Although the summer holiday arriving means that there is a break from school, your child is still learning! The holidays are a fantastic time for language learning because there are lots of everyday opportunities to talk about events that have happened and will happen, learn new vocabulary and build social skills by interacting with new people!
Some strategies:
- Discussing feelings – Talk about how you / your child are feeling and why you feel that way so your child learns about feelings and can label how they are feeling (e.g. “I can see you are feeling excited because it is almost time to unwrap the presents!”).
- Recounting experiences – Experiences in the holidays are often fun and exciting! Talking with your child about the events and experiences that have happened will help their ability to recount past events and experiences to others. (E.g. “Why don’t you tell Grandma what we did on our holiday? Where did we go?”)
- Predicting – Discuss what you think will happen on a holiday you are going on, or an event you are going to. This is also a great opportunity to model longer sentences for your child (e.g. “I think we might go swimming on our holiday because it is very hot and we are staying near the beach”)
- Practising social skills – Your child may interact with lots of new and different people during the holidays, so it is a great time to talk about and practise social skills. (E.g. “remember when we meet someone, we say hello, look at their face, and smile.” OR “Remember when you play games with your cousins, you need to take turns.”)
Speech Pathology Team