Halloween Speech & Language Activities

Granite Bay Speech knows that Halloween is an exciting time for you and your children. Take advantage of this festive season to boost your child’s speech and language skills in fun and engaging ways! From practicing new vocabulary with costumes and decorations to encouraging conversations during trick-or-treating, our blog offers simple tips to turn Halloween activities into learning opportunities. Help your child develop their communication skills while enjoying all the spooky fun!

Halloween Recipe Narration

• Goal: Practice sequencing, following directions, and expanding vocabulary.
• What You Need: Ingredients for a simple recipe (like “Witch’s Brew” using juice, gummy worms, etc.).
• How to Play:
  • Have your child help you make the recipe. As you go through the steps, ask them to describe what you are doing (e.g., “First, we pour the juice.”).
  • Take turns giving each other instructions for each step.
  • Language Tip: If your child struggles with sequencing, offer visual cues (e.g., pictures of the ingredients in order). Afterward, ask them to retell the steps.

Monster Story Time

• Goal: Build narrative skills, practice descriptive language, and improve conversation skills.
• What You Need: A Halloween-themed book (e.g., Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson).
• How to Play:
  • Read a story together. After reading, ask questions like:
    • “What was your favorite part?”
    • “What would you do if you were the monster?”
  • Have your child help you create their own monster story. Encourage them to describe the monster’s appearance, actions, and feelings.
  • Language Tip: Prompt your child to use conjunctions (“and,” “but,” “because”) to make their sentences more complete.

Trick-or-Treat Role Play

• Goal: Practice social communication and greetings.
• What You Need: Dress-up costumes or hats.
• How to Play:
  • Pretend to go trick-or-treating. Take turns being the person giving candy and the trick-or-treater.
  • Practice greetings, asking for candy (“Trick or treat!”), saying thank you, and polite conversation (“I love your costume!”).
  • Language Tip: If your child struggles with social communication, use visual cues to remind them of what to say next.

Spooky I-Spy Game

• Goal: Build receptive language and attention to detail.
• What You Need: Halloween decorations around the house or use a Halloween-themed I-Spy picture.
• How to Play:
  • Take turns saying, “I spy with my little eye… something spooky!” and give clues like “It’s black and flies in the night.”
  • Your child will guess what the item is.
  • Language Tip: Encourage your child to describe what they see in detail to build expressive language skills.

Spider Web Obstacle Course (Giving Directions)

Goal: Improve receptive language by following multi-step directions.

• What You Need: String or yarn to make a web, or place pillows/obstacles around the room.
• How to Play:
  • Give your child instructions like, “Crawl under the web, jump over the pillow, and touch the wall.”
  • Switch roles and let your child give you directions!
  • Language Tip: This activity supports listening comprehension and using positional words like “under,” “over,” and “next to.”

Ghostly Articulation Practice

• Goal: Practice articulation targets (e.g., /r/, /s/, /sh/ sounds).
• What You Need: Paper ghosts with articulation target words written on them.
• How to Play:
  • Tape paper ghosts around the house with words on each ghost (e.g., ring, red, rest for /r/).
  • Each time your child finds a ghost, they must say the word three times. If they say it correctly, they “capture” the ghost.
  • Language Tip: You can extend the activity by asking them to use each word in a sentence.

Halloween Bingo

• Goal: Improve listening comprehension and vocabulary.
• What You Need: Halloween-themed bingo cards (use online templates or make your own).
• How to Play:
  • As you call out words or give clues (e.g., “Find something that a witch flies on”), your child will place a marker on their bingo card.
  • Language Tip: Ask your child to describe the item on their card when they get a match to build vocabulary and sentence structure.

Guess the Costume Game

• Goal: Practice asking questions and using deductive reasoning.
• What You Need: A list of Halloween costumes (e.g., vampire, mummy, princess, superhero).
• How to Play:
  • Take turns pretending to be a character in costume. The other person asks yes/no questions to guess the character.
  • Language Tip: Encourage your child to use full sentences when asking questions (e.g., “Does your character fly?”).