Creative Ideas to Support Speech and Language

Ages 2-3 years:

Children 2-3 years old are learning how to understand and use language to communicate with other people. We expect that they can understand a variety of simple 2-step directions and that they can understand words for a wide range of objects, people, places, and actions. They are typically using at least 75 words on their own and starting to put together phrases and sentences of at least 2-3 words to gain attention, ask for things, comment on activities and things that happen at school, protest, and ask questions (lots of “What’s this?”). We expect that they are interested in listening to stories and reading books that contain simple phrases and familiar sequences, and that they can remember their favorite parts of the story.

General Tips:

• Use clear, simple speech that is easy to understand and imitate.
• Show your child that you are interested in what he or she says to you by repeating what he or she has said and expanding on it. For example, if your child says, "pretty flower," you can respond by saying, "Yes, pretty flower. The flower is bright red. It smells good. Do you want to smell the flower?"
• Let your child know that what she or he has to say is important to you by asking him or her to repeat things that you do not completely understand. For example, "I know you want a block. Tell me again which block you want."

Early Literacy:

• Introduce new vocabulary through reading predictable books that have a few words or a simple sentence on each page (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?, If You Give  a Mouse a Cookie, Goldilocks and the Three Bears).
• Name objects and describe the picture on each page of the book.
• Create books: Look at family photos and name the people. Use simple phrases/sentences to describe what is happening in the pictures (e.g., "Sam swims in the pool"). Write simple words or appropriate phrases under the pictures. For example, "I can swim," or "Happy New Year!" Your child will begin to understand that reading is oral language in print.
• Demonstrate to children that the printed word has meaning: label containers of different toys in the classroom, put labels on different parts of the play kitchen, and label children’s photographs with their names.

      Naming and Describing:

• Naming:
  • Put objects into a mystery box and have the child remove one object at a time, saying its name. You repeat what the child says and expand upon it: "That is a comb. Sam combs his hair."
  • “Cook” and “eat” in a play kitchen. Talk about each food that you are “cooking”, ask for specific items in the kitchen to see if the child understands what you are asking for (this activity can be used with any pretend play theme- store, pet shop, etc.).
• Categorizing/Sorting:
  • Take the objects from the bucket and help your child group them into categories (e.g., clothes, food, drawing tools). This works very well during clean-up routines!
  • Use a variety of stickers and encourage children to pick out all of one category (animals, food, vehicles, etc.) to put onto their papers. Practice naming the pictures, using gestures and speech to show how you use the items or to demonstrate salient characteristics.
  • Magnet boards: These are wonderful for sorting and the colorful scenes are very engaging for this age group.
• Describing: Expand the words you use when describing; e.g., instead of always using the word “big,” use other vocabulary words that are synonyms (huge, large, etc.). Use objects or pictures to demonstrate concepts by sorting. Use objects to demonstrate spatial relationships (under, on top, behind, next to, etc.).
• Ask Questions and Give Choices:
  • Ask your child questions that require a choice, rather than simply a "yes" or "no" answer. For example, rather than asking, "Do you want milk? Do you want water?", ask, "Would you like a glass of milk or water?" Be sure to wait for the answer, and reinforce successful communication: "Thank you for telling me what you want. I will get you a glass of milk."
  • Strengthen your child's language comprehension skills by playing the yes-no game "Are you a boy?" "Is that a zebra?" "Is your name Joey?
  • Begin to ask wh- questions with manipulatives- e.g., when playing with a dollhouse, ask where the child has placed objects, who is in a particular room, where the bed is, etc.- This works with any themed playset.
• Music, Rhymes, and Circle Time (helps develop attention, turn-taking, vocabulary, processing and storing information, social skills):
  • Sing songs, play finger games ("Where is Thumbkin?"), and tell nursery rhymes ("Hickory Dickory Dock"). These songs and games introduce your child to the rhythm and sounds of language.
  • Sing a “name song” where each child in the circle has to say their name on the teacher’s request.
  • Use puppets to act out stories
  • Felt or magnet boards- Children can follow instructions incorporating object names, position concepts, other descriptors.

