Social Skills During the Summer Months

This is a guest post from one of our summer speech language pathology interns>

Summer is such an exciting and busy time for everyone. Children are ready to play - and parents are too. So, what happens to those social skills you and your child have been working so hardon over the school year? Don’t fret! There is no need to focus on “work” during summer vacation. Here are some fun social activities that focus on “play”. 

Make a Summer Treat 

●     Working in the kitchen with your child is such a great place to share perspectives, talk about your days, and enjoy each other’s company. 

●     Following recipes helps build skills associated with understanding directions, asking questions, and requesting help

●     BONUS: If it’s nice outside - pack up and head out to your favorite park (or even your backyard) and enjoy a picnic.

Long Vacation?

●     Summer Postcards

○     A great way to practice a multitude of skills (social skills, language skills, handwriting, etc.) is to have your child write postcards to themselves while on vacation. Throughout the week, help your child to identify their favorite activities of the day or something they want to remember about their trip. Have them write on a postcard, “Dear Me,” and mail it home. Not only is it expanding skills, it’s something to look forward to even though your vacation is over.

●     Long Drives 

○     Are you dreading how many times you’ll hear the infamous “are we there yet?” from the backseat? Here are some of my all-time favorite car ride games to avoid those questions while still working on language skills:

■     I Spy: Take turns saying “I spy with my little eye something…” and fill in with a characteristic of an object that is visible. This game is a wonderful opportunity to have children use elaborative skills (shapes, colors, uses, etc) without giving away the actual term/object they are referencing. 

■     ABC Game:Find words on billboards or road signs that start with each letter of the alphabet. You can’t move onto the next letter until you’ve found a word.

●     PS: Good Luck with Q, X and Z! 

■     License Plate Game: This game is a great chance for perspective taking. The challenge is to find the license plate from the farthest state. Talk about the different License Plates you see, and how far away that car must have traveled to be where they are now. It’s fun and easy to make guesses about where they are going, and why.

Rainy Day? 

●     Cuddle up with a movie or a book. Watching movies isn’t the most active way to pass time during the summer months, but it’s a great opportunity for conversations when everyone needs some down time. It’s an awesome way to incorporate their language goals into an activity that they enjoy: 

○     Discuss after: 

■     Social Language & Perspective Taking: Have everyone identify their favorite parts and explain why they liked them. Comparing those parts can help with perspective taking and increase social language at the same time.

■     Elements of a Story (aka Story Grammar): Have them come up with an alternative ending. Let them use their imaginations to end the movie how they would want. 

■     Making Predictions: Occasionally pause the movie or stop reading, and have your child predict what might happen. At the end of the movie or book, ask your child if they think there will be a sequel. If so, what do they think it would be about?

○     Another great way to use movies to practice language skills is to find a movie based off of a book. Read the book and watch the movie together - this sets up the perfect “Compare & Contrast” activity.

Read, Read, Read 

●     Book Club

○     Does your child love to read? Creating a book club with your child’s friends is a great opportunity to get your child to meet up with friends over summer. You can read the book to the group, or everyone can take turns reading if they are comfortable doing so. Be prepared with some discussion questions to initiate conversations. 

These are all great ways to incorporate expansion of social language skills into activities you will most likely already be doing this summer. Get creative!

Katharyn Bannar

Developing Communication Skills Through Games

Play has often been considered to be the work of children. While many children tend to think of “playing” as time for electronics, playing board games and card games provide opportunities to socialize while building on important life skills.  In addition to providing valuable time interacting with family and friends, playing games is also a great way to help children learn improved communication skills (both receptively and expressively).

Many of the games that are listed can be adapted for various ages/skills by playing with other rules (which also works on flexibility).  Examples of rule changes include eliminating timers; working in pairs or groups; eliminating the need to write answers; reducing the number of rules that are used; creating your own games using the game pieces such as using pictures for describing, comparing, etc.

Here is a list of games to consider for you child for the holidays or anytime.  Although the games below are listed based on specific areas of language, the games typically can help improve various areas of language while having fun. 

