Facilitating Language on the Playground

 The playground is one of the best places for learning to occur.  (Nope!...it’s not by using a new fancy flashcard set or by using that expensive new educational app that is “guaranteed to build language”) Multi-sensory, free-play is where the magic happens.  

Here are some of our favorite language-building strategies to use while on the playground this summer:

1.     Do Something! – Outside activities are the perfect time to teach action words.  At the park you can model verbally while you’re doing the actions.  These could include swing, play, slide, jump, climb, spin, run, hop, ride, walk, sit, go, shout, stop and so many more.  Describe what your child is doing or have them tell you what you are doing.

2.     Ready, Set, Go! – The park is a great place to practice anticipatory sets or repetitive phrases.  An example of this would be, “Ready, Set, Go!”.  This could be used at the park while going down the slide or while swinging.  Before you push your child to start swinging or before letting go for them to go down the slide, you say, “Ready, Set…” and pause and wait for your child to vocalize, “go!”.  The key is to use wait time.  Give your child a chance to respond (physically count to 5 in your head!) & if they don’t respond, model “go!” and push them on the swing or down the slide. 

3.     Learn New Words – This is a great time to work on introducing new concepts.  Concepts that can be modeled at the park using the equipment could include: colors, high/low, bumpy/smooth, long/short, big/little, slow/fast, under/over, up/down, straight/curvy, stop/go. 

4.     Listen and Learn – Incorporate more complex language models and following directions at the park to make this task more fun. Have your child do what you say, take turns giving directions with them, or play Sim Says. Tell your child to “go down the blue slide”, “Go down the bumpy slide”, or “touch the merry go round and then go to the swings!”. 

5.     Let’s Socialize! – Playgrounds are a great place to work on social skills since there are often other kids there.  Encourage your child to greet other children at the park or ask questions such as, “want to play?” or “what’s your name?”.