{"id":8893,"date":"2014-10-15T11:29:02","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T18:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/?p=8893"},"modified":"2015-02-10T14:53:06","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T22:53:06","slug":"halloween-language-activities-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/games-and-activities\/language-building-games\/halloween-language-activities-pirates\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween Language Activities … not just for Pirates!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those first leaves are starting to turn (depending on where you in the country you live of course!) and you\u2019re starting to notice the trees on the side of the highway hinting toward an imminent fury of color. Your kids are nearly\u00a0frothing at the mouth with excitement for their favorite candy-laden holiday. They have indicated\u00a0which superhero or character from Disney\u2019s Frozen they want to be — and changed their mind at least once. You have already scouted the best deals for costumes and that mega pack of candies. How we can harness this uniquely motivating holiday to further enhance our home-based treatment outcomes and get your child through his or her speech goals as efficiently as possible? Here are three Halloween\u00a0language activities and games to get you started:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What’s my Line?<\/h2>\n

\"halloween<\/a>Once your child has settled on which costume they\u2019re going to wear, come up with a spiel — or “line” — that that\u00a0character would say, and tailor it toward your child’s\u00a0speech and language needs. Let\u2019s say your child is working on his \/r\/ sound and wants to be Spongebob Squarepants<\/em> for Halloween, he might say something like,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to wor<\/span>k at the Cr<\/span>usty Cr<\/span>ab with Squidwar<\/span>d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are several\u00a0nice \/r\/ sounds in various word positions and near\u00a0a variety of\u00a0other sounds, giving him great practice with this tricky sound. If your child is playing Anna or Elsa from Disney\u2019s Frozen, and your child is working on using irregular past tense verbs correctly, you could have her describe something amazing that just happened, like<\/p>\n

I shot<\/span> a bolt of ice, ran<\/span> up into the mountains and sang<\/span> my heart out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Yes, I have two young children and I admit I virtually know this movie by heart.) The important thing is to give your child ownership of this spiel; help\u00a0them come up with it themselves. Then you can edit it slightly to add in a couple extra words with \/r\/ in them, or a couple more irregular past tense verbs (i.e. that do not form the past tense by simply adding \u201c-ed\u201d). Then, every time your child interacts with an adult or peer in the endless pursuit of high fructose corn syrup, he or she can say this spiel to introduce his or her character. In this same vein, you could have your child sing a song associated with that character. And while singing generally activates a different part of the brain as speech and language do, this practice is still helpful in working toward your child\u2019s speech goals.<\/p>\n

Fun with\u00a0Unique Halloween\u00a0Words<\/h2>\n

This next suggestion is super-straightforward and involves simply embedding Halloween themes into everyday home-based speech and language practice or embedding speech practice into special Halloween activities, such as pumpkin carving, making costumes, setting up a haunted house, or even shopping for (not too many) Halloween goodies. Here is a quick list of Halloween-related words with \/r\/ in them:<\/p>\n