Creative Speech Therapy Activities To Do at Home
Are you looking for creative speech therapy activities to do at home? Speech and language can be targeted anywhere, any time. The best and easiest way to target speech and language without interrupting your day is to target them during daily activities. Some examples of daily activities where you can target speech and language is:
- Bath time
- Meal time (at home and/or restaurants)
- Bed time
- While getting dressed
- In the car
- At the grocery store
- During play
The possibilities are endless!
Some examples explained:
Bed time:
- Reading
- Name objects seen in pictures.
- Answer questions (who, what, where)
- Retelling parts of the story
- Sequencing: children can talk about steps in their bedtime routine (i.e., First we put on our pajamas, then we brush our teeth, last we read a book, etc.). They can also sequence parts of a story.
- Singing: parents can sing lullabies during bed time. There is strong evidence that singing can support language development.
Meal time:
- Name the foods they are eating
- Give your child a little bit of food/snack, which encourages them and gives them an opportunity to ask for “more”
- Describe foods (i.e., temperature, texture, size, taste, colors)
- Involve them in meal prep. Cooking is really fun and there are tons of opportunities to target language while cooking (i.e., following directions, naming objects/foods, naming actions).
- Following directions while setting the table (i.e., give me the fork, put your plate on the table, etc.).
At the Grocery Store:
- Plan a meal together. Help them make a list of items they will need and talk about how you will make it.
- Play I-spy in the aisles. Give your child a few hints to see if they can find the item.
- Find the speech sounds. For example, if your child is learning to say “s”, have a contest to see who can find the most “s-words”. Say each s-word as you find it (e.g. “syrup starts with S!”)
Speech and Language therapy should be fun for your kiddos! At Kids Place Pediatric Therapy, our pediatric trained speech and language pathologists work with children through fun activities to improve their speech, their ability to follow directions, their ability to communicate verbally and nonverbally, and their social communication skills. We use a family-centered, goal-oriented plan to help children become effective communicators.