Ages 3-4:

Children 3-4 years old are becoming more competent and creative language users. They are interested in longer pretend play schemes, books with longer sequences and multiple characters, and relating stories to their own lives. They can begin to hold more “adult-like” conversations and use language to solve problems and negotiate with other people.

• Early Literacy:
  • Use books that have a simple plot and talk about the story line with your child.

(Pete the Cat- easy wh- questions and predictions

  Company’s Coming- simple plot, relatable themes)

• Continue to encourage book creating, talking about being authors, using titles, putting an illustration on each page. Blank templates work well, but allowing children to use completely blank paper is also age-appropriate.
• Phonemic awareness: Create letter books filled with pictures of things starting with each letter. Compile throughout the school year and put together for a wonderful final product! (Eva’s book)
• Sequencing activities: Have children sort pictures showing sequences with three parts- start simple with familiar routines. This is a great file folder activity. It is even more engaging with photos of kids doing things around the classroom! (list ideas re: classroom routines)
• Show children different uses of writing and reading by calling attention to your writing a list or reading from other environmental print sources.
• Naming and Describing:
  • Sorting: Cut out pictures from old catalogs or magazines. Have children sort them and either Velcro laminated options in file folders (reusable activity) or make a collage with glue and paper.
  • Sort pictures and items into categories, but increase the challenge by “foiling” them and placing items incorrectly; ask children to point out the item that does not belong in a category. For example, a baby does not belong with a dog, cat and mouse. Tell your child that you agree with his or her answer and state why (because a baby is not an animal).
  • Collage:Make silly pictures by gluing parts of different pictures together in an improbable way. For example, glue a picture of a dog to the inside of a car as if the dog is driving. Help your child explain what is silly about the picture.
  • Look at family pictures, and have your child explain what is happening in each one.
  • Show and Tell!
  • “Guess What?”: describe a familiar object with two simple descriptors for the child to guess—“I have a picture of something that is round and that bounces. What is it?” (Ned’s Head, Headbandz game, objects chosen from a bucket/box, or cards with pictures for children to choose from- touch and feel cards are wonderful)
  • Help your child to retell a story or act it out with props and dress-up clothes. Tell him or her your favorite part of the story and ask for his or her favorite part.
  • Pretend play: Expand on social communication and storytelling skills by "acting out" typical scenarios (e.g., cooking food, going to sleep, or going to the doctor) with a dollhouse and its props or in a game of charades. Do the same type of role-playing activity when playing dress-up.
  • Expand vocabulary and the length of your child' s utterances by reading, singing, talking about what you are doing and where you are going, and saying rhymes.
• Asking Questions:
  • Asking “who”, “what”, “where,” “when”, and simple “why” questions about books that you have read with your child, activities in the classroom, and experiences at home. Start to ask questions about what future events might be: “What kind of food will Mommy make?”, “Who do you sit with at Seder?”
  • Magnet or felt boards, dollhouse, farmhouse, etc.- Ask who, what, where questions about the child’s placement of objects. This can be done as a group!
• Music, Rhymes, and Circle Time:
  • Put each child’s photo on a popsicle stick and ask the class to determine if he or she is at school today. If the child is at school, he or she can move the photo to the “school” picture. If the child is at home, another student can move the photo to the “home” picture.
  • Puppets, felt boards, magnet boards are all appropriate for this age range as well.
• As always, ask your child to repeat what he or she has said if you do not understand it completely. Say directly, “Tell me again; I want to know what you are saying.” This shows that what he or she says is important to you.

Ages 4-5:

Children 4-5 years old are using more complex and descriptive language to learn about and change their environment. Though they may not have a concrete understanding of time, they talk about things that have happened in the past and will happen in the future, as well as things they cannot see. They may seek adult assistance, but they are becoming more adept at using communication to negotiate social interactions and solve problems.

