By Kristi Keele, teli Speech Language Pathologist
As the weather warms up and we get outside more, participating in messy play with your child can be a fun way to pass the time and foster language development! Here is a fun activity you can do with your toddler as you venture outside:
Spread whipped cream over the surface of a jelly roll pan, fill a spray bottle with water and gather items such as cars, Little People, animals etc. Drive the cars in the whipped cream, make animals slide around, spray/“wash” them and dry them off. Toddlers love cleaning the toys and getting them dirty again!
Action Words- Incorporate verbs (drive, wash, spray, clean, dry, walk etc) as you perform the action.
Descriptive Words – Model adjectives (dirty/clean, wet/dry, big/little etc) as you play.
Play Sounds – Model silly sounds (vroom, wee, uh-oh, oh-no, boom, ta-da etc) to help your child imitate simple, meaningful sounds.