Bath Time: Oh how I love bath time for play and language building. Unless of course your child hates bath time, in which case, just get through the bath and leave the language building for later! My son went through a period of time where he screamed the whole time I was washing his hair – definitely not the time to focus on language or play! For lots of children though, bath time is a lovely, fun experience – with young ones, parents are always present, so it’s the perfect time for building interactions. Turn taking is a beautiful and important part of communication. Take turns filling up cups with water and tipping them out. Blow bubbles at each other. Talk about what you’re doing. Cups are full and empty, sometimes they tip or splash – there are so many good words that you can use. You can talk about body parts as you clean – arms and hands, fingers and toes. You can talk about dirty and clean, soapy and clear.
Choice making works at bath time too. Do you want soap or bubbles? Blue towel or white? Cups or boat? It doesn’t matter what the choices are – you are giving your child power over their environment and a very valid reason to communicate.
Getting Dressed/Undressed: There are so many opportunities for building language and communication when you are helping your child get dressed. First off – choice making! Give your child a choice between two items – red shirt or blue shirt? Pants first or top? When you’re dressing, you can talk about the clothes – labels (shirt, socks, pants), what they look like (bright, blue, fluffy) and what they feel like (soft, warm, dry). This is also an excellent time to build prepositions (pants on, shoes off).
Cooking: When my son was younger, I would put him in his high chair while I was cooking dinner. I would talk about ingredients (great for labelling) and what I was doing (chopping, slicing, dicing, stirring, mashing). I would give him little tasters of things as we cooked together (sweet, sour, crunchy) and he loved to bang spoons and other utensils on his chair. While the water was boiling or the food was cooking, we would play together – he’d bang on his chair with a spoon, I’d copy. A fun way to build turn taking and imitation skills.
Choices are easy at cooking time – should I chop the capsicum or the celery? Do you want the big spoon or the little spoon?
There are so many ways to build language into your day. During this time, when things feel crazy or overwhelming, just remember that it’s OK to slow down. It’s OK to reduce the pressures on yourself. When it comes to your child’s language and learning – you are already doing so much. Where you can, offer choices and talk about what you’re doing together – even if it is just your normal daily routine. Talk to your child – whether or not they talk back, they are still watching and learning. And it is enough.
Donna Heather has a Bachelor of Speech Pathology and has been working as a speech and language therapist in Australia, the UK and NZ over the last 20 years. After years of working in community services and education, Donna started WordPlay Speech and Language Therapy in June 2019. WordPlay is a mobile speech and language therapy service, helping families to build speech and language skills for their child (especially through play). For more information, visit www.wordplay.nz or follow on Facebook or Instagram.
