Tips for Beating Cabin Fever with Fun Speech and Language Activities for Kids
Winter weather often means spending more time indoors, which can be challenging for both kids and parents. As a pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist, I understand the importance of keeping children engaged and learning, even when they’re stuck indoors. Here are some creative and educational activities you can do with your child to promote speech and language development:
Create Your Own Indoor Scavenger Hunt
One of the best ways to turn a snowy day indoors into a fun learning experience is through an indoor scavenger hunt. This activity not only keeps children active but also encourages them to use and develop their speech and language skills.
Speech Sounds Practice: Choose a target sound (e.g., /p/ sound) and challenge your child to find objects around the house that start with that sound. For example, “Can you find something that starts with the /p/ sound? Like pickles, pillow, purse, piggy…” This activity helps reinforce sound production and discrimination.
Language Concepts Exploration: Explore different language concepts such as attributes (soft, small, cold, blue), functions (something you wear, something you read, something you play with), and categories (things found in the kitchen, bedroom, etc.). For instance, “Find something that is soft. Where did you find it? Can you think of other soft things?”
Narrative Building: Encourage storytelling by discussing objects found during the scavenger hunt. For example, “You found your stuffed bunny! Where did you find it? What are other toys you have in your room? If bunny were to go outside in the snow today, what do you think he would do? Let’s make up a story about bunny’s snow day!” This helps in developing narrative skills, creative thinking, inferencing and perspective taking.
Uno Reverse!
Turn the tables and have your child create a scavenger hunt for you! This not only lets them practice their creativity but also challenges them to think critically about categorization, sequencing, and descriptive language. You can take turns being the seeker and the guide, making the activity interactive and enjoyable for both of you.
Benefits of Indoor Activities
Engaging in indoor activities like scavenger hunts not only helps in speech and language development but also fosters cognitive skills such as problem-solving, attention to detail, and vocabulary expansion. These activities provide a structured way to spend quality time together while promoting learning in a relaxed and enjoyable environment.
Conclusion
Next time you find yourselves cooped up indoors due to bad weather, embrace it as an opportunity for fun and learning. Engage your child in interactive activities like indoor scavenger hunts to boost their speech and language skills while making lasting memories together. And, if you notice your child falling behind in their language development, don’t hesitate to contact me at Small Talk, LLC for an evaluation. I use play-based therapy to make each session enjoyable and effective, and I am committed to helping your child reach their individual oral-motor, feeding, speech, and language needs.
About Marci Britt
Marci Britt is an ASHA certified Speech-Language Pathologist at Small Talk, LLC. She has been working with children in a private practice setting for over 20 years and is trained in Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT), Beckman oral-motor techniques, the Affect-Based Language Curriculum (ABLC) approach, Rapid Prompting Method (RPM), and neurodevelopmental treatment (NDT) techniques.