Speech and play

Play is a fantastic medium for children to explore, learn and experience new things. Sometimes play and learning get separated into two categories and it is thought the two things can’t really meet. But this is simply not true.

Play and learning can intertwine perfectly and children can learn new skills (like pouring in water play) or how things move from one place to another (playing with cars) or even over coming fears through play (if a child is scared of a dog, then playing with soft toy dogs or playing dogs with friends, helps them to understand their fear and supports them to process their fear).

So it stands to reason that speech can also be supported through play too. This is the same for children with additional needs and those without, all children can benefit in their speech through play.

When a child is playing they use this experience to use the language they have learnt in their everyday. For example playing with cars, they may use the sounds they have heard cars make – vroom vroom. Or they may use language used around cars e.g. come on, over there, faster etc. Playing with dinosaurs can help explore sounds such as Roar and stomp. So even children with minimal speech can explore sounds and language through play. And through play, children can feel safe to use the language they have and to try out new words.

You can use play to also help support children learning new words. Play is very visual, so by you showing children the objects they are playing with and using the correct words to name them you are giving them a visual representation of what the word is and what the word means. For example, you are playing together with a farm and there is a cat, if you were to say the word for the first time and they haven’t seen a cat the word wouldn’t mean anything, but as you play you show them the cat, you help them hear the sound a cat makes and they have a real grasp of what a cat is. And as you play you as the adult keep repeating the word, you keep repeating the sound and gradually the child builds the confidence to say cat or to make the sound. This is a very basic example, but it gives you the idea.

If there are words or concepts that you are trying to help your child learn such as ‘on’ or ‘off’, then why not use play. ‘O no the bird has fallen off the tree’. Set up play activities that support the word or concept, and that really encourage language. Even balls going through a tunnel – ‘where has it gone?’

These are some trays I have made for work, but you could also make them just as easily at home with items you have at home.

You could use this type of play to support language about family members, household objects or inside and outside. You as the adult don’t lead the play, but you are involved and you use lots of opportunities to speak about these different topics.

This tray is about cars, but also about the different surfaces they are travelling on – language such as rough, bumpy, smooth can be used. You can think about the car is it going fast or slow. Again so much language can be practiced and introduced with a very simple set up.

For some children learning to talk has to be more intentional and can take a bit longer, but it can also be fun for you and them.