Summer Speech and Language Ideas

Summer Speech and Language Ideas

By: Sheryl Balciar, MS, CCC-SLP

Note: These are general ideas aimed at 3-5 year old children.  Some may be too high or too low for your child.  Use your judgment!   

READ!  Easy books with limited words are best.  That way, you can read slowly and emphasize the correct pronunciations.  Have your child make predictions about the stories, respond to yes/no and wh- questions, and identify/label the vocabulary.

Go SHOPPING!  Before going to the grocery store, have your child cut pictures out of the Shopper for your “list.”  When you get there, it is your child’s responsibility to tell you what to pick up next.  Stress the category names (e.g. fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, etc).  Emphasize correct productions, final consonants, all syllables, etc.

Go to WALMART!  Label items, emphasizing categories and object functions

(e.g. we wear clothes, play with toys, ride bikes, etc).  Ask where a certain item might be found and then go look for it.

Go to the PARK!  While on the playground working on gross motor skills, emphasize concepts such as on/off, up/down, high/low, fast/slow, around, under, through, backward/forward, clean/dirty, hot/cold, etc.  

COOK!  Gather the ingredients to follow the recipe.  Emphasize action words (measure, pour, boil, stir/mix, beat, sift, melt, bake, etc) and sequencing concepts (first/next/last).  Make predictions about what will happen when you add liquid to powder and when it goes in the hot oven or microwave.  Talk about how the ingredients may taste if you ate them alone (sweet, spicy, sour).

Take a WALK!  If you have a bigger family, walk single file and talk about who is first/next/last, and in front/in back.  Line up from tallest to shortest and walk fast/slow.  Label items you see and the sounds you hear on your walk.

Play FOLLOW-THE-LEADER!  This will help your child focus on following visual directives.

Play SIMON SAYS!  This will help your child focus on following auditory directives.

Play HIDE-N-SEEK! Talk about where you were hiding (in, on, under/above, in back of/in front of, next to, between, etc).

Have your child SET THE TABLE! Label the items needed.  Where do they go?  What goes next to the plate?  Are the plates/cups full or empty?  What else do we need?