Summer Learning with Learnigo #2: Speech and Language Skills

Summer Learning with Learnigo #2: Speech and Language Skills

Summer Learning Made Fun: Let’s Keep Up Our Speech and Language Skills this Summer!

Did you know that June is Effective Communication Month? This month highlights the importance of all forms of communication and their power to connect us. And what a perfect time to focus on communication, with the summer months bringing new friendships and adventures, whether at home, summer camp, summer school, or on vacation!

Our previous Summer Series blog shared fun and easy ideas to enhance math skills while on summer break. In this blog, we’re sharing different activities that support speech and language skills using readily-available resources at home as well as some Learnigo activities (free with our 30-day trial)!

Early Intervention Speech and Language Skills

Use these activities to enhance foundational receptive (listening), expressive (speaking), and articulation skills for young children.

1) I-Spy: Work on categories and object function by playing a game of I Spy. For example, you can say: “I spy something you can find on a farm,” or “I spy something you use to eat soup.” Adjust the clues based on the child’s level.

2) Teamwork Story: Before starting, review the key parts of a story (e.g., character, setting, beginning, middle, and end). Then, one person begins the story by stating the character. The next person adds the setting. Each take turns providing the events that occurred in order until the story is complete. When finished, encourage the child to draw a picture of the story. Ask comprehension questions such as “who was the main character?” “Where did the story take place?” to enhance understanding.

3) Articulation Practice: For young students with speech sound errors, summer break is a crucial time to keep up with skills learned in speech therapy. Learnigo’s Articulation program provides an easy way to practice articulation skills, no matter what sound the child is working on. Part 1 of the program focuses solely on early developing sounds (/b/, /n/, /m/, /p/, /h/, /w/, /d/, /t/, /y/), with interactive activities and worksheets perfect for young children.

Early Elementary Speech and Language Skills

1) Summer Planning: Make a summer plan. Think about where you want to go (e.g., the beach), and gather the items (or make a list) of what you would need. Then, make a plan together. For example: “First, we need to…then…finally…” Feel free to make an invitation for this plan and share with a friend. Even better if this plan can actually be executed!

2) Articulation Art: First, choose a sound that the child is working to correct (if your child has a speech therapist, they can help with this)! Then, find items that have that sound. For example, if a child is working on “f,” see if you can find a feather in an arts-and-crafts box or outside. How many items can you find? If you can, make a collage with the items or printed-out pictures of the items.

3) Summer-themed Language Practice: Learnigo’s “Active Speech” program has over 800 activities that are specially designed to support expressive language skills. The summer unit–included in the program–has 20 summer-themed activities to target language skills such as vocabulary, story retell, and categories.

Older Elementary Speech and Language Skills

1) Where in the World? Research countries that don’t currently have summer weather. Have the child look up the country, find out the current temperature, and research why not all parts of the world have summer at the same time. Create a presentation to share with a family member or friend.

2) Articulation Army: Many older elementary students work on articulating the “r” sound correctly. In this activity, children can create their “articulation army” by drawing different soldiers and giving them a name with the “R” sound (for example: Sergeant Ronald, Soldier Ryan, etc.). If the child is working at the sentence or conversation level, they can expand the title to include the role each soldier plays in the army (with as many words that have “r,” of course!). For example: Sergeant Ronald helps carry artillery to the room.

3) Social Skills Practice: Learnigo’s “Speech in the Social Context” targets social skills such as perspective-taking, emotions, and figurative language. One activity we recommend for a rainy summer day is the Social Skills training unit, which asks students to formulate questions and come up with responses to various social situations.

To get this summer learning started, here is a free worksheet you can use to practice summer vocabulary. It is a two-player activity, so this can be a great opportunity to practice with a family member or new friend!

Happy Learning!

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