Boosting Language During Daily Routines

Daily routines are amazing, natural times to help your child's speech and language grow. By adding simple, language-focused strategies to regular activities like baths, getting dressed, cooking, and doing laundry, you can really help your child understand more words and speak better.

Bath Time: Focus on Location and Action Words

Bath time is exciting and a perfect chance to teach your child about where things are and what they are doing.

• Language focus: Prepositions (words like in, on, under) and verbs (action words like splash, float, pour).

• Things to try:

  • Talk about actions: Describe everything the toys and your child are doing. Use many different action words.

    • Examples: "The duck is floating." "The cup is filling." "You are splashing the water." "Let's pour the soap."

  • Label locations: Use prepositions to explain where things are in the tub.

    • Examples: "The boat is under the bubbles!" "Put the soap on the washcloth." "Can you put the toy fish in the bucket?" "The water is running down the drain."

  • Ask for directions: Give simple requests that use these words to check if they understand.

    • Examples: "Put the toy next to the yellow sponge." or "Make the frog jump!"

    
    

Getting Dressed: Learn New Words for Clothes and Colors

The routine of getting dressed gives clear, visual examples to teach your child more words for clothes, how they look, and parts of the body.

• Language Focus: Nouns (names of clothing), Adjectives (descriptive words like color, size, texture), and Body Parts.

• Things to Try:

  • Offer choices: Encourage your child to use their voice and pick an item by giving them two options. This also helps them understand language better.

    • Examples: "Do you want the blue shirt or the red shirt?" "Should we wear the long pants or the short shorts?"

  • Name and describe: As you dress them, say the name of the item and the body part it covers. Add descriptive words.

    • Examples: "Let's put the soft, striped socks on your feet." "We're pulling the warm sweater over your head."

  • Connect items to body parts: Use simple phrases over and over to help them learn about their body.

    • Examples: "We put the hat on our head." "The shoes go on our feet."

      
      

Meal Time Preparations: Focus on Order and Asking for Things

Preparing and eating meals is a great time to practice putting events in order and learning how to ask for something properly.

• Language focus: Sequencing words ("first/then"), requesting (saying "want," "more," or naming the item), and describing taste/texture.

• Things to Try:

  • Use "first/then" language: Clearly explain the steps of a task in order. This helps your child understand the sequence and know what to expect.

    • Examples: "First we wash our hands, then we sit at the table." "First we open the bag, then we eat the cracker."

  • Encourage requests: Create chances for your child to ask for something. Hold a desired item nearby but just out of reach, or wait for them to say something.

    • Examples: Encourage your child to say, "Cracker, please," or "More milk." If they point, say the word for them and encourage them to repeat it.

  • Descriptive talk: Talk about the food you are eating or preparing.

    • Examples: "The apple is crunchy and sweet." "This soup is hot!"

Doing Laundry: Focus on Sorting and Grouping

Doing laundry is an excellent hands-on activity to teach and practice sorting similar objects. This skill is key for organizing thoughts and language.

• Language Focus: Categorization (sorting), nouns (types of clothes), and attributes (who the item belongs to).

• Things to Try:

  • Sort by type: Have your child help sort clothes into different piles.

    • Examples: "Let's find all the socks." "Where are the towels?" "Is this a shirt or a pant?"

  • Sort by attribute: Once they can sort by type, try sorting by color, size, or person.

    • Examples: "Find all the red clothes." "These are Dad's big shirts." "These are your small pajamas."

  • Explain the goal: Remind them what they are learning.

    • Goal: The main goal is to teach your child how to put similar objects together, which helps them organize their thinking and vocabulary.

Keep it simple! Choose one routine to focus on this week. Just talk about what you are doing while your child watches and listens.