Summer Speech Activities for Children

Summer Speech Activities for Children

Children love summer. Adults love summer. Everyone loves summer. We do various activities during the summer season. As speech-language pathologists, we use a lot of summer activities during speech therapy sessions. And now, so can you! Here is an amazing list of summer speech activities for children that you can do at home.

1. Water Play

All you need to do is play with water. Be creative and use your ideas. Kids love water play!

You can:

• Get water balloons, fill them and throw them at one another
• Use water toys such as water guns
• Turn on a sprinkler
• Use the water hose to splash water on your kids
• Add colors to water and watch them mix

Goals you can target:

• Concepts: Wet vs Dry, Colours, Shapes, Sizes
• Prepositions: In, On, Under, Over, etc.
• Verbs: Throw, Splash, Jump, Run, etc.
• Articulation: /w/-water, wet, /th/- throw etc. Pick out a word/ activity that matches your child’s articulation goals and play with it.
• Vocabulary: Balloon, Wet, Dry, Fill, Half, Splash, Puddle, Jump, Gun, Bucket, Jug, etc.
• Following Directions: Give simple directions such as “Fill up the small bucket” or complex directions such as “Fill the yellow balloon after you fill the blue one” 

2. Blowing Bubbles

Another simple activity. All you have to do is blow bubbles and have fun!

You can:

• Blow big and small bubbles
• Take turns blowing bubbles
• Use different types of bubble makers

Goals to target:

• Concepts: Up vs Down, Big vs Small, Pop, Open vs Close etc.
• Articulation: /b/- blow, bubble, /p/ (pop) etc.
• Vocabulary: Pop, Blow, Bubble, Big, Small,
• Following Directions: Use simple directions such as “Pop the bubble”, “Open the bottle” etc.
• Social Skills: Practise turn-taking while blowing the bubbles.

3. Sand Play

You can use sand in multiple ways. It is an amazing summer activity.

You can:

• Visit the beach with your child
• Dig the sand and fill up buckets, bottles, etc.
• Mix water with the sand
• Make sand castles
• Color the sand and talk about the colors
• Play a treasure hunt game with stones and sea shells

Goals to target:

• Concepts: Dig, Build, Dump, Mix, etc.
• Prepositions: In, On, Under, Next to, etc.
• Articulation: /d/- dig, dump, /s/- sand, shells etc.
• Vocabulary: Sand, Shells, Stones, Water, Scoop, Bucket, etc.
• Following Directions: “Fill the bucket”, “Dig the sand, scoop it and mix it with water”

4. Chalk Play

Use different colors of chalk and draw almost anything that you would like. This activity is mainly useful to target articulation and fluency goals.

You can:

• Draw pictures or write articulation words
• Write sentences and say them
• Draw pictures and sequence them to form stories

Goals to target:

• Concepts: Draw, Write, Colours, Erase, etc.
• Prepositions: In, On, Next to, etc.
• Articulation: /w/-write, /d/- draw and /k/- colour
• Vocabulary: Draw, Colours, Whole vs broken chalk, etc.
• Following Directions: You can take turns while giving directions to draw.
• Narrative Skills: Draw simple pictures that form a story. Sequence them together using story grammar elements.

5. Garden Play

There are a lot of games that you can play in the garden.

You can:

• Play ‘I Spy’ games –“ I spy something yellow”
• Number games- “ Collect 10 short sticks”
• Colour games- “ Pick a red leaf”

Goals to target:

• Concepts: Numbers, Colours, Sizes, etc.
• Prepositions: In, Out, Next to, Under, etc.
• Verbs: Pick, Run, Walk, etc.
• Articulation: /s/-spy, /k/- collect etc.
• Following directions: “I spy something yellow”, “Pick a small leaf” etc.

6. Explore & Play

You can visit any place that your child likes to visit. You can visit new places as well. This includes parks, playgrounds, beaches, etc.

You can:

• Talk about the different things around you.
• Talk about sounds you want to practice
• Collect any items that you can
• Click pictures and talk about them later.
• Make a picture book

Goals to target:

• Concepts: Big vs small, high vs Low, etc.
• Prepositions: In, On, Under, Over, etc.
• Verbs: Walk, Run, Catch, Swing and Pick, etc.
• Articulation: /b/- big, beach, /k/- catch etc. Pick out a word/ activity that matches your child’s articulation goals and play with it.
• Vocabulary: Big, small, low, high, play, catch, swing, etc.
• Narrative skills: Use the pictures you have taken to talk about what your child explored that day.