Summer: Sun And Speech Fun
Summer is a time for both getaways and staycations. You can let the soothing sound of the waves put your kiddo to sleep on the beach. Or you can also let a gentle noisemaker lull both of you into a cat nap at home. Summer is a time for rest and relaxation, but also for activity and fun.
It’s also a great time to make significant and lasting improvements in your child’s communication. Over the next three weeks we’ll go into ways you can use the summer months for speech and language improvement. Each week we’ll give you tips that can be quite effective for certain age ranges. For this week, we’ll look at how to help children between the ages of three and five.
Playing
From the time they are born children love to play. It’s adorable, but it’s so much more than another video to post on Facebook. By playing your child develops social skills which are crucial to communicating with the family and society at large. There are six stages of play as observed and catalogued by sociologist Mildred Parten. For now we are only concerned with parallel play, associative play and cooperative play.
Simple Summer Schedule
Before we talk any more about play let’s talk about a schedule for your child. He probably had a consistent schedule during the school year. A schedule takes care of the anxiety that your child experiences when he’s unsure of what’s happening next.
A visual schedule is especially effective so that your child can see what’s going to happen and in what order. Visual schedules are great at preventing behavioral issues for children who are very opposed to change, for example kids with autism. The dependability of a schedule keep children even tempered, ready to play and socialize with other kids. Here are several types of visual schedules you can create and how to use them.
Parallel Play
Parallel play is when children are playing, not necessarily together, but side by side. It may look like they aren’t communicating but that’s not the case. Take for instance two children who are drawing and coloring next to each other. They may end up with two different drawings and still influence each other. If given the same pool of crayons to use they could also learn how to take turns using the colors they like.
If one of them has a problem sharing (an understandable problem for kids ages three to five), you can create a visual reminder for sharing. Cut a circle out of bright construction paper that you can write “My Turn” on in big bold letters with a marker and then laminate it. Whoever is holding it has first pick of the crayons and can use them while they have the circle. Then the other child may use it next, and so on.
Children at this stage of play will also mirror and mimic each other. While one draws the sun, the other may draw the moon. If one draws a dragon, the other may draw a unicorn, simply because they are watching what the other child is doing. Parallel play is the first stage of the six where children start to interact and communicate.
Children two and a half to three and a half years of age are the ones most likely to engage in parallel play.
Associative Play
This stage of play is when children really start to interact with each other. It’s when children are more interested in each other than they are of playing alone. They talk to each other, ask questions and share materials.
When you think of associative play think Legos. A group of children are playing with hundreds if not thousands of Lego pieces. Some will choose to work together to form one massive goal like a city. In order to do this they have to ask questions and form plans; in other words, communicate. Some kids may prefer to go off on their own with a few hundred parts and build their own creation, but even then they’ll be curious about what other people are doing, show off what they made, etc.
Children who engage in associative play are usually between three and four and a half years of age.
Cooperative Play
Cooperative play is when social interaction between children is common and frequent. Think of games where children compromise, take turns and work together to achieve one common purpose. They can still communicate nonverbally through gestures and body language. However, there is also a lot of verbal communication because it’s the only way to play these types of games effectively.
A big component of cooperative play is the use of stories to share ideas and personalities, such as in a play where roles and stories are interchanged. Another example of this is playing cops and robbers. Moreover, children engaged in cooperative play are also ready for competitive activities, like a water balloon fight or sports like baseball.
Children who are able to participate in cooperative play are usually between four to five and a half years of age.
Imagination Is Key
It’s impossible for a child to play without the use of a healthy and vibrant imagination. Whether he’s just starting to roll a ball around, pretending he’s doing surgery on a patient or playing tag, none of it is possible without him using his imagination. Luckily, it also works the other way around. Children who don’t have thriving imaginations can strengthen theirs by exercising and expanding it through playtime with others.
The Communication Game
Having an imagination is truly important. It is through imagination that a child learns to communicate with his peers. Through the use of imagination he can color a horse red or befriend a dragon. He needs his imagination to properly envision a story in all its parts whenever he reads a book.
It definitely takes a robust imagination to believe that other kids will accept him as is the very first time they meet. That’s how imagination makes play possible.
Children learn so much just by being around other children. Through play and fun with other kids your child can learn normal social cues that he might not be able to grasp on his own. May this summer be a great learning experience for him by using the power of play.