Celebrate Better Speech and Hearing Month at Allcare Therapy Services
Here are simple ways to increase your child’s language and facilitate communication in your day-to-day routine
Give choices
-Give choices throughout daily activities such as when picking out clothing or having a snack. You can give two standard options (“Do you want to eat an apple or crackers?”) or be silly (“Do you want to wear a cracker or a shoe?”).
Read a book
-For the little ones, you don’t have to read the book word-for-word! You can work on labeling and identifying pictures. Make it fun and engaging by adding sound effects. For example if someone is sleeping, make snoring sounds or “shhh” to work on early imitation skills.
-Ask your child wh-questions about the story and pictures: Who-What-Where-When-Why
-Ask your child to retell you the story in their own words.
-Ask your child how the characters feel
-Have your child guess what’s going to happen on the next page or later in the story.
Sing a song
-Sing songs with gestures, such as “Wheels on the Bus” or “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
-While singing a familiar song, pause and have your child fill in the last word of the line (“Twinkle Twinkle Little” …..)
-Remix “If You’re Happy and You Know it” and throw in simple commands to work on following directions, action words, body parts, etc. (“If you’re happy and you know it kick the ball”)
Open an Amazon box together
-When it comes you can “open” and “close” door and bring the box “in.” Use fun exclamations such as “Oh wow!” “Woah!” “Yay!”
Take a walk
-Have a scavenger hunt or play I Spy. Name objects your little one points at. Talk about things you see on a daily basis (car, mailbox, plane, tree, dog, door, cloud, etc.)