Three Ways to Use Dress Up Games to Target Speech Therapy Goals

by Holly F. Speech Therapy Techniques
dress up stats for children

Source: supportimagination.com

 

Every so often you meet a child that just loves costumes and characters. You know, the ones who will enviably grow up to be awared-winning entertainers? While it might seem like just a playful child activity, there is a lot of language that can be targeted during an afternoon of dress up. Both boys and girls seem to enjoy the experience of wearing funny hats and high heels while sometimes sporting accents or crazy stories about their characters. This also, as you can imagine, involves a great deal of pretend play, which we know is important to language development. Here are three ways to use dress up games to target speech therapy goals:

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Using Imaginative Play in Speech Therapy

by Holly F. Speech Therapy Techniques
importance of play graphic

Source: supportingimagination.com

 

Imagination is a key part to childhood. That’s why advertisements, like McDonalds, with kid’s playing pretend in boxes might make us smile. Maybe you can remember a time when you dressed up like a pirate, made an elaborate fort from pillows or created an elaborate tale of a princess in a castle. All of these are important parts of childhood because the involved: peer play, creativity, story telling and most of all, elaborate language. Imaginative play in speech therapy can be an integral part of fostering language, here’s how:

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5 At-Home Speech Therapy Activities for Valentines Day

by Holly F. Speech Therapy Techniques

 

How to sign I love you

Source: Signingsavvy.com

Holidays are a great opportunity for building language-based activities at home and incorporating the entire family.  They are fun, motivating and usually involve sweets (yum!). Celebrate Valentines Day with a variety of speech and language therapy techniques that are easy to incorporate into your traditions, or build new ones!

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3 Pretend Play Apps that Help Stimulate Language

by Holly F. Language Development Speech Therapy Techniques
How games can help kids learn

Source: dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/

When you think of your fondest childhood memories, do they involve pretend play? Mine do. Dress up, doctor, grocery store, teacher and beauty parlor to be specific. Child development experts know this isn’t just any childhood activity, pretend play serves a purpose in fostering language skills and cognitive development in children. For children with language disorders, pretend play is a great therapy technique. Today, however, you don’t need a set of dolls and teacups – the great people at Toca Boca have developed a line of pretend play apps. Now you can have a birthday party, tea party, build a robot and style your hair – without all the usual play props. Using your iPad, parents looking to incorporate at-home speech and language therapy activities, should consider using these great apps.

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