During a speech-language therapy session, we use many play-based activities that are also familiar in the home environment. With some clever – or maybe even obvious – enhancements to these activities, you can be using the same strategies at home to support your child in their speech, language, and overall communication development. In this Activity Feature series, we bring you tips and tricks on turning the activities you already know and love into fantastic (and fun!) learning opportunities.
Activity: Physical Play
Physical play is enjoyed by many children, and for some may be the most motivating and rewarding type of play. It can take many forms depending on the age and stage of the child, but could include activities such as:
- Peek-a-boo
- Chase/tag
- Being thrown into the air or onto a soft surface
- Tickling
- Dancing
- Sliding
- Climbing
- Jumping
- Catch
The advantages of physical play, beyond promoting healthy and fun ways to get the body moving, are that it is often most enjoyed in the company of others and provides many opportunities to practice early and foundational communication skills (though just about any activity can be expanded to address later, more complex skills!).
Skills Addressed
Here you will find specific examples of how to use physical play to encourage language development. However, keep in mind that simply playing together, whether or not you are working on a specific skill, will go far in supporting your child’s growth and development.
Pre-linguistic Communication: Before children begin talking, they communicate using eye gaze or gestures. Look for “joint attention” (making eye contact in anticipation of your actions or shifting eye gaze from you to an object of play) to signal a desire for more of an action (e.g., peek-a-book, being tickled, being thrown in the air). You can elicit joint attention by using exciting sound effects (e.g., gasping before tickling) or familiar phrases with a pause (e.g., “Ready, set…”), as well as by drawing attention to your face (e.g., bring hands up near your face before continuing tickles).
Expressive Language: As children move beyond pre-linguistic communication, you can use physical play to begin to work on making verbal requests. Keep requests simple with single words (e.g., more) progressing to short phrases (e.g., more please, let’s play), to simple sentences (e.g., I want more, do it again, let’s play catch), to complex sentences (e.g., tickle my knee, throw me on the couch). Always provide your child examples of the next stage of verbal communication by adding 1-2 words to their request.
Receptive Language: Use physical play to practice comprehension of verbs (action words). Play Simon Says or describe their actions as you play (e.g., “Jump! You’re jumping so high!”). You can also work on body part vocabulary, such as with tickling (e.g., “I’m going to tickle your tummy!”) or dancing (e.g., “Stomp your feet! Wiggle your arms!”).
While these are only a few examples, with practice you can use physical play to address many other skills. To discover more ways to support your child’s growth using physical play and other activities – for the skills listed above as well as articulation, pragmatics, voice, resonance, fluency, AAC, and feeding – reach out to our pediatric speech-language therapy clinic located in Tukwila by calling (206) 458-5360.