Summer vacation is here!!!

Parents wonder how to keep up communication practice during vacations. Here are some FUN suggestions to pass the time and build language tasks into road-trips. Enjoy!

*20 Questions
Take turns thinking of a common noun. Guide your child to ask yes/no questions and guess from clues that narrow down categories and sub-categories. This helps to build language organization and specific vocabulary. Examples:
Food - Fruit - Red - Apple!
Vehicle - Air - Helicopter!
Animal - Farm - Cow!

*I Spy
Take the opportunity to observe your new surroundings. "I spy with my little eye, I spy something (color) that (give category and important clues)." This builds on expanding category and word knowledge.

*Visual scavenger hunt
Give your child two things to look for (red car, purple flower). Help them look around. Gradually expand the number of items the child is finding. This helps to strengthen working memory skills.

*Jokes
Jokes often rely on figurative language, multiple meaning words, and homonyms. Find a good joke book and share some laughs with your child. Explain to each other WHY each joke is funny, and see if you can come up with jokes of your own!

*Team Stories
Give your child two or three story themes to pick (space, friends arguing, beach, etc). One person starts the story and says a few sentences. Then, the next person has to pick up and continue the story, adding his/her own twist and elements. This activity can be silly and fun, but it also requires cognitive-linguistic flexibility and social awareness to work as a team.

*Charades
Practice non-verbal communication using gestures and specific actions to help others guess your idea! Pick simple animals or actions as the easiest level. It's also good practice with adapting gestures/movements when your team can't guess the first time around.