Transforming Daily Routines with Play and Language!

For some of us parents, it can be quite challenging to set aside specific play time with our young ones. As I have mentioned in my previous blog post, play and language development go hand-in-hand. And let’s be honest - young children require a lot of attention and energy to begin with! How can we find additional time for playing with them?

 
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In reality, the easiest way to stimulate your child’s language development is to incorporate play and interactive activities into your children's daily routines. How can you do this? Here are some ideas you can try in your everyday life:

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Bath Time

  • Act silly intentionally about putting soap on his/her body - “soap on your arm?” but put soap on the tummy instead. 

  • Sing songs about the actions (This is the way we wash our hair…)

  • Play hide and seek with the shampoo and soap, do bath time for the duckie and bath toys.

  • Make a story about the bath toys (make voices for the characters, create a story together).

  • Fish for the bath toys with a shovel or a net (where is the ducky?), catch the ducky if you can or create a treasure hunt for the lost bath toy!

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Changing Time

  • Treasure hunt for the clothes (shirt, pajamas, socks) and describe locations when he/she finds them.

  • Be silly and try to put the clothes on the wrong body parts.

  • Put on lotion and clothes with a song to describe the actions (put your right leg in and shake it all about). 

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Snack Time

  • Include your kids in preparing the snack (cutting or opening the snack and pouring it into bowls).

  • Cut the snacks into pieces to encourage requesting. 

  • Make stick figures or smiley faces on the plate with the pieces (smileys can have different emotions to encourage discussion).

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Driving in the car

  • Play games like “I Spy” about things inside and outside the car

  • Play “Guess What?” about different objects, for example “This is a type of farm animal, it gives us milk and says moo.” Model the clues for young children initially and then scaffold their clues when it’s their turn.

 

I hope this gives you some ideas about how to stimulate language development for your young ones through games and activities that are not complicated and don’t require too much preparation.  

Let me know in the comments section if any of these ideas worked out for you or if there are other fun games that work for you! Parenting is hard work - let’s make it easier to be great parents!

Always remember to have fun! :)

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The Power of a Parent

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Language Stimulation can be Fun!