Receptive and expressive language including language concepts, following directions, retaining, recalling and integrating information, formulating sentences, describing, explaining, categorization, associations, etc:

• Scattergories:  Thinking of words that fall into a list of various categories that also start with a specific letter

• Wordplay:  Thinking of words that fall into a specific category that also start with a letter that is chosen by spinning a spinner

• Frazzle: Naming words that fit a chosen category and initial letters more quickly than your opponent

• Headbanz: Asking yes/no questions to figure out the picture of an item that is placed on your “Headbanz”

• Double Ditto: Thinking of items that may fall into atypical categories and then seeing if the answers match those of other players 

• Scavenger Hunts: Either purchased or homemade games where items are presented for children to find.  Items can be presented either verbally, through pictures or even clues that are spoken or written

• Go Fish: Naming and describing pictures while learning vocabulary, turn-taking skills, etc. 

• UNO cards with various characters for describing such as Dory, Frozen, Spiderman, etc.  Instead of playing the typical game of UNO, such cards can be used for describing and playing matching games or Go Fish   

• Stare:  Answering questions and recalling information about a picture you have stared at for 30 seconds

Vocabulary including word retrieval, word meanings:

• Matching Games: matching pictures game that can be based on different themes

• Bingo with pictures

• Word Teasers:  Using conversation questions while focusing on vocabulary

• Zingo: Matching presented pictures to the pictures on your board by shouting out the picture name

• Secret Square Game:  Asking questions to guess the target picture

• 20 Questions:  Guessing the items based upon clues that are read by your opponent.

• 5-Second Rule: Naming items in a category in 5 seconds

• Spot it: Using card pairs to find the matching picture and quickly state the answer before someone else does.  Various themes are available  

• Blurt:  Guessing words based on clues that are given

Pragmatic skills including turn-taking, topic maintenance, perspective-taking, reading body language, negotiating, compromising, etc: 

• Charades Games such as Kids on Stage, Guesstures, Charades for Kids, Picture Charades for Kids: Acting out various animals, vehicles, or the use of items for others to guess; also requires the actor to decide on the most important aspects to act out

• Cooperative/noncompetitive games:  Learning to work together and realize that games are not always about winning

• The Secret Door: acting  as detectives to work together and  figure out which objects are missing

• Snail’s Pace Race: matching colors to have snails move along the race path.  Can choose to have the first snail win, the last snail, or a snail in the middle

• Dinosaur Escape:  Helping dinosaurs escape to their island before the volcano erupts

• Snug as a Bug in a Rug:  Helping the matching bugs to hide under the rug before the stink bugs stink up the place

•  Race to the Treasure:  Stopping the Ogre from getting the treasure by working  together to get to the treasure first

• Stone Soup: Matching  ingredients to go in the soup before the fire goes out

• Hoot, Owl, Hoot:  Matching colors to help owls get back to their nests

• Table Topics:  Using cards to start conversations.  Various themes are available

• Would You Rather? Voting on which you would choose when given 2 dilemmas to theoretically experience

Executive function including organizing, sequencing, problem-solving, negotiating, compromising

• Apples to Apples, Junior or Regular: Choosing the item in your hand that is best described by the adjective that is provided.  There are different levels of this game.

• Pickles to Penguins: Quickly linking pictures together based on commonalities

• Guess Who:  Guessing the mystery character based on a series of questions

• Life: A classic game that requires players to make life choices and deal with the  consequences of those choices

• Monopoly: A classic game that comes in many themes where players buy and rent properties while managing their money

• Clue, Jr: Using clues and the process of elimination to figure out what is hidden in the clubhouse.

• The Labyrinth Game: Using planning, strategies, associations, cause-effect, etc. to open passages in order to accumulate your game pieces

Phonological Awareness including articulation, spelling and reading 

•  Rhyming games:  Such as I Spy a Mouse in the House! Picture Rhymes, Pop for Word Families, Rhyming Bingo, The Learning Journey Match It! Rhyme and other games that help children focus in on similarities and differences in word endings and word meanings

• Mad Gab:  Read a series of words while changing the emphasis on the words.  Eventually it will sound like a different phrase

• The Last Letter:  Quickly coming up with a word on one of your cards that starts with the last letter of the previous word that was stated

• Scrabble: Making up words with letter tiles.  Different levels are available starting with Scrabble, Jr. (which uses letter matching)

• My Word: Making up words from cards with letters on them.

• Play on Words:  Making up words from cards that are presented while using strategies to capture opponents words

• Word on the Street: Stating words in a category and identifying letters in that word

Have fun! 

Carol A. Walck, M.S. CCC/SLP