Summer Speech Therapy Activities for Parents: Facilitating Speech & Language using Household Items!

Do you want to work on speech and language skills with your child this summer, but don’t know where to start? Speech and language skills can be incorporated into ANY home activity. You don’t always need specific learning materials, flashcards, or expensive games. You can promote language within any daily routine activity! Here are some easy, functional, and exciting summer speech therapy activities that your child will love!

1. Play with Sand!

Fill up a bucket or a bin with sand and bury common items ( a key, spoon, pencil, figurine, sunglasses, Q-tip, flashlight, etc). Have your child dig through the sand until they find their first item. Once the item is found, have them describe it to you (what it’s used for, color, shape, size, what parts it has, or any fun fact). This activity targets multiple language skills such as vocabulary, categorization, association, and defining/describing skills! 

2. Let’s get cooking!

Whether you are baking cookies or making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, language can always be involved. Have your child gather all the ingredients that are used in the recipe. Then, write down the steps they need to follow to the recipe. You can also target multi-step directions such as, “first put the sugar in the bowl, then pour the butter in”. This activity targets sequencing and comprehension skills!

3. Water Play!

Going to the pool this summer? With your child, create a list of what items you will need for the pool (towels, floaties, goggles, sunscreen, diving toys). Gather those items and have your child explain what each of them is used for. You can also incorporate role playing scenarios about how to interact with other kids at the pool and how to join in a game. This activity targets social skills and object function!

4. Work on Sounds with Chalk!

Is your child working on the K or G sound? Using sidewalk chalk, draw pictures that have the sound your child is working on. For example, if your child is working on the K or G sound, draw pictures of cats, books, glasses, gifts, grapes,  goats, kites, carrots, cars, etc. After you draw the pictures, have your child practice each word 5-10x each. To incorporate language, you can have your child tell a story with the pictures they drew or share a fun fact about each of the pictures! 

5. Videos!

Children love videos! Wondering how to incorporate speech and language while watching YouTube videos? Watching animated videos is a great way to keep your child engaged while also targeting ‘wh’ questions, inference, sequencing and main ideas. Frequently pause the video and ask your child “who”, “what”, “where”, “when” and “why” questions. Also ask them what they think might happen next in the video. At the end, have them sequence the events in the video about what happens in the beginning, middle and end. 

If you’re in search of flexible speech therapy for your child, we can help. We offer customized at-home speech therapy for parents, virtual speech therapy, and more. Call today. 704-845-0561