Summer is the perfect time to make speech therapy fun and engaging for children. With the freedom of a less structured schedule and the opportunity for outdoor activities, integrating speech therapy into summer fun can be both effective and enjoyable. Here are some creative ideas to help keep children motivated and progressing in their speech therapy goals throughout the summer months.
Outdoor Speech Therapy Activities
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Scavenger Hunts:
- Create a list of items for children to find in the yard, park, or beach. Include items that emphasize specific speech sounds or language concepts. For example, look for items that start with the "s" sound like "sand," "sidewalk," and "soccer ball."
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Nature Walks:
- Go on a nature walk and discuss the different things you see, hear, and feel. Encourage children to describe what they encounter using complete sentences and correct speech sounds. This activity can help expand vocabulary and improve articulation.
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Water Play:
- Use water balloons, sprinklers, or a kiddie pool to create a fun and interactive speech therapy session. Practice following directions, taking turns, and using speech sounds during water games. Use pool toys that have the child's target sound, play "sink or float" with items you find around the house and yard, make sailboats out of pool noodles, and more!
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Chalk Drawing:
- Use sidewalk chalk to draw pictures that represent different speech sounds or language concepts. Children can practice describing their drawings, retelling stories, or naming the objects they draw. You have them answer wh- questions, follow directions, and more.
Indoor Speech Therapy Activities
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Story Time:
- Read books together and focus on articulation, language development, and comprehension. Pause to ask questions, discuss the story, and encourage children to predict what might happen next. Use books that feature repetitive phrases or rhymes to make it easier for children to participate. Check out our silly repetitive book bundle here.
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Craft Projects and Games:
- Engage in simple craft projects that encourage conversation and use of specific speech sounds. We have some downloadable activities such as beach themed coloring sheets, one page craft sheets, seasonal themed smash mats, printable game boards, interactive scenes boom cards, and alphabet craft pages.
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Cooking Together:
- Involve children in cooking simple recipes. This activity can enhance vocabulary, following directions, sequencing, and describing actions and ingredients. Use recipes that require multiple steps to practice sequencing words like "first," "next," and "last." Check out these visual recipes made for kids!
- Summer Sensory Bin:
- If you have many of our decks, such as the Box of Sound decks, you can pull out a ton of summer themed vocabulary to put into a sensory bin. You can also use these to come up with silly sentences working on target sounds and language skills.
