Spring is here and Easter is just around the corner. Whether you celebrate or not, one thing that is typically readily available in most stores this time of year is a pack of plastic Easter eggs. These eggs are a gold mine for articulation, language, and literacy practice. Not only can your children engage in excellent communication practice, they can have fun in the process! Below is a list of just 4 simple ways you can practice articulation, language and literacy skills with the eggs.
1. Place pictures or objects with your child’s target speech sound in the eggs
If your child is currently receiving speech therapy, your speech-language pathologist should be notifying you of sounds that your child should be practicing. So, for example, if your child needs to practice the “L” sound, find pictures or objects with “L” and put them in the eggs. Hide the eggs around your house or yard and as your child finds and opens them, s/he needs to name the item using his/her sound. Depending on your child’s level, s/he may just need to name the word (e.g., “lion”). However, if your child is more advanced in his/her speech practice, s/he can practice putting the word in a sentence (e.g., “The lion is scary”).
If your child is not in speech therapy, but has trouble pronouncing different letter sounds, check out my blog post Introduction to Speech Sound Development to see what sounds your child should be saying for his/her age.
2. Put a variety of colored eggs in a clear bag/container
Show your child all of the eggs in the bag/container and ask him/her what s/he wants. During this activity, you can practice words like more, please, open, close, egg so that your child can request what s/he wants. Additionally, you can work on combining words. For example, your child can practice saying more eggs, open the egg, close the egg, etc.
3. Hide eggs around the house/yard
Describe the location of a hidden egg so that your child has to find it. For example, you could say something like, “There’s an egg under the big, green bush.” By providing this type of instruction, your child is learning different words and practicing following specific instructions.
4. Place words with phonetic spelling inside the eggs
Words with phonetic spelling are words that are spelled the way that they sound, such as “cup.” Place these types of words inside the eggs and then hide the eggs. As your child finds the eggs, have him/her sound out the word that is written.
I hope this quick list gave you some inspiration on simple and engaging activities you can use to encourage communication.