• Early Literacy:
  • Read stories with easy-to-follow plots (Clifford, Knuffle Bunny, etc.).
  • Talk about use of titles, illustrations, and text on each page.
  • Help your children predict what will happen next in the story. Act out the stories and put on puppet shows of the stories.
  • Have each child draw a picture of a scene from the story or of a favorite part- template pages with box for illustration and lines for text work well for this task. You can do the same thing with videos and television shows, as these also have plots.
  • Photocopy a few pages (depending on level of difficulty) from a story you’ve recently shared with the class; allow students to sequence them and then retell the story (laminate+Velcro for a reusable option). This task can be made more challenging by asking students to add text.
  • Ask "wh" questions (who, what, when, where, or why) to monitor his or her understanding.
  • Children as authors: Talk about fiction and non-fiction. Help children plan what they would like to write about and guide them through book creation, encouraging a picture and any form of text on each page (write text dictated by children if asked to do so). Books created at this age tend to be simple and short.
• Naming and Describing:
  • Sorting:
    • Continue forming and explaining categories (fruits, furniture, shapes) by sorting toys in baskets. More fun: Glue pictures of items in each category on strips of construction paper and make “category chains,” which you can then hang on the wall or from the ceiling. Talk about which category has the greatest number of items/is the longest.
    • Incorporate Basic Concepts: Sort items by pointing out more subtle differences between objects (e.g., objects that are smooth vs. those that are rough, heavy vs. light, big vs. small). Again, have your child identify the object that does not belong in a given category, but now ask him or her to explain why the item does not belong.
  • Describing/Comparing:
    • Take out familiar objects and offer a description or clues about one of them; have your child identify what you are describing.
    • Play "I Spy": "I spy something round on the wall that you use to tell the time." After your child guesses what you have described, have him or her give you clues about something that he or she sees.
    • Basic Concepts Scavenger Hunt:Create cards with descriptors for children to choose from- choose age-appropriate basic concepts like heavy/light, big/little, soft/hard and have children find items in the classroom that are examples of these. Children can work independently or in teams.
    • Point out things that are the same or different. Play games incorporating these concepts that he or she will encounter later in the classroom in reading readiness.
    • Offer objects and have students detect what is the same or different about them.
    • Same/Different Scavenger hung: Go on a hunt for same and different items around the classroom.
  • Dramatic Play:
    • Expand on social communication and narration skills (telling a story) by role-playing. Play house, doctor, and store using dialogue, props, and dress-up clothes. Do the same with a dollhouse and its props, acting out scenarios and making the dolls talk.
    • Play age-appropriate board games and card games with the child (e.g., Memory, Go Fish, Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders).
    • Have the children help you plan and discuss daily activities. For example, have him or her make a list for an art project, plan for snack time, plan for going outside, plan for field trips, shopping list for the grocery store, or help you plan his or her birthday party. Ask his or her opinion: "What do you think your cousin would like for his birthday? What kind of fruit do we need to buy at the store?" “What should we remember to bring on our field trip?”
  • Asking Questions:
    • Ask children to describe events, experiences (great to use after a holiday or vacation), and stories. Start with basic information, but also include higher-level questions—“How did she feel when that happened? Why?”, “What will happen next?”
    • Help promote the use of more than 1-word responses by asking “Tell me more about _____,” or giving examples from your own experiences: “This weekend I watched a movie with my family. What did you do?”
    • Brainstorming activities: ask the class to help you make a list of all the words that they can think of related to your classroom’s lesson or theme. “When I think of Passover/Winter/Vacation/Hanukkah, I think of ______.” (higher level categorizing work!)

