Summer Speech and Language Activities

Written By Brittney Kawakami

It’s basically summer all year long in Hawaii, so why not have summer themed activities all year! Here are just some ideas of what you can do with your child to promote speech and language skills while having fun.

Sensory Bins:

  1. Fill up a large bin with water, ice, or kinetic sand along with some animal toys.

  2. Model nouns (e.g., animal names, animal noises), verbs (e.g., swim, splash, jump), and adjectives (e.g., wet, cold) to expand vocabulary.

  3. Target following directions, such as “put the turtle in the water.”

Chalk:

  1. Draw different objects of interest with chalk, such as farm animals, dinosaurs, and vehicles. Model objects, colors, and sizes of the objects.

  2. Draw objects that represent different songs, then begin singing it. For example, draw a bus and sing “Wheels on the Bus.”

  3. Draw a hopscotch and model either counting, verbs like “jump” or “hop,” or sing “Hop Little Bunny.”

Beach:

  1. Have a family beach day! Model the names of food you are packing.

  2. Model verbs for swimming and sand play (e.g., swim, splash, scoop, dump).

  3. Model adjectives (e.g., wet, hot/cold, rough/smooth).

Outdoor Scavenger Hunt:

  1. Have a scavenger hunt following simple directions, such as “find the bird”, or more complex directions, such as “find something that is small” or “find the pink flower.”

Pretend Ice Cream/Shave Ice Shop:

  1. Work on turn taking by you and your child pretending to be the customer and the shop owner. Model turn-taking phrases such as “my turn.”

  2. Work on requesting phrases, such as “I want _” and “can I have _.”

  3. Target following simple or complex directions, such as “I want vanilla ice cream” or “I want strawberry shave ice with condensed milk.”

  4. Target prepositions such as “condensed milk ON TOP” or “azuki beans UNDER my shave ice.”

Pretend Camping:

  1. Make a fort in the living room or have a tent in the backyard.

  2. Target following directions by having your child help build the fort.

  3. Sing along to “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” while stomping around the “campground” to target prepositions.

  4. Model camping vocabulary, such as “campfire”, “tent”, and “marshmallows.”

Brittney Kawakami