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.