• Music, Rhymes, and Circle Time:
  • Children at this age can vote on simple classroom decisions, such as which book to read, which snack will be served, what color cups to use, or what a new dramatic play area in the classroom should be.
  • Children can respond to questions about connecting their experiences with those of other children in the class or experiences depicted in a book: “Ethan uses a blanket to help him fall asleep. What do you use to help you fall asleep?” or “Sarah went to the museum with her grandmother. Where have you gone with your grandmother?”
  • Children can use simple scripts to talk about and solve problems with their friends (Bugs and Wishes-“It bugs me when….I wish you would…”).

Ages 5-7:

Children 5-7 years old are expected to use their communication skills in different ways, including discussing ideas and giving opinions. We expect them to be able to pay attention to one thing for longer without being reminded, and to rely less on pictures and objects to learn new words. Their vocabularies are expanding rapidly and they are beginning to use their language skills in learning to read, write, and spell, and appreciate that words have multiple meanings.

·      Early Literacy:

• Look for early chapter books and chapter book series that include a range of characters and events: Nate the Great early mysteries, Frog and Toad, Amelia Bedelia, and Henry and Mudge adventures.
• The characters in these stories have different personalities and are learning to interact and solve problems together. Read portions of these books aloud to the class–it is a great way to:

·   introduce new vocabulary

·   talk about sequences of events

·   practice higher-order language skills, including drawing

inferences and making predictions (Ask questions like, “What do you think will happen next? Has something like this ever happened to you? How do you think [other character] feels? Has something like this ever happened to you?”)

Children as authors: Children in this age range begin to understand that books have a beginning, middle, and end. Talk about “small moments,” or experiences that were very significant to each child (losing a tooth, finding out mommy is expecting another baby, finding a lost toy) and encourage the child to write a book about that event/moment. Children in this age range can understand specific features of non-fiction books, such as captions, illustrations, titles, glossary, and table of contents. Inventive spelling is appropriate in this age range, but if the child asks, it is appropriate to help them figure out how to spell words. “All about me” books are wonderful for this age range.

·      Naming and Describing:

Children this age are able to understand jokes and riddles, like “Why did the chicken cross the playground?- To get to the other slide!”, “Why is 6 afraid of 7? –Because 7 8 9!”, and “What’s black and white, black and white, and black and white? – A penguin rolling down a hill!”

• Synonyms and Antonymsgames: Brainstorm as many synonyms as you can think of around a certain theme; challenge children to think of opposites.
• Factual knowledge– Play the same/different game by putting a variety of objects into a box or bag and allowing children to pull out two, then explain how they are the same and how they are different.
• I Spy– Play this game, but make it more difficult by asking children to supply three clues.
• Magnet Boards:Use these in barrier activities- two people have the same set and take turns describing where they are putting each piece. At the end, compare to see if they scenes look the same or different.

·      Asking Questions:

• Children can respond to a range of “wh-“ questions about stories and experiences: “Who?”, “What happened?”, “What do you think will happen next?”, “Where?”, “When?”, and “Why?”
• Yes/Nogame: students can think of an object and others can ask yes/no questions until they figure out what the object is. With younger children, play using only objects in the immediate environment; with older children, objects do not need to be there.
• Classroom Interviews:Children can learn to ask each other questions and “interview” each other about their interests: “What is your favorite fruit?”, “What is your favorite color?”, and then “introduce” their friend to the group: “This is Adam. His favorite fruit is apples and his favorite color is green.”
• Classmate Scavenger Hunt: giving kids a list of characteristics/attributes and asking them to find a classmate who matches each item (e.g., Who has brown hair? Who likes apples? Who has sisters? Who likes trains?). Children can fill in their friends’ names and get additional handwriting and spelling practice.

·      Music, Rhymes, and Circle Time:

• Use familiar melodies to write new songs to learn and remember facts about classroom themes
• Show and Tell with clues- Each child brings something special to share with the group and presents it by providing three clues and allowing classmates to guess what it is

Click here to download the class handout

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