Everyday Speech

Working in early intervention for 10+ years, I have greatly appreciated the emphasis of routine-based interventions. This evidence-based practice supports that young children learn when providing multiple opportunities to actively participate in their daily routines. I have documented, through social media, simple strategies to use everyday activities to support communication development in young children. Parents can use daily routines to teach language comprehension, expression, and develop social communication skills.

Daily Routines

Bathing: Many young children love bath time, which they can splash in water and play toys while their parents get them clean. Parents can use this opportunity to teach young children their different body parts. They can also teach about other water-related vocabulary through their toys such as different sea and pond animals, as well as floating transportation.

Dressing: Much like bathing, while parents are dressing their children, they can teach them about their body parts. They can also teach about different clothing items. Dressing is a time for teaching listening and following directions. Young children can learn to follow steps to help with dressing and undressing like “arms up”, “socks off”, “get your shoes”.

Eating: Mealtime allows young children to build their expressive language skills through requesting, commenting, and protesting. This is usually one of the earliest activities young children begin communicating their wants and needs through nonverbal and verbal behaviors. Parents can also reinforce everyday routines associated with eating such as preparing for mealtime and cleaning afterwards.

Toileting: Parents see communication skills as a prerequisite for introducing toilet training. Young children verbalizing when they have soiled themselves is not the only opportunity to teach language skills. Much like mealtime, young children can learn communication skills such following directions and sequencing while toilet training, as well as with associated routines like handwashing.

Home Chores

Cooking: Parents can teach their children health food habits and language skills while cooking together. Preparing simple meals together children can learn important receptive language like following directions (recipe), specific vocabulary (ingredients, utensils) and action verbs such as “chop, spread, pour, cook, bake, stir, mix”.

Laundry: Laundry time is a great opportunity to teach children about sorting (darks/lights) and categorization among different types of clothing items. Children can also learn about opposite concepts such as “dark/light”, “dirty/clean”, “wet/dry” as they observe or help parents with this task. And finally, sequencing steps needed to complete laundry teaches children the importance of following multiple steps to complete one activity.

Cleaning: Much like cooking and laundry, cleaning continues to reinforce the importance of following a sequence of different actions. Parents can use cleaning to teach children executive function skills that involve problem solving, initiation, execution, and completion. Although young children may need help with cleaning thoroughly, they can begin to learn the importance of organization in their everyday environments.

Outdoor Activities

Driving/Walking: Commuting around your neighborhood provides parents with excellent opportunities to teach a variety of vocabulary to their children within natural contexts. Young children can learn about nature (animals, plants, weather). Parents can teach them about community resources (libraries, fire stations, grocery stores, etc.). Children can learn about community safety such as interpreting traffic lights (“red means stop”) and traffic signs. Parents can also teach children about workers who they may encounter throughout their community such as postal workers, delivery drivers, sanitation workers, and fire fighters.

Shopping: Use trips to the various stores as an opportunity to teach children how to learn different processes. Parents can show children how to prepare for a trip to the store by developing a grocery list. They can demonstrate to children how to engage in different social interactions such as making a purchase or seeking assistance from a store employee.

As Better Hearing and Speech Month ends today, parents can continue to learn of different methods to encourage everyday language development through social media, blogs and education websites that highlight community-based instructions. I posted a series on #everydayplay to given parents and other early childhood providers tips on how to use the above routines to build communication skills. Parent can use everyday activities as ongoing teaching opportunities to expand their child’s language comprehension and expression.