Halloween is quickly approaching! Holidays like Halloween are a fun way to build your child's language skills and understanding of traditions.  Language skills are easy to incorporate whether you are working on them at home or during speech-language therapy.  Below are some of my favorite Halloween activities you can do with your child.

Pumpkin Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts can be both fun and helpful for language development at the same time. Cut out pumpkins and write Halloween vocabulary words or targeted sounds for articulation on them and hide them around the house.  Next, have your child go on a scavenger hunt looking for the pumpkins.  As the pumpkins are found, have your child formulate sentences with the words on the clover.  This is also a good opportunity to work on prepositions by having your child use prepositions to describe where he or she found the pumpkin such as, “I found the pumpkin under the table.”

Bake a Treat

Cooking is a fun activity to do with your child and you can work on sequencing, following directions, and vocabulary at the same time. There are several recipes you can make for Halloween. Some of my favorite recipes to make are pumpkin and bat sugar cookies and hot dog mummies.

Arts and Crafts

Making Halloween themed arts and crafts is a perfect opportunity to work on various language skills.  You can work on following directions (for example, “Put one big ghost on the paper”), prepositions (for example, “Put the witch on her broom”), and adjectives (for example, have the children request items for their project by adjective such as, “I need the small blue paintbrush”).

Create a Pumpkin Patch

First make pumpkins and write words on them with your child’s targeted speech sounds for articulation or vocabulary words. Set the pumpkins out like a pumpkin patch and have your child pick out the pumpkins one at a time. As your child picks the pumpkins have him or her say word on the pumpkin. Depending on the language skills you are addressing, have your child use the words in phrases or sentences or define the vocabulary word.

Halloween Books

There are several books about Halloween that you can choose to read depending on your child’s reading level.  Some of my favorites include:

1. Baby Touch and Feel: Halloween by DK

2. Little Blue Truck’s Halloween by Alice Schertle

3. Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

4. Don’t Push The Button! A Halloween Treat by Bill Cotter

As you read each story ask questions related to the book and have your child identify the objects in pictures.  This will also help improve vocabulary. For more Halloween books check out last weeks blog post.

I hope that you and your child enjoy these Halloween activities! Additionally, feel free to contact In Home Speech Solutions if you have questions or concerns or if there’s anything we can help with.

Jennifer Price M.S., CCC-SLP

Lead Speech-Language Pathologist & Owner