Looking for ideas to practise your child’s speech and language skills at home? Then look no more! See below 5 home-based, no/low cost activities that will improve your child’s communication skills within the comfort of your home! The best part is that you do not need to buy any expensive resources or toys. You just need a bunch of household items and help with how to use them.
Free Speech Therapy? Yes, Please!
Free Speech Therapy? Yes, Please!
IMPORTANT: Apart from household items, you do need a particularly important tool, YOU! You will use your own language and knowledge to enrich your child’s speech and language skills by modelling key words, engaging in joint learning opportunities, and making new discoveries. One thing we know for sure is that; the more language a child has exposure to, the better they can imitate and learn new skills.
VERY IMPORTANT: These activities can be used with all ages (scroll all the way down for the Age Code) and are important for supporting their learning, having fun, and building engagement! They are not exams or tests of your child’s skills. So, try to avoid asking your child too many questions or forcing them to follow your lead.
Enjoy, Jemma Demasi (Speech Pathologist at Your Speech Room)
Activity 1
Household items: Containers, boxes, pots and pans
Taking turns: Take turns to add another container to the stack and together count how many containers are in your stacks.
Engagement: Knock your towers over, use anticipation to create joint play, say “ready, set....GO!” and add lots of sound effects “CRASH!” “BANG!” to create beautiful moments of fun.
Building vocabulary: Sort the containers, boxes, pots or pans by shape and colour, provide lots examples and model the vocabulary as you sort the objects together.
Prepositions: Use smaller toys to talk about in, on, under and next to concepts, for example “the car is under the yellow container!”. You could make it a game and take turns with your child to hide a toy for the other person to find.
Engagement: Knock your towers over, use anticipation to create joint play, say “ready, set....GO!” and add lots of sound effects “CRASH!” “BANG!” to create beautiful moments of fun.
Building vocabulary: Sort the containers, boxes, pots or pans by shape and colour, provide lots examples and model the vocabulary as you sort the objects together.
Prepositions: Use smaller toys to talk about in, on, under and next to concepts, for example “the car is under the yellow container!”. You could make it a game and take turns with your child to hide a toy for the other person to find.
Activity 2
Household item: Empty toilet paper rolls
Problem Solving: Tape two rolls together to make binoculars, take turns playing ‘I Spy’ out the window. Provide lots of modelling on how to use binoculars and moving them to find different objects out the window.
Building vocabulary: Make two pairs of binoculars and have a safari around your house or room. Use colour, shape and size vocabulary to describe all the exciting objects and things you find, for example “Wow!! I see a big yellow giraffe! What can you see?”.
Building vocabulary: Make two pairs of binoculars and have a safari around your house or room. Use colour, shape and size vocabulary to describe all the exciting objects and things you find, for example “Wow!! I see a big yellow giraffe! What can you see?”.
Activity 3
Household items: NONE! Obstacle course around your home!
Why? Because movement is a wonderful way to not only have fun but also prime your child’s brain for learning.
Problem solving: Make a course with masking tape, string, couch cushions, boxes or chairs to create different obstacles, you could even make shapes, arrows and more using the tape to add exciting challenges to your course.
Prepositions: Talk about in, on, under and next to concepts as you make your way around to course “Jump into the square!” Or “I’m on the cushion!”
Problem solving: Make a course with masking tape, string, couch cushions, boxes or chairs to create different obstacles, you could even make shapes, arrows and more using the tape to add exciting challenges to your course.
Prepositions: Talk about in, on, under and next to concepts as you make your way around to course “Jump into the square!” Or “I’m on the cushion!”
Activity 4
Household items: Paints, pencils or arts and crafts
Literacy skills: Use whichever writing medium you have to work through the alphabet and talk about sounds vs letter names, for example “the is the letter A, it makes the sound ‘a’”. (For a bit of sensory fun, you could also try writing letters in shaving foam with your fingers or using chalk on pavement.)
Vocabulary: Together, go through a magazine or newspaper and cut out all the pictures starting with a letter, stick them all on a page and talk about both the sound and the letter name. Use lots of lovely vocabulary to talk about the colours, sizes and shapes of what you find.
Vocabulary: Together, go through a magazine or newspaper and cut out all the pictures starting with a letter, stick them all on a page and talk about both the sound and the letter name. Use lots of lovely vocabulary to talk about the colours, sizes and shapes of what you find.
Activity 5
Household items: NONE! Scavenger hunt!
Literacy skills: Write out all the letters onto pop sticks and have your child pull one out at a time, talk about the sound vs letter names. Take turns finding something in the room or the house that starts with the sound the letter makes.
Prepositions: Create a visual list using pen and paper of familiar object for your child, use a shopping bag or a box and together go and find the things on the list. Talk about where the object was hiding using in, on, under and next to concepts, for example “Teddy was under the blanket!”.
Vocabulary building: Set a theme for the hunt, for example ‘things that are pink’ or ‘leaves’ and together find things in the house or backyard that match that theme. Using your phone or camera help your child take photos of as many things as you can, look at all the photos when you are done and use lots of lovely vocabulary to talk about the colours, sizes and shapes of what you found.
Prepositions: Create a visual list using pen and paper of familiar object for your child, use a shopping bag or a box and together go and find the things on the list. Talk about where the object was hiding using in, on, under and next to concepts, for example “Teddy was under the blanket!”.
Vocabulary building: Set a theme for the hunt, for example ‘things that are pink’ or ‘leaves’ and together find things in the house or backyard that match that theme. Using your phone or camera help your child take photos of as many things as you can, look at all the photos when you are done and use lots of lovely vocabulary to talk about the colours, sizes and shapes of what you found.