Speech Therapy Activities for Ganesha Chaturthi

Speech Therapy Activities for Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesha is said to be the Lord of wisdom and knowledge! He is the symbol of prosperity and his blessings are invoked before starting any auspicious work. Being a popular God,  Ganesha with his 108 different names is a culture in himself, something which all Hindus are proud of!

In this blog I will cover some easy speech therapy activities for Ganesh Chaturthi. Furthermore these speech therapy activities can be used by parents as well as educators or professionals. Children with speech delay or autism will also benefit from these activities.

What is Ganesh Chaturthi?

Ganesh Chaturthi or Vinayaka Chaturthi s a popular Hindu festival  which marks the birth anniversary of Lord Ganesha. This beautiful festival is celebrated in the months of August or September all over the world,  per the Hindu calendar. It is a 10 days long event which starts from the fourth day of the ‘Bhadrapada’ month and is celebrated to worship Lord Ganesh. “Ganpati Bappa Moriya” all devotees exclaim as they worship this magnificent deity!

Speech Therapy Activities for Ganesh Chaturthi

1. Ganapati Dress Up

 

You can dress up your child as Ganapati with minimal items at home. You can simply use a fancy dupatta, some ornaments and light makeup to do this activity. Make the elephant head mask with paper and get creative!

Activity examples

• Name all items used in the activity (vocabulary building)

• Teach the sequence of wearing clothes. Demonstrate the order and then ask the child to tell the correct order. e.g : First we will wear the vest, then the dhoti, after that we will wear the dupatta, then the ornaments. etc.

• Click photos after the dress up and ask the child whom all he/she wants to share the pictures with. Talk about grandparents, friends and identify names of relatives

• Make a video of the little Ganesha playing dancing or eating modak. Encourage him to say a few lines or sing a song. Further, show him the video and praise his confidence.

Skills that can be worked upon : Vocabulary building, sentence formation, developing communication intent, gross motor skills.

2. Count the modak

Getting modak/ laddoo sweets from the market or making them at home can be a great activity to build on speech and language of your child. There is so much you can do with these sweets!

Activity examples:

• Take a big plate and arrange the modaks in it.

• Ask the child to count all of them
• Activity variation : Keep only a few modaks and count again.
• If your child can recognise numbers, make some chits of paper with numbers written in them. Ask him to pick the correct number chit.
• Take two plates with different number of modaks in each. Work with the child with the concept of more, less and equal.

Skills that can be worked upon : Attention and concentration, joint attention, sitting tolerance, fine motor skills, eye hand coordination, numeracy skills.

3. Laddoo Tower

Children will love this game. This can be done with real laddoos or even laddoos made from play dough! It should be a 3 D laddoo which the child can feel and turn into a pile.

Activity examples:

• Put the laddoos in a plate
• Play a stacking game where you and the child get turns to make a pile.
• Whoever knocks off the laddoo loses.
• Another variation : Both you and your child make separate laddoo towers. The tallest tower wins!

Skills that can be worked upon : Attention and concentration, joint attention, sitting tolerance, fine motor skills, eye hand coordination.

4. Sweets in a box

This game is sure to encourage your child to sit longer with you and work on communication alongside having fin!

Activity examples:

• Grab some mithai like laddoos or modak or barfi or any other which the child likes
• Get a box or which the child can easily open/close ( If the child can’t do this yet, you can assist him/her in this step)
• Put all the mithai in a plate and ask the child to sort it out into different piles.
• Encourage the child to transfer the sweets from the plate into the box. Record the time and make it fun!
• Talk about how the sweets are different from each other. Draw the child’s attention to the difference in colour, size, shape and taste.

Skills that can be worked upon : Attention and concentration, joint attention, sitting tolerance, fine motor skills, eye hand coordination.

 

5. Laddoo Jenga

 

This is a Ganpati twist to the classic game of Jenga. So much to do and get the child excited about learning! You will need playdough to make laddoos. Keep around 20 play dough laddoos ready.

Activity examples:

• Place all the play dough laddoos in a pile. ( Keep the base with more number of laddoos and go narrow on the top)
• Game is to pull out the laddoos one by one from the tower without disturbing it.
• Whoever knocks off the tower loses.
• Encourage turn taking while playing this game.
• Talk about the laddoos and add new words like : tall /short, one/many, start/stop etc.

Skills that can be worked upon : Attention and concentration, joint attention, sitting tolerance, vocabulary building, fine motor skills, eye hand coordination.

6. Art Craft & Decorations

Involving kids in doing hands on crafts is an amazing method for speech language stimulation and practice. Crafts invite repetition, create structure and produce an awesome tangible reward for task completion. Additionally, doing the craft the child can ask for help, use sounds and words and make requests. Furthermore crafts create more opportunities for language expansion in a fun way.

Activity examples:

• Lentil/Dal Ganesha :

Print out a Ganesha figure and encourage child to stick different dal/lentils to decorate.

• Paper Plate Ganpati :

Take a pair plate and colour it to make a Ganpati. Additionally, talk about the body parts and revise that concept. Image credit : K4Craft

• Ganesha’s umbrella:

With  your child, create a beautiful paper umbrella and stick a straw to it. Henceforth, encourage the child to place the umbrella on the Ganesha idol at home. Give choices to your child about the colour of the umbrella, ask simple open ended questions like : “Why would Ganesha need umbrella?” “What if Ganesha can’t carry the umbrella?” Image from Proeves.com

• Ganesha’s play dough idol:

Use play dough or clay to make Ganesha’s idol. By all means, exercising the little fingers, children will be able to practice their fine motor skills with this fun activity. Talk as you make the idol together. Ask simple questions to take the child’s choice into account. “Which colour shall we choose?” “How many modaks shall we make?”

• Rangoli Making:

 Make a colourful rangoli together! Use eco friendly colours or flowers. You can first draw and colour the rangoli on paper. Then referring to it, ask the child about when to use which colour.

Learn more about how sensory activities facilitate speech and language development here.

• Ganesha Painting:

Print out Krishna colouring sheet here and encourage your child to colour it. By and large, you can revise all the colour names and give simple directions while colouring.

• Aarti Thali Decoration:

Encourage your child to help you in decorating the aarti thali. Get him to pluck flowers, put them in the thali. Arrange the prasad and sweets, put Ganesha Idol and make the swastika with red vermilion.

• Decorate Pooja place:

This can be so much fun! Help your child to decorate the madir/pooja place at home with flowers, buntings, garlands and other fancy crafty bits.

• Ganesha Bookmarks:

This is a simple activity which you can do with your little one. Draw Ganesha and encourage child to colour it. Stick them on Ice lolly sticks and you’re done. Give choices to your child and take his lead while doing this activity. Use the bookmarks meaningfully to add more to this creation. Picture credit to Arty Hearts on YouTube.

Ganesha with different items:

Make different Ganeshas with foods like biscuits,idli or even with paan leaves and flowers.  Wonderful ideas on Pinterest.com

7. Ganesha Worksheets/Printables

Download these amazing Ganesha worksheets that your child will absolutely enjoy. These have been created by Speech Language Therapists and educators and will help your child in building important skills of language, communication, speech and cognition.

Download here!

8. Reading Ganesha Books

Books are a treasure house of learning new words and practising speech sounds. They additionally help to strengthen the foundations of early literacy and reading. Here is a list of books that you can get for your little one on Janamashtmi.  Coupled with speaking strategies, books are a powerhouse of knowledge for kids. Read here to learn how to use books in speech therapy.

1. Ganesha’s sweet tooth

2. Boogie Woogie Ganesha

3. Ganesha Cut out board book

4. Ganesha illustrated stories

5. Ganesha goes to a party

6. Ganesha Mousecapde

7. Round about Ganesha

8. Amma tell me about Ganesha

9. Lord Ganesha’s feast of laughter

10. Ganesha the race around the world

9. Visit to the Temple

All hindus visit a temple/ pandal  on this auspicious day. Firstly, take your child along with you. Secondly, talk about the different deities, the prasad, the long queues, the decorations in the temple. Finally, let your child explore the festivities! If the child is very young, then take him and narrate and expose him to different new words. For older children, prepare them before hand. Henceforth, ask them to look at all the things in the temple and come home and name any 3 things he liked.

10. Ganesha Bhajans & Songs

You will find various Ganesha bhajans on YouTube. Play the songs and dance along with the child. You can expose the child to new vocabulary in your mother tongue with this activity. Eventually, listening to the same songs again and again strengthens the vocabulary.

11. Kitchen Activities

All festivals in India call for sweets and savouries. Many Indian households prepare lavish sweets at home as well as order from a local sweet shop. Kitchen activities will provide novel real time opportunities to connect with your child, model correct language and expose him to a variety of meaningful conversations.

Activity examples

• Make laddoos/modak at home. Involve your child in helping mix the ingredients, pick up plates and henceforth store the sweets in boxes.

• Create a grocery list. Ask your child what he wants to eat on the day of the festival . Put that in the list as a word or a drawing. Additionally, encourage him to tick it off when you go shopping.

12. Ganesha Vocabulary

Ganesha is said to have 108 names. Teach these common and easy ones to your child.

• Ganpati

• Vinayak

• Ganpati Bappa

• Lambodara

• Vighnesh

• Gajanan

• Mahakay

• Vakrtund

• Omkara

I hope these ideas will give you plenty of opportunities to engage with your child! Genuine emotional moments when you connect with your child, foster joint attention. Such occasions lay the foundation of correct modeling of language. All these activities can be done at home. Remember to take the child’s lead. Do not waste money, but make use of items at home. Involving your child is all that matters. Let me know if you find these activities useful! Leave a comment below.

Wondering if your child has a speech delay? Take this free screening test to find out. Do not wait and watch. Quality help is right here!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by 1SpecialPlace | Speech Therapy 🇮🇳 (@1specialplace)