a list of what you need and how to use them to your child’s advantage when targeting language enhancement.

For parents of Late-Talkers or children with limited expressive vocabulary, check out our printable resource:

20 First Word Tracker & Parent Survival Guide

 

  1. iSpy

What can I use?

  • Books

  • Picture albums

  • Familiar toys

  • Kitchen items

  • Pictures on iPhone/tablet

  • Living room items

  • Bathroom items

  • Backyard items

  • Bedroom items

  • iPad/tablet videos or games

Zoomed out photo of multiple objects on a shelf and hung on a wall in a living room with white background, symbolizing the objects that parents can use to play iSpy with their children as language enhancement opportunities taught to them by their SLP

Language target examples:

  • Family member names

  • Clothing (shoes, hat, shirt, pants)

  • Outdoor things (clouds, swing, grass, ball)

  • Functions

  • Sizes

  • Shapes

  • Tastes

  • Smells

  • Textures

2. Sand play

What can I use?

  • Kinetic sand

  • Homemade sandbox

  • Outdoor sandbox

  • Box of sand and preferred plastic toys

an image of beige colored sand, representing sand play and sand boxes that can be used to enhance speech and language opportunities in speech therapy or with parents who have been coached by a speech therapist for their child working on speech goals

Language target examples:

  • Describing words: “dry, fun, slow, crumbly”

  • Core words: “more, where, want, up, down”

  • Increasing length of utterances

  • Locations (in/out/on/under)

  • Naming: “boat, cup, bowl, shovel”

  • Actions: “dig, drop, fall, move”

3. Make up a story together

What can I use?

  • Picture book (may or may not have words inside)

  • Familiar toy items

  • Pictures on iPhone/Tablet app

  • Bath time routine

  • Dinner time

  • Paper and pencil

  • Another play activity such as: building a fort, sock puppet show

close up image of a book, held by a child laying in bed with a book light to read in the dark, symbolizing the act of a parent reading to their child in bed to work on speech therapy target words and language enhancement activities

Language target examples:

  • Turn-taking

  • Narrative development

  • Use of new vocabulary words

  • Sentence structure and word order

  • Literacy development

4. Build a fort

What can I use?

  • Couch pillows

  • Couch cushions

  • Extra bed pillows

  • Small corners or nooks

  • Mail boxes

  • Moving boxes

  • Old shoe boxes

a line of similarly stitched and colored pillows, read, white, and purple, against a sturdy wall on a velvet bench symbolizing a pillow fort built by children who are playing with their parents at home, while practicing words from speech therapy

Language target examples:

  • Actions: “throw, catch, crawl, jump, crash”

  • Locations: “on top, under, next to, on, in, off”

  • Increasing length of utterance “Whoa!” —> “Whoa big jump!”

  • Describing words: “big, small, scary, fun, tall, short”

5. Homemade playdough

What can I use?

For homemade play dough recipes, all you need is:

  • canola or vegetable oil

  • water

  • cream of Tartar or lemon juice

  • salt

  • flour

  • food coloring or kool-aid packets

close up of a rainbow built from play doh, by a late-talking toddler, representing a fun activity for parents to use as speech and language practice, and used in the child's speech therapy session where they laughed and took turns making silly shapes

Language target examples:

  • Describing words: “squishy, (colors), long, short, big, small”

  • Locations: “under/over, in front/behind, above/below”

  • Naming pretend objects made from the play dough: “rainbow, apple, cherry pie, car, doll”

  • Pretend play (eating, drinking)

6. Have a sock puppet show

What can I use?

  • Old socks

  • Wash cloths

  • Old beanies or cloth hats

  • Paper towel

  • Old bathroom or dish rags

  • Old pillow cases

  • Fabric from old clothes

close up image of silly socks with fun patterns, symbolizing the types of socks used as sock puppets as a fun speech therapy activity, for children with speech delays to practice their speech sounds and language goals with their peers and parents

Language target examples:

  • Narrative development

  • Actions

  • Describing words

  • Pronouns

  • Word order

  • Increasing length of utterance

  • Introducing new vocabulary words through repetition and context

 
early intervention, toddler language learning, parent coaching, parent tipsHeather IsmaySLP, language learning, home activities, parent coaching, early interventionComment