Continuing on from my last post 'Ideas to develop Language from being in Lockdown - Part 1: Toys and ways to use them' I felt it important to explore other areas where you can entertain and develop language at the same time.
Getting creative is always a challenge and the mess can be quite daunting so here are some things to try. I have tried to keep them to as little mess as possible - but let's be honest most kids love mess. So there are a few ideas at the end which may be a little messier!
Please note that I do not gain any financial or other incentives from you clicking on any of the links included in this post. I just wanted to provide links for you to find bits we love :-)
Lets get creative!
I hold my hands up... I find creative activities outside of drawing or stickers a real challenge (and even those can be frustrating to watch at points), so here are some fun ideas we have enjoyed at home which allow me to stay calm while supporting E to develop her language, attention and interaction skills:
Painting - the clean way!
So I found this idea on Pinterest and loved it. We gave it a go and it was so easy. Tip from having done this a few times, put clingfilm on the top and bottom of the page as it helps keep the table clean!
I involved E in all elements of the process, we decided which colours we wanted to use, big dots or small dots, more of a particular colour etc. You them simply lie a piece of clingfilm on top and let your child squish the paint around the page.
So how does this support speech and language? Well in lots of ways!
Attention: your child will be attending to a motivating activity and you will be doing something together which works on their joint attention.
Understanding: the simple questions you are asking with visual support repeatedly will help with their development of concepts of big/small, here/there, top/bottom, next to etc.
Spoken Language: lots of vocab which they may not have heard before will be used e.g. colours, sizes, locations and descriptive language such as "squash" and "squidgy".
Interaction: You can take turns in squashing different dots, have periods of mutual enjoyment, laughing and eye contact when doing this activity.
I have also tried making butterflies with this approach which was equally successful. You fold a page in half, draw half a butterfly and encourage your child to squash the paint around in the wings, body and head of the butterfly and then fold the paper in half and your done! Great for grandparents and other friends and family as little "we are thinking of you" pictures.
Making Musical Instruments
I described this in my last post 'Ideas to develop Language from being in Lockdown - Part 1: Toys and ways to use them' so take a look at that for more information.
Making Cards for friends and family
At the beginning of the first lockdown I bought a pack of these cards on Amazon. We have used them lots to create birthday cards, Christmas cards, thank you cards and to write letters to friends and family. E loves creating them for friends and family and you can use any type of creative talent/field you like.
To keep things simple we mostly use stickers and colouring (see outlined below) but you can also do some nifty things with hand prints to make things a bit more personalised.
A bit like with the 'Painting- the clean way' above you are developing a wide range of areas with these types of activities and creating new and exciting moments which you can discuss and develop over and over again.
Stickers and Colouring
We were given a few packs of stickers in E's stocking last year from my sister in law and they were brilliant; I have since bought the whole lot myself. E can pick them off the sheet herself, and as a bonus they come off of the paper really easily so you can stick them back on the plastic sheet and use them again (if not using for a card or something you are giving to someone).
E and I discuss which theme she is going to go for (sometimes it is multiple) and a colour of paper and pens etc. I'm not expecting E to know all her colours at this stage but by modelling them and giving her choices she makes decisions herself. E will sit independently, or with me doing colours and stickers for a varied amount of time but it provides plenty of opportunity for discussion and interaction.
So areas which you can work on speech and language development while doing these activities:
Attention: extending your child's attention to complete activities independently or joint attention to complete the task together - both as important as each other.
Understanding: you can work on understanding and awareness of a whole range of categories (animals, vehicles, foods etc - the stickers) and concepts (big/small, next to, over, under etc) and by giving choices start to develop their understanding of colours and shapes.
Spoken Language: as with understanding you can increase your child's range of vocabulary, encourage use of descriptive language and sentence formation by modelling back sentences which don't sound quite right or have words missing.
Interaction: joint enjoyment of an activity and completion together.
Sticker Scenes
The above activity can be quite wasteful but we were given (again by my very clever sister in law) this reusable sticker book. You can choose your scene and the animals you want to put in it and just go for it. The speech and language development are pretty similar to above so I won't list them again. This is something we return to again and again.
If you don't have one of these books you could create your own version using paper and any animals, people or vehicles you have at home. We have recently enjoyed making a road out of paper and pushing all our Duplo cars around it.
Mud Drawing
When out on a walk we have started mud drawing. Quite simply it is taking a stick and drawing a picture in the mud. If there are two of you then one person can go on ahead and draw something while the other walks with your child to find the drawing. Many a fun walk has been enhanced by this activity.
In terms of speech and language development it is a way for you to introduce a whole range of vocabulary, develop joint attention skills in the same activity and supporting your child to start linking vocabulary together into categories in their head, especially if you step it up by asking them to think of something from the same category for you to draw next (e.g. if you have drawn a cat face then ask them to think of another animal you can draw).
Water Painting
We got shown this by an early years practitioner from E's nursery and I have to say it is brilliant, especially in the summer. Take a paint brush and a cup of water and get drawing on your patio. No mess, the water dries and you'd never know. You could add chalk to the mix if you wanted to make it more fun, just a spray of the hosepipe afterwards will get rid of it.
E enjoys it as she can draw something and we talk about it and then will move onto something else and then run back and its gone. All very exciting!
Again, similar themes for speech and language development as above lots of help with joint attention, vocabulary development and increasing those backwards and forwards conversations.
Playdough
There are so many playdough recipe's out there which you can try. In the past I have used this one and tried multiple others. I quite liked this one as I had everything in my cupboard and it was simple. We could create it together and you can make it as many different colours (food colouring from the baking cupboard) or smells as you like (yes smells - you can add in herbs or essential oils to make it smell different if you want).
My lovely brother gave E a whole set of playdough premade so we are playing with this at the moment rather than ones we make. We have a set of playdough shapes which I picked up in a sale in a toy shop but you can use any cutters, plastic knives to cut, tubes to roll... the more real life it is the better to be honest.
So what can you do? Playdough gives you lots of great vocabulary opportunities. You can describe what you are doing (squishing, squashing, rolling, pushing) or what you have made (animals, sausages, snails, spirals) and model colours, shapes sizes and much much more. As with most activities it encourages joint attention and interaction through requesting.
The Messy Bit
Don't get scared... if your anything like my husband the prospect of mess is terrifying. Here are a few ideas which you can try at home (with minimal mess) which are engaging and will promote lots of talking and interaction.
Shaving Foam Spat
This idea came from the amazing Gina Davies - Attention Autism originally as part of the training that I attended, but you can use it at home as well. It sounds (and is if you want it to be) messy. It is a simple as it sounds. Big bowl/bucket/washing up bowl of shaving foam and you get some items, drop them from a height and watch them go spat. E loves it because it involves mess but it can also be a great activity to play and develop language in the following areas:
Attention: joint attention to an activity of mutual interest.
Spoken Language: lots of vocab and short phrases and you drop different items into the foam and descriptive words as to what is happening e.g. "wow bit splodge!"
Interaction: You can take turns in dropping items in, saying "ready steady go", negotiating what can and can't go in the foam etc.
I did this in the bath once which worked well, or out in the garden with a plastic sheet on the floor. The reason I love it is that its something most households have at home, or is very cheap to add to the shopping list (get the cheapest basic one you can) and everything else you have e.g. animals, blocks, cars and other vehicles. If you want to make it even more exciting (and you are feeling brave) you can add other things into the foam like paint and glitter.
Finger Painting
Although the prospect of painting is scary, finger painting can be a nice way to still have the experience but in a slightly less crazy are we going to get paint up the walls. We got given one of these books for E's birthday and although great in principle she doesn't quite get it yet. However the pads of finger paint are great. You can let them push into all the different colours and create a mess on the page with relative freedom. If the ideas of colours mixing is terrifying you just have a wipe ready and give their fingers a quick wipe between colours and that should reduce the amount of mess.
Speech and language input is the same as most of the discussion above.
The end I promise
So again I mean the main thing I wanted to convey in this post is that there are so many opportunities in your house to have lots of fun, waste periods of time (important at the moment when you are just trying to get from one day to the next in lockdown) and give you plenty of opportunities to develop your child's language, play, understanding, attention and listening and general communication skills.
I have decided to post 4 parts to this blog post (as otherwise it would be ridiculously long)... coming up are the following:
Ideas to develop Language from being in Lockdown - Part 3: Books... you'd don't just have to read them.
Ideas to develop Language from being in Lockdown - Part 4: TV can be okay.
If you missed it before the post before this was:
Ideas to develop Language from being in Lockdown - Part 1: Toys and ways to use them.
All of them are ideas for keeping your little ones entertained at home while developing all the different areas of their speech, language and communication.
As always if you have any concerns about your child's language skills I offer a free 20 minute telephone consultation to discuss any concerns. Just visit my website for my contact details.
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