Christmas and the holiday season are fast approaching! This is often a time when we take a break from our normal routine and so language or speech practice can often take a backseat too. We have put together a few ideas about how you can continue to support your child in their language and speech sound development over this holiday season!
- Decorate together
If you set up a Christmas tree or make a gingerbread house, you can take turns giving each other clues about which decoration to choose next. “Can you find the big red bauble with gold spots on it?” - Cook a recipe together
Children often like to help in the kitchen at Christmas! You can work on ‘first …. then’ by giving them the directions. Perhaps your reluctant reader might be motivated to help you figure out what you need to do to make a delicious treat! - Use photos and videos
Holidays are often the chance to take some pictures or videos together as a family. Invite your child to be the director/ photographer or narrator in the video. Use the images to prompt your child to share with a friend or loved one about their holidays. - Gift inspiration
Think about language opportunities when selecting toys these holidays. Lots of toys for our little ones have parts that open or close, turn on or off or need an adult’s help to make them work. Use each of these opportunities to model to your child the language goals that they are working on. Santa might get some inspiration from the language goals you’ve been targeting in session! - Play board games
Describing games can be a great gift which are fun for the whole family and can help children work on their speech and language goals. Games like Hedbanz, Guess Who and Taboo target vocabulary and word associations to help others guess what we are talking about. If your child is working on speech sounds, find some target words which you can use in play together. Perhaps you need to spin the wheel or roll the dice to have your turn and practice your speech sounds.
We hope these tips help you to support your child over the summer holidays! Remember, after a big year we all need a break and to give ourselves time to recover. So take the pressure off and enjoy the holiday season sprinkled with some speech and language practice! Have fun!