Incorporate Language into Daily Routines

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Learning vocabulary and expanding language can happen throughout a child’s day! Using silly songs and descriptive words can help strengthen your child’s language at bathtime, meal times, and getting ready for the day. Language is fun! Keep your activities playful and avoid “quizzing”. Below are some easy tips you can incorporate within daily activities.

Getting Ready in the Morning:
Label and describe clothing as your child gets dressed. 

• Give options such as, “Do you want the blue, sparkly pants or the green, striped shirt with a dinosaur on it?”

Label body parts as you put on clothing

• “Feet step in our shoes!”
• "Hands go through, then the arms!"
• “Your shirt covers your tummy!” 

Make it silly

• “Arms up to put on your pants!”
• “Do you want orange juice on your toast?”

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Bath Time:
Make silly sounds for bath toys

• “Bottle fills up, blub blub blub blub,”
• “Boat goes brrrrrrrr,” 
• “Ducky says quack quack quack quack.” 
• Wait to see how your child responds to what you said, you’re building early conversational skills! ​

Talk about what the toys can do

• Splash, dive, drip, swim, float, fill, pour, dump, soak
• Bring sponges, cups, droppers, or measuring spoons into the tub

Imitate the sounds that you hear

• Can you sound like the water coming out of the faucet? Can you make a splash sound? 
• Play with using different parts of your mouth (tongue, teeth, lips) to make silly sounds!​

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Mealtimes:
​Describe sensory qualities of the food

• Is the food crunchy? Soft? Sweet? Sour?

Have your little one help with the preparation and clean up

• Talk about the actions you are doing or the steps to complete the snack or meal. 

Play a category game during family meal times

• Go around the table naming things within that category. Give your child a choice if he or she is unable to come up with something.

Looking for more tips to encourage language development? Download "Beginning with Babble" from wherever you get your apps. It’s a free and informative resource full of great ideas to expand language for children ages 0-4. 

Blog written by: Katie Bode, Speech Therapy Student