Autumn communication activities for children

Published: 24 Feb 2023 Tagged: AutumnchildrenCommunicationFalllanguagelanguage developmentlanguage skillsliteracynature-basedreadingSLPSpeakablespeakingspeech and language pathologyspeech disorderSpeech Pathologyspeech therapystimulationvocabularywriting

Autumn starts next week and this season can inspire amazing activities for children to stimulate language, speech and communication. See below some great activities to enjoy with children.

• Make a sensory bin for the autumn. In your home, locate a sizable container or basket and fill it with leaves. Look around your home for items you can conceal under the foliage. Ask your kid to locate the various items and then describe what they discovered. Your youngster can concentrate on the statement "I found _______" if they are practising coming up with short phrases or sentences. Hide various items under the leaves that begin with the target sound if your youngster is working on a specific target sound, such as the /f/ sound. Once they've located the item, ask them to recite its name so they can practise the desired sound.
• Take a walk. This activity targets so many different skills, which makes it my favourite. Talk to your youngster about what you see while you stroll. The weather in the autumn, people raking leaves, the changing colours of the leaves, the leaves on the ground, what we wear in the autumn, and these are just a few conversation starters. If a youngster uses three-word utterances, we should use four- or five-word phrases to model language. Hence, for example, when discussing the changing colours of the leaves with a young child, we can use a succinct phrase or sentence like, "Wow! Instead of saying "Look at how the leaves are changing colours since the season is changing," say "Leaves are different colours."
• Pumpkin/Apple Picking. If you enjoy taking your kids pumpkin or apple harvesting, here is another option to practise speech and language in a natural setting. It would be an excellent time to practise prepositional terms like "in," "on," or "off" if your youngster is working on them. You can instruct your kid to pick apples off the tree, put them in the basket, or do something foolish like balance an apple on your head! Also, you can practise describing objects with terms like "large" or "small" when picking the ideal pumpkin to take home.
• Pile of Leaves. Playing on a pile of recently raked leaves is the best. As they practise their speech and language, this is the ideal time to get kids moving and having fun! Do different actions in the large pile of leaves if a youngster is working on various action phrases. They can, for instance, perch on the leaves or even sit in them while running or stomping through them. You can ask them to follow orders to assist you pick up the leaves after they've finished playing. Also, you might discuss the pile's magnitude if you're working on your descriptive vocabulary (big or small).
• Pumpkin Carving. Another excellent activity to work on a variety of speech and language skills is carving a pumpkin. You can discuss the processes required to make a jack-o-lantern with pupils who are working on sequencing. For example, First, we scoop out the seeds. The face is drawn next. Third, the pumpkin is carved. We finalised by placing a candle inside the pumpkin.) You can also discuss the type of face you plan to carve onto the pumpkin (i.e., a scary face, a happy face, etc.). You can also talk about the sensations you have when removing the pumpkin's seeds.

Enjoy this beautiful time with your children! See below two previous posts with more ideas to enjoy during autumn.

• Autumn as inspiration for activities
• Vocabulary activities for Autumn