Target specific language and literacy goals for your child with the tips and FREE educational downloads available below. This article provides you with five MORE ways to help your child’s language and literacy development.
Here are five MORE ways to help your child’s language and literacy development that are fun:
| 1. I Spy with My Little Eye! I spy games are always a childhood favorite and provide some of the most effective ways of developing speech and language skills. You can work with your child on beginning sounds/phonemes and help to develop language skills with our free I Spy Beginning Sounds activity! Children will enjoy hunting for pictures that have the same beginning sound as the focus letter. This activity is well-suited for working with children with Apraxia, speech impairments, and students learning to read. Print in black and white or in color. |  |
| 2. Be a Superhero…and play with playdough! Your child will enjoy practicing sounds/phonemes with this free Superhero Says Articulation Practice activity. Children *love* superheroes and they love playdough, so this is a win, win! Children stay engaged and excited to learn as they practice speech sounds while using playdough to complete this fun activity! There are three Superhero Says Articulation Practice sets that you can download for initial, medial and ending sounds/phonemes. |  |
| 3. Play restaurant and have a tea party! One mention of a tea party and kids come running from every direction! Having a tea party or playing restaurant is an amazingly fun and effective way to increase vocabulary, while also developing language, math and social skills. These free Play Menus for Speech & Language Development provide a fun and engaging way to target difficult speech sounds including: /r/, /l/, /s/, /j/, /ch/, /sh/, /th/ and /zh/. You can role play with your child and target specific sounds goals (e.g., in the ice cream shop you can target that tricky /r/ – initial and medial – by ordering a delicious rouge watermelon popsicle or a lime ripple sherbet. You can target initial /s/ by ordering sausage and pancakes with strawberry topping for breakfast, followed by spaghetti and salad for lunch. Yum! Menus also help to develop print awareness, a skill that leads to early reading development. |  |
| 4. Questions, questions, questions! Help to build vocabulary and language skills by repeating and expanding on what your child says (e.g., if your child says, “Birds,” you respond by saying, “Yes, I see 3 birds…1-2-3. Can you count the birds?” Strengthen comprehension by playing “yes-no” games (e.g., playful questions such as, “Are you a turtle?”, “Are you a girl?”, and “Is your hair brown?)” Ask WH questions – WHo, WHat, WHere, WHen and WHy. Download our free Moo, Baa, La La La! Book Companion: Yes/No and Wh Question Language Cards for an easy way to help you play along! Guessing sound games are great fun as well (e.g., “I’m thinking of someone whose name begins with the sound “Mmm”).” |  |
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5. Play Spin & Say! Children love spinning the paperclip in this fun activity and searching for the pictures! Playing Spin & Say helps children to develop language skills while working on beginning sounds/phonemes. Directions for play are included and the activity can be printed in black and white or in color. Mastering phonemes is critical to children’s reading and spelling success. What better way to work on phonemic awareness than with a fun, hands-on activity that is no prep! |
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Check out our: Five Ways to Help Your Child’s Language and Literacy Development Article!
