Eight Fun Screen-Free Activities for Better Language
As schools are starting back, there is no doubt that for a majority of kids there will be an increase in screen time due to virtual learning during COVID-19. Since children will be spending more time with educational screen time, parents should try to limit passive screen time as best you can when they are not using it for academic purposes. The American Academy of Pediatrics provided updated recommendations regarding screen time for children. For children under 18 months of age, they recommend no screen time and for children from 18months to 5 years of age, they recommend no more than an hour of screen time a day (see blog post on ASHA’s website about Balancing Screen Time). I’ve put together a list of some activities to keep you busy on the weekends that will help you step away from those screens!
Pool or Water Table
Who doesn’t love splashing around in some water?! Especially when the temperature gets so hot that it’s not enjoyable to be outside unless you’re around water. Utilizing activities that you do on a regular basis is a great way to introduce new language skills while building on skills they already have. Use the expansion technique when your child is talking about what they are doing at the pool/water table. For example, your child picks up the toy fish, throws it in the water, and says “fish”. Take this opportunity to expand on what they said → “yes it’s a fish, fish is swimming, look at the fish swim, fish is swimming down”. Discuss basic concepts with your child as you play in the water and talk about in/out, full/empty, wet/dry. Show them different examples for each concept you introduce. VERBS VERBS VERBS. Use all the action words while playing!! “Pour, splash, mix, scoop, swim, dive, jump”. Another great skill to work on is making predictions. Will an object float or sink? Even if your child isn’t old enough yet to make predictions themselves, use this time to think out loud and let your child hear your thought process → “hmmm here’s a leaf. I wonder if this will float or sink? It seems pretty light so I think it’s going to float” → and then demonstrate how the leaf floats.
Scavenger Hunt
This will be a great activity, especially for families with several children at home! This can be done a couple of different ways. Both options can be done indoor or outdoor, searching for household items, or items in nature. Option 1- prepare ahead of time and create a checklist on paper that your kid can carry around with them while they go on the hunt. You can write the word of what they need to find, draw a picture of it, or print off pictures of the items. Option 2- requires no planning in advance and no materials. Stand at “home base” and call out an item for the kids to find. The first one back to you with that item wins the round! Once everyone has completed the scavenger hunt and has the items they found, one by one go through the different items and have each child give a description of their item. Lay them out side by side and begin comparing and contrasting the differences between them. Talk about textures, size, shape, color, etc. For example, if each kid had to find a rock, child A’s rock may be smooth, gray, round, and little but child B’s rock is sharp, brown, rectangular, and big!
Take a Walk
Whether it be just a quick walk in the neighborhood, a trip to the park, or making a day of it and going on a destination hike, get outdoors with your kids! Play a game of iSpy as you’re walking and have your child name the items that you describe. Then give your child a chance to be in the lead and describe objects to you. This is a great way to enhance their language skills! Another game you can incorporate into your walk is the 5 senses game. Have your child tell you about something they hear, smell, taste, see, and feel. Use this time to engage in conversation with your child and increase sentence production. Ask open-ended questions like “What do you see in the tree?” instead of “Do you see the tree?”. Make observations about what you see saying “I wonder what this is” and then describing things about what you see. Talk out loud about what you see and hear as you walk and encourage your child to do the same!
Reading
BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS. Reading is one of the best ways to promote language and literacy skills. Get a library card and start checking out books on a regular basis. For younger kids, get books that have lots of repetitive phrases. As you read them over and over, your child will begin to engage in the book reading with you. For the repetitive phrases, pause and let your child finish the phrase or say it with you. They will love feeling like they’re helping you read the book. As your child gets older and is learning to read, let them read the stories to you. Make it a fun experience where they get to go to the library or look online and pick out the book they want to get. This way they are involved in the whole process and will be more excited to spend time reading. The more you read to your child when they are younger, the more success they will have with reading comprehension later on in their school age years!
Picnic
A great way to get out of the house is to have a picnic! Get with your child and make a plan by asking questions: “What should we eat/drink?” “Where should we go?” “What do we need to pack?” If they’re able, let them list off things you need to get together for the picnic. Have them help you make the food. This is a great time to work on following directions and sequential concepts by telling them to go get things you need to pack: “First get the napkins”, “Now get the water bottles”, “Next we need the sandwiches”.
Sprinklers
This is another great water activity for those hot days! Practice listening skills and following directions. Give specific instructions for how your child should go through the sprinkler: “Hop through the water”, “Go slow like a turtle through it”, “Count to 5 then run through”. Build turn-taking skills by having the children take turns with who runs through. For younger kids use the repetitive phrase “ready set go” each time they are about to run through the water. After several times, pause before you say “go” and encourage them to complete the phrase!
Bubbles
Bubbles are one of my favorite therapy activities!! They are so simple yet you can incorporate so much language into them. These are great for children just learning to talk because they are so motivating. Have your child request using their words (or take this time to introduce simple sign language): “open”, “more”, “bubbles”, “pop”, “please”. Use bubbles as a reward for completing an activity they don't want to do. Introduce new verbs/concepts to them while blowing the bubbles: go, blow, pop, big, little, lots, few, etc. You can also incorporate turn taking skills by allowing your child to take a turn blowing the bubbles. Your child will love being given the opportunity to blow bubbles for you to pop!
Weekly Snacktime
Pick one day of the week that you and your child make a fun snack together! Get on the computer or pull out a cookbook (if you still have one of those!) and pick out a special treat to make. Start off by sitting down with your child and making a plan for the snack. Ask them “What should we make?” “What do we need?” “What step comes first?”. This will work on following directions as you read through the steps and talk about how to make the snack. As you pull out the ingredients ask your child WH-questions (what, where, when) about the items and discuss the answers. If they answer incorrectly, offer them choices of 2 different answers. Then discuss why the correct answer is true. Introduce sequential concepts such as first, then, before, and after as you follow the instructions! Talk about everything you do out loud and use lots of adjectives. Have your child describe the items too (hot, sweet, salty, cold, sour, etc). You get to spend all of this precious time with your child and get a sweet treat to enjoy too!
We are in the middle of a pandemic, and with that comes stress and uncertainty. With the inevitable increase in screen time, I encourage you to focus on the content the screens are providing and use it to engage with your child. As they watch videos, ask them questions about what they are watching, make predictions about what is going to happen, and recall events. And then when you are able, take some time to step away from the tv/tablet/phone/computer screens and spend some quality time with your children! Children learn best when they are playing! Your child will cherish the memories they made playing with you and going on fun adventures much more than the hours they spent watching TV or playing video games.