5 Common Household Items Perfect for Speech Practice

Practicing the skills learned in speech and language therapy at home is essential for skill transfer and carryover into a child’s everyday life.  While it may seem as though you need to head out to the store to buy specific speech and language materials, it is just as effective and much easier to utilize items around your home to target your child’s goals.  Here are a few easy household items you can grab to make speech and language fun

1. Bubbles

Bubbles are a great way to encourage your child to verbally request (e.g. “more”, “bubbles please”) use action words (e.