Therapy Tip: Snow Day

It is Thursday, so you know it's time for therapy tip Thursday! This is the day that I share a tip based upon my experience as a speech-language pathologist and a mother of a child with special needs. Today's tip is:

Snow Day Language Fun

Have you had any snow days lately?

Nothing makes my son more joyful than seeing those snowflakes hit the ground. I love seeing the delight in his face. I remember when I was like him. Now as adult, I hate the interruptions snow brings. But, snow does bring a unique opportunity to work on language skills with your child under 5.

When my children were toddlers, I loved to go scoop some snow into a giant Tupperware container and bring it in the house. I didn't have to worry about my two year getting too cold out in the snow, and I didn't have to put layers and layers on that child. Whether you bring the snow inside or you brave the cold outside, here are some language skills you can target with your child under 5.

-Winter clothing: Mittens, gloves, boots, coat, and hat are all good vocabulary words that you can talk about while you are both bundling up.

-Adjectives: When playing with the snow, use adjectives to describe what the child is seeing and feeling. These include: cold, wet, freezing, and white.

-Action words: While playing with the snow, make sure you are saying the action word you are performing so the child can learn them (roll, scoop, pat, dig, throw, stomp, hide).

-Counting: Make several snowballs, and count them out for your child. To practice rote counting to 3, count to three before throwing a snowball. Ask the child how many snowballs they want, see if they give you a number word. Then use snowballs to show them how many that number is.

-Colors: If you are feeling very creative, you can use food coloring in spray bottles to tint the snow. Then you can talk about the colors you both added to the snow.

Always remember too, simply talking to your child during your snow play will work on language naturally. Asking questions, answering questions, giving information, and responding to your child are all natural things that shouldn't be discounted. Now, go enjoy your next snow day!

Therapy Thursday is for educational purposes only and not intended to be therapeutic advice.