{"id":1569,"date":"2012-10-05T20:28:33","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T20:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/?p=1569"},"modified":"2015-02-17T11:39:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T19:39:05","slug":"fun-fall-activities-for-speech-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/speech-therapy-techniques\/fun-fall-activities-for-speech-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Fall Activities for Speech Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fall<\/a>

Image source: Nj.com<\/p><\/div>\n

For many people, autumn holds the promise of beautiful, breath-taking foliage and fun activities like apple picking. If you love this time of year, you\u2019re probably already stocking up on hot chocolate and visiting your local farmer\u2019s market for bagfuls of colorful pumpkins and acorn squash. (Or, if you\u2019re like me, you\u2019re stocking up on heavy-duty hand lotions to combat dry, lizard-like winter skin.) But if you\u2019re a speech-language pathologist (SLP) or a parent of a speech disordered child, you\u2019re also probably looking for ways to incorporate the season into speech therapy lessons. There are lots of fun activities to do in the fall. With a little tweaking, you can customize your family outings into engaging speech therapy activities<\/a>. Plus, you\u2019re more likely to keep your child\u2019s attention with hands-on activities than with flashcards.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Apple Picking<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apple picking is a classic fall activity. It\u2019s also the perfect time to work on prepositions<\/a> with your child. Each member of your family should have his own bag or basket. As you walk along the orchard, point out particularly delicious-looking apples to your child using words rather than actual pointing. Say, \u201cThat nice red apple is above Jack\u2019s head\u2026 Look at that green apple beside the branch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The objective of this isn\u2019t to have your child pick out exactly the apple that you had intended (that could get pretty tricky), but rather to see if he picks up on the prepositions you used. If he reaches for an apple on the ground instead of beside the branch, repeat yourself, stressing the word \u201cbeside.\u201d Every time your child puts an apple inside his basket, say \u201cGood job, Cory, you put the apple in the basket.\u201d Encourage your child to narrate his actions using prepositions.<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/a>

Image source: Threemeninatub.blogspot.com<\/p><\/div>\n

No Apple Orchard Nearby?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have the good fortune to live near an apple orchard, you can still go \u201capple picking\u201d inside your home or out in your backyard. Select about half a dozen apples from the supermarket. Play a treasure hunt game with your child. Hide the apples and then give clues using prepositions. For example, say, \u201cLook above the toy shelf\u2026 Look inside the cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halloween Costumes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most kids love Halloween. Get an early start on it by collaborating on Halloween costumes with your child. Use the costumes as an opportunity to role-play. Roleplaying presents a way to work on your child\u2019s sentence structure and narration skills, as well as articulation. During your role-play conversation, try to incorporate specific words with sounds that your child struggles to articulate. After the roleplaying, you could sneak in a little practice with Speech Buddies to encourage proper articulation.<\/a><\/p>\n

If little Sarah wants to be a princess, you could dress up as a queen. Engage your child in a discussion of the dragon outside the castle walls, and which teddy bear (or other favorite toy) is likely to conquer it. Encourage Sarah to form complete sentences during the conversation, but don\u2019t try to force it. Instead, model proper sentence structure. For example, if she says, \u201cDragon scary!\u201d you say, \u201cThat dragon does look very scary. But he might be a nice dragon if we make friends with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Children<\/a>

Image source: Familycrafts.about.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Arts & Crafts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Customize fall arts and crafts activities to your child\u2019s interests. If he loves baking, look for leaf-shaped cookie cutters. If little Jacob loves the outdoors, take him on a nature walk and collect items like leaves, pinecones, etc. Use these fun activities as a speech therapy lesson that works on building vocabulary and using descriptive words. Describe the colors of the sprinkles on the cookies or the brittleness of the falling leaves. Encourage your child to think of his own descriptive words. Afterward, little Jacob could glue his favorite leaves and other items to construction paper to make a colorful fall collage.<\/p>\n

Arts and crafts activities are also a good opportunity to work on following and giving directions. For example, direct your child to color a picture of a pumpkin orange, green, and one other color of his choosing. Then, ask him to tell you which colors you should use on your picture.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \"Free<\/a>\n <\/span>\n <\/span>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many people, autumn holds the promise of beautiful, breath-taking foliage and fun activities like apple picking. If you love this time of year, you\u2019re probably already stocking up on hot chocolate and visiting your local farmer\u2019s market for bagfuls of colorful pumpkins and acorn squash. (Or, if you\u2019re like me, you\u2019re stocking up on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[875,873,872,874,876,5,149,831],"class_list":["post-1569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speech-therapy-techniques","tag-arts-and-crafts-for-kids","tag-fall-activities","tag-fun-activities","tag-games-for-kids","tag-halloween-activities","tag-speech-therapy","tag-speech-therapy-activities","tag-speech-therapy-games"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1569"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7647,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569\/revisions\/7647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}