Activities to build communication with your child

It’s a valid question. Your child’s routine and that of your family unit has changed drastically. Most of us are juggling full time jobs while working from home, providing child care, and managing a household. It may be becoming more and more clear as you spend the days interacting with your little one that their language is progressing, plateauing, or you’re starting to get concerned they are behind in meeting their communication milestones.

Some of the simplest, daily activities can be open opportunities for language building. Let’s take a popular quarantine routine activity like a neighborhood walk and explore all the ways you can foster language development without your child even knowing.

Through this one interaction we’re going to see how many different models and prompts are contained that help build both receptive and expressive language skills.

Picture this…

You’re out for a stroll around the block. Stretching your legs and trying to expose your family to fresh air. As you’re walking down the sidewalk you see a pile of leaves and rocks just off to the right.

“I love rocks! I want one. Nicole, can you grab a rock for me? I want a big one! Thank you! Oh, I think daddy wants one too. Can you get the one next to the big leaf? it’s beautiful. Give it to him. He loves big rocks. Why don’t we find another one to take home. I can help you. Okay, let’s push these out of the way so we can see the good ones. Oh, gross, a bunch of leaves. Let’s throw them over here. Okay, WOW I see a perfect one next to your foot. what do you think we should do with it? Take it home? Good idea! Where should we keep it? Should we put it…l in daddy’s pocket? In mommy’s shoe? or kick it down the road all the way home? Kick it down the road1 Good choice. I’ll go first… boom! I kicked it! You try!”

Now let’s play our own game of I spy… in this one interaction I spy:

• Requesting

• Commenting

• WH questions

• Pronouns

• Conversational Skills

• Following Directions

• Multisyllabic Words

• Increased Vocabulary

• Verbs

• Prepositions

• Prepositional phrases

• Environmental Sounds

See if you can identify where each of these communication sparks were used in the one interaction while taking a walk.

Next time you’re out with your family for a walk, why don’t you give it a try! We would love to hear how it goes. If you’re wondering how to best apply it to your child’s interests, attention needs, or energy level, we’d love to discuss. No, seriously… I’m home and twiddling my thumbs just like everyone else. We would love to chat. Let’s connect.