9 Feb

Love is in the Air!

5 Valentines Day Activities to Try at Home

Valentines

Love is in the air at Chicago Speech and Reading Center!  Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and as we make our way through winter, what better way to stay positive than to celebrate love.  We are having so much fun getting ready for Valentine’s Day and have a lot in store for our little one’s.  Are you looking for some fun speech and language activities to try with your children? Here are some our favorite Valentine’s Day ideas that will bring a little love into your home this February!

 

  1. “Find The Hearts” scavenger hunt

Every Valentine’s Day, I plan a heart scavenger hunt for my kids during speech therapy.  This is something you can do with your kids at home as well, as it is a great way to work on taking turns during a play date, formulating sentences and using prepositions.  Typically, I hide ten paper hearts around the room and have the children take turns searching for them.  After each child finds a heart, he/she makes a sentence about where the heart was found (for example, “The heart was under the table” or “The heart was next to the trash can”).  You can also extend this activity to work on vocabulary words, articulation targets, letter names/sounds, etc. by including pictures or letters on each heart.

 

  1. Sweets are the way to my heart!

All good holidays involve sweets!  Valentine’s Day is no exception, as there are so many great Valentine’s Day treats you can bake.  As I have mentioned in previous blogs, baking is one of my favorite activities for speech and language.  There is so much language inherent in baking!    One of my favorites are these delicious heart brownies!  Talk with your children about the ingredients you will need, pointing out new vocabulary words along the way.  You can practice listening skills and following directions as you follow the recipe. Have your child take turns measuring and pouring if other children are present.  When you are finished, work on social language at the table while you eat by encouraging your child to use eye contact, share and initiate/maintain conversation topics.

 

  1. Hearts “memory” game: teaching opposites

I love to use Valentine’s Day as a way to teach my clients all about opposites using a “memory” game.  Learning about opposites helps to expand your child’s vocabulary and improves his/her ability to make associations between words.   Print out the opposite hearts found here and cut each heart in half.  Lay each heart half face down, and have your child flip over one at a time to find the word’s opposite.  Talk to your child about the meaning of each word and help them to establish the opposite word by giving clues (e.g., for the word “wet” you might tell your child, “If something is not wet it has no water on it.  It must be very…”).

 

  1. Practice giving compliments

Valentine’s day is all about love, and you can talk to your child about the importance of telling our family and friends that we care.  Giving a friend or family member a compliment is an excellent way to show others that they are appreciated.  Have your child write compliments on paper hearts and distribute them to his/her family members and friends.  This is a great way to practice sentence formulation, spelling/writing skills and the social benefits of giving complements!

 

  1. Make your own Valentine’s 

Are you sick of store-bought Valentine’s Day cards? Have your child make his/her own cards this year and dare to be different! Cards are a traditional staple of a school Valentine’s Day party.   It is time to get out your art supplies and get creative.   Your child can practice his/her functional language skills by making requests, asking for help and asking for more of a supply.  Expand upon vocabulary and teach new concepts such as colors (e.g., red, pink, white), shapes (e.g., hearts), and other vocabulary words (e.g., mailbox, scissors, crayons, glue, etc.).  You can get some other great ideas for speech and language skills to target during project time here!

Posted Thursday, February 9th, 2017