• Language Activities for Practice at Home

    Language

    • Create a mystery box. Place items in a pillowcase or cardboard box with a cut out big enough for the child to reach into. Have the child reach in, choose one item, and try to guess what it is. You may have the child close his eyes for this game to rely only on the way the item feels. Once a guess has been made, you can talk about why the child made his particular guess.
    • Encourage your child to “read” the pictures in a book to you. Prompt by asking some open - ended questions about what is happening and what may happen next.It may be helpful to restate a child’s statement to correct a grammatical mistake (“Him go” “He goes”) or model another appropriate word (“The boy in the bath.”“He is in the bath”).

    Vocabulary

    • Reading aloud to your child allows your child to hear new and less common words
    • Have the child find a particular picture within a larger picture to work on understanding new words
    • When you are teaching a new word, provide information about that word. Tell what it does, when you use it, who would use it, where it would be found, etc.

    Basic Concepts

    • For teaching basic concept vocabulary, choose one word within a basic concept. For example, you could choose “in”. Then find all the things you can that are “in” something else. This can be a game like “I Spy”
    • Another way to teach or reinforce basic concepts is to identify the concepts in the natural environment. For example, point to bird in the tree or a cat hiding behind a couch.
    • During snack time, put different numbers of small snack foods into different piles to teach quantity concepts of more, less, equal, etc.

    Listening

    • Have your child help with the shopping. You can ask your child to remember certain items that are needed in the store
    • Play a following directions game by giving your child a direction then watching to see if he does it correctly. Ask him to move to different places within a room or act out a movement to keep interest. Once the child understands the game, he can start to give you some directions to follow. If you give this game a crazy name the child will be more interested. Start with one - step or one element and increase as the child becomes more skilled.
    • Ask questions about a story that has been read or about a shared activity