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Speech Therapy Techniques Caregivers Can Use Outside of Sessions
The holiday season brings family gatherings, conversations, and connection, making it the perfect time to support your child’s communication skills. Speech-language therapy can play a pivotal role in preparing children to engage confidently. Whether it’s articulating thoughts, understanding social cues, or improving vocabulary, these skills enrich holiday experiences.
With the sights, sounds, and smells that dominate this time of year, lean into the sensory experiences that will help your child engage with language. Whether you’re driving around looking at Christmas lights, shopping for groceries and presents, or preparing holiday cards to send to friends and family, you can describe your actions or what you observe to encourage language with your child. Point out twinkling lights, share warm and fragrant hot cocoa describing the taste, or sing along with special songs playing on the radio to strengthen your child’s language skills.
Speech-Language Therapy Holiday Activities
Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt
Work with your child to describe the colors, shapes, and number of lights on your tour. Describing their environment like a game makes learning fun and interactive!
Which lights are timed to music?
Which house has the biggest inflatable decorations?
Which house has the most blue lights?
Which house is the most colorful? — Count and say the colors together!
Social Greeting Game
Using photos of family members on holiday cards or social media, work with your child to learn relatives’ names ahead of gatherings. This can help them feel more confident seeing family they might not remember right away, and it’s also an opportunity to practice social greetings.
Hold up a picture of a relative, say their name, and ask your child to repeat their name. Practice saying “Hello, Aunt Kathy.” and “Happy holidays!” as you sort through relatives. See how many relatives your child can remember without prompting them!
Decorate the House
Decorating for the holidays can be a wonderful way for your child to work on comprehension skills as they follow directions. To work on prepositions, ask them to put a bow on top of a wreath, set the table with forks on the right side of the plate, or place a decoration in front of another object. You could also give them a choice between two colors of ornaments and ask them where they should hang it in relation to other ornaments already on the tree.
Sing Holiday Songs
Singing festive songs together is a fantastic way to work on articulation and rhythm. Let your child lead a sing-along for family members—it’s a fun and low-pressure way to practice communication.
Speech therapy weaves communication skills into everyday life, and the holidays provide a rich opportunity to connect, practice, and celebrate your child’s progress. With a little preparation, you can help your child feel included and confident, making the season brighter for everyone!
For more activities, you can always ask your child’s speech-language pathologist for recommendations to develop the specific skills children work on in their sessions.
