I'm back with another language development activity! My goal is to post one activity a week, but with a sweet 15 month old, and summer coming to a close... life has been pretty busy lately! I will do my best though to keep this blog updated! Thank you to all my wonderful readers. This blog had over 500 page views since my first language development post. That's pretty awesome! :) I hope the activities and tips are helpful, and I hope you are all enjoying spending some quality time with your little ones. Please feel free to leave comments, and spread the word to your friends.
Our activity for today (which I actually did over a month ago, and am just barely getting around to writing about) is....
"Jello fun"
My mom taught my sister and I the jello song when we were little. I remember singing it in the car on road trips. Now I get to sing it with Ella... so to get you in the mood for some Jello fun here is the jello song (feel free to sing along, and teach it to your little one). ;)
J E L L O
Oh, the big red letters stand for the Jell-O family.
Oh, the big red letters stand for the Jell-O family.
It's Jell-O yum yum yum! Jell-O pudding yum yum yum! Jell-O tapioca pudding, try all three!
Oh, the big red letters stand for the Jell-O family.
Oh, the big red letters stand for the Jell-O family.
It's Jell-O yum yum yum! Jell-O pudding yum yum yum! Jell-O tapioca pudding, try all three!
Upon searching lyrics for the Jello song, I discovered that there are quite a few different versions of the Jello song, and aeroplane jelly song for my lovely Australian readers. Get in the jello spirit, and if you don't know the song already, you tube it!
Supplies needed:
3 packs of jello (any color)... although WARNING: Red jello will stain clothing (found this out the hard way).
Large glass baking dish
An assortment of toys or interesting objects (please wash them before putting them in the jello, as it is likely your little one will be eating the jello)
Instructions:
Place all of your clean toys into the empty baking dish
Follow the instructions on the jello box
Pour the liquid over the toys and place in the refrigerator (You will probably need a minimum of 3 hours for the jello to set)
Once the jello has set you can play with it in the bathtub, outside in a plastic swimming pool, or if you are brave and don't mind a mess you can always play with it on your kitchen floor.
Brief overview
During this activity we will again be reviewing self talk, parallel talk and expansion. If you have read the previous posts hopefully you are starting to become a little more familiar with these strategies. Remember it is all about providing a rich environment for language. It's all about experience and exposure. I am not going to spend as much detail on these three strategies, so make sure to look at my previous posts if you are needing more of a review.
I will also be adding a couple new therapy strategies: sing songy voice and buildups and break downs. In addition, I will be adding some tips for receptive language (comprehension). Let's get started!
1. Introduce the activity:
Hopefully by now you are getting more comfortable with introducing the activity to your child. Get down on their level, explain what they will be doing and show them. The reason why I always suggest introducing the activity is because you are providing information on the materials you will be using, and telling them what is expected. If you hand them a bowl of jello and sit back some children will dig right in, while others may be more unsure of what to do. By providing explanations, and instructions you are aiding in their comprehension, and assisting in their ability to provide instructions and explain items in the future. Think about when they go to school and will need to follow instructions from the teacher, or during show and tell when they need to get up, and describe a favorite toy, or talk about a picture they drew. These are all small building blocks that you are forming to help assist your child in the future.
Here is an example of an introduction, "Today we are going to be playing with jello. Look at all the toys in the jello. Do you see the car? We are going to dig through the jello and find the toys (dig through the jello to find a toy, then encourage your child to do the same)."
2. Language therapy:
A quick review. Check out the previous posts if you need more examples. Remember that these strategies are useful for children 0-3. Even if your child is using full sentences this is a great way to expand their language.
Remember to follow your child's lead. Don't try to control the activity too much. Let your child explore, and comment on what they are doing (parallel talk), as well as what you are doing (self talk). Also, pay attention to body language, vocalizations, gestures etc and respond to them through expansion. Last but not least, provide a vocabulary rich environment by using lots of descriptive language.
Buildups and breakdowns
Initially children will start with one word utterances. For example "milk" could mean "I want milk", or "I'm drinking milk", or "my milk". This is why paying attention to body language and gestures is so important. If they are pointing and saying "milk," this means "I want milk". Around two years old your child will be combining two words to form sentences, for example "more milk." Once they reach the stage where they are producing two word phrases or more (2 years +) you don't have to do as much detective work to figure out what they are saying, but you still need to encourage your child to produce meaningful, grammatically correct sentences. This is a great strategy for children 0-3, when they are producing short words or phrases.
Buildups and breakdowns is a therapy strategy used to teach your child how sentences are put together. First you will want to build up the utterance, and form it into a grammatically correct sentence (similar to expansion how you provide a grammatically correct sentence, but with this strategy you do not need to provide additional descriptive language). For the break down part you will break down the full sentence into smaller units. Here is an example.. if your child says "car" and points to the car in the jello. They are meaning "look there is a car in the jello." To build up and breakdown this utterance you might say "Yes, there is a car in the jello. Car. Jello. It's in the Jello. In the Jello. The car is in the jello." So to simplify it for you, you first provide the grammatically correct sentence, then stress individual words/phrases, and then finish again with the correct form. You are basically building up a sentence, and then breaking it down so that the child understands how the words are used to form a sentence. This strategy may take a little practice to get use to. You may feel silly at first, but be assured you are helping your child, so there is no shame in that!
Here is another example from a phrase my daughter likes to use, "doggy woof woof." Anytime she hears a dog she says this. What she is meaning is the doggy is saying woof woof (or the doggy is barking). Here is an example of something you might say. "That's right, the doggy is barking. Doggy. Barking. woof woof. The doggy is barking. " **Note if your child is 3 years or older they should not be adding "y" (eg doggy) to the end of words, so you will want to use dog instead of doggy.
This can also be used during self talk and parallel talk. For example for parallel talk "You are digging in the jello. Jello. Digging. You are digging. In the Jello. You are digging in the jello." For self talk "I'm bouncing the ball. Ball. It's bouncing. The ball. I'm bouncing it. I'm bouncing the ball." The other major benefit to using this therapy strategy is that you are providing your child with lots of exposure to certain words, which will help them to store new vocabulary words. Hopefully by adding this therapy strategy you don't feel overwhelmed. You may be wondering when do I use build up and break downs, and when do I use expansion?!?! That is totally up to you! Both have been shown to promote language development. If you feel as though all these strategies are too much to tackle for one activity try focusing on one or two. Once you become more comfortable using the different strategies they will flow naturally during your activity.
Sing songy voice (as I like to call it)
I also like to use what I call a "sing songy voice" when doing buildups and break downs, self talk and parallel talk. What I mean by this is I alter the tone/pitch of my voice, and make the phrases or words sound almost melodic. I also put stress on certain words. Children respond really well to this. Basically it will get their attention, and help them tune in to what you are saying. I will try my best to portray this in writing.... I usually start with a higher pitch and then gradually lower my pitch towards the end of the phrase. For example "pushing the car" I would say "pushing" with a higher pitch, and then gradually lower my pitch and emphasize "car". Remember to make it sound almost melodic. Hence why I call it the "sing songy voice." I hope that makes sense. If there is some confusion I will try posting a video of this later on.
3. Receptive language (comprehension)
Provide questions and instructions throughout the activity to evaluate comprehension.
Here are some examples:
- "where's the banana?"
- (hold out hand) "Can you give me the car?"
- "Put the cow in the jello."
- For children 3-4 (some instructions 2 year olds may be able to follow) make your instructions more complex: "Can you give me all the red toys?" Can you give me something that is small?" "Can you give me something that is round?" "Can you give me all the animals?"
- Children 2-4 Start with two step instructions eg "Give me the car, then put the ball in the jello." if they are able to do this easily you can try more complex instructions such as 3 step instruction, eg "Give me the car, put the ball in the jello, then point to the dog."
That's all for now! As always, I hope these tips helped! Thanks for reading, and stay tuned... more language development activities and tips to come! If you have any questions, comments or would like more examples on anything I've covered please leave a comment, and I will try to provide an answer section at the start of my next post. Also, I would love to hear from my readers if there is anything in particular you would like me to cover. :)
X Lisa, Your SLP go to mom
