Summer is here, offering the perfect opportunity to spend quality time with your children. This season is not only about fun and relaxation but also a great time to focus on your child’s speech and language development. These skills are crucial for forming meaningful relationships, expressing themselves effectively, and understanding others’ perspectives.
As a parent or caregiver, you play a vital role in teaching practical speech and language skills that contribute to your child’s social and emotional growth. Here are some engaging games to play with your child during summer vacation that will help boost their communication abilities while having fun together.
Playing these games helps children learn to articulate their thoughts, use descriptive language, expand their vocabulary, appreciate and respect others’ viewpoints, and enhance their critical thinking abilities. Additionally, it fosters strong, healthy relationships with their peers, family, and friends.
Granite Bay Speech has compiled a list of fun games you can play with your child to help their speech and language skills this summer!
1. Rhyme Time
Players take turns saying words that rhyme with the word given. Each player has a few seconds to think of a rhyming word, and the game continues until one player can’t think of a new rhyme. The player with the most rhymes at the end of the game wins.
What It Achieves: Rhyming is a core phonological awareness skill that is often lacking in children with dyslexia and other language-based disorders. Strengthen their rhyming abilities and give your child’s skills a boost!
2. Finish the Sentence
“Finish the Sentence” is an exciting game where one person starts a sentence, and the other person has to complete it. The first player can begin with any sentence they choose, and the second player must finish it in a way that makes sense.
What It Achieves: This game encourages creativity and imagination. This is a great way to see how your child structures their sentences. Proper grammar and syntax can be challenging for children with language disorders. You can model accurate grammar for them during this game.
3. Sound Chains
Players take turns saying words starting with the previous word’s last letter sound. The goal is to keep the chain going without repeating words or getting stumped.
What It Achieves: This is a fun way to build vocabulary, phonological awareness, articulation and critical thinking skills.
4. Word Association
In this game, one player says a word, and the others say the first thing that comes to mind. The game continues with the last word said.
What It Achieves: Associating words helps improve memory by creating mental links between concepts, making it easier to recall information. Additionally, by associating words with related concepts, children learn new words and their meanings, broadening their vocabulary.
5. Going On a Picnic
Players take turns adding to a list of items to bring to a picnic but can only add an item that starts with the next letter of the alphabet. The player has to repeat all the previous things that were said by other players.
What It Achieves: Use this game to increase your child’s auditory memory skills. Alternatively, you can use colors, or adjectives to be the topic, “List things that are red” “List things that make you laugh”
These are just a few of the many games available to help your child’s speech and language skills this summer and all year long.
Granite Bay Speech is here to support you and your child on the journey to better communication. If you suspect that your child may need some support in the areas of speech and language – don’t wait and see. Call Granite Bay Speech at 916-797-3307 and speak with a Licensed Speech Pathologist at no charge. Take the first step today, to better communication tomorrow!
