Speech and language development can thrive through a variety of fun and interactive games. A common activity that Speech and Language Pathologists use often includes bubbles. Bubbles can be used to prompt, or generate, the production of new words simply by repeating the word “bubbles”. Bubbles can also be used to elicit production of environmental sounds, such as imitating the sound of a bubble popping ("pop). Additionally, bubbles can be used as a reinforcement for children during the production of speech sounds. Each time that your child produces a sound correctly, you can blow and pop bubbles!
Additional activities that can be used to promote speech sound development include the use of board games as a reinforcement for production of speech sounds printed out and used as playing cards, playing “I spy” at home by solely identifying the sounds that your child is working on (e.g., only targeting items/objects that begin with a /k/ sound, such as cat, cup, kitchen).
Activities that can be used to promote language development include the use of familiar toy stimuli such as blocks or plastic cups to engage your child in using single words (e.g., “up”, “down”) or activities without the use of toys. You can find a spot at the end of a hallway at home and simulate a “race” with your child by using the phrase “Ready, set, GO”. Have your child wait until you say “go” each time to run. Then, fade out the word by producing the phrase “Ready.. set..” and have your child to try “GO”.
