Gift Opening: Make It a Bonding and Teaching Moment! 3 Ways to Language-Load the Experience:)
Authored by Elise Weinstein, M.S., CCC-SLP, Speech Therapist at The Village Therapy Place
Who doesn’t like opening presents? Colorful wrapping paper and bows, squeals of excitement and anticipation, and then -the gift itself to enjoy😊
Did you realize use can use presents as an opportunity to develop your child’s speech and language skills? Below are three ways to language-load the experience. Examples are included for both early-language learners and more sophisticated speakers.
1) Focus on Basic Concepts:
For your early-language learners, presents are an excellent time to focus on the concepts closed/open, empty/full, and big/small.
For older children, use more advanced concept words related to weight (heavy/light), length (long/short), height (tall/short), and spatial relationships (under/behind/in front of).
Tip: Provide your child with auditory bombardment of these concept words by saying the words many times to help your child understand and use these concept words.
2) Focus on Describing:
What’s inside the box? Let’s guess first!
Focus on using adjectives to describe the present while you look for clues.
(Is the box big or small? Tall, long, or wide? Noisy or quiet when shaken? Does it feel soft or hard when you put your hand in the box?)
If your child likes to rip the paper off and open the present immediately (understandably so 😊), then you can focus on describing the present after it is open.
Did your child get something hard? soft? shiny? smooth? noisy? colorful? large? wooden? plastic? electric? heavy? light? sticky? furry?
3) Focus on Possessives:
When multiple family members open presents, you can focus on teaching the concept of possession.
For our early-language learners, focus on simple two-word utterances to demonstrate possession (e.g. Mommy necklace, Daddy watch, Sara blocks).
Other children can use this as an opportunity to work on your/yours and my/mine (e.g. the necklace is yours, the blocks are mine; your necklace, my blocks).
Older children can focus on using the possessive “s” (e.g. Mommy’s necklace, Daddy’s watch, Sara’s blocks)
Wishing you and your loved ones the happiest of holidays!
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We, at The Village Therapy Place, located in Bergen County- in Wyckoff, NJ, aim to provide integrative, neurodevelopmental, individualized, pediatric therapy in a warm, fun, and collaborative environment.
We offer pediatric services that include physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, feeding therapy, and DIR Floortime.
At The Village Therapy Place, we utilize current and evidence-based treatment techniques to help treat your child during his PT, OT, speech therapy, feeding therapy and DIR Floortime session. These include sensory integration, reflex integration, therapeutic listening, Kinesiotape, craniosacral therapy, NDT, BrainGym, feeding therapy, PROMPT, to name a few.
Our expert pediatric therapists offer a variety of treatment options, including 30/45/60 minute sessions, group classes and virtual therapy to best suit a child’s needs.
The pediatric physical therapists, occupational therapists & speech therapists at The Village Therapy Place are in constant contact with a child's caregivers to facilitate lasting change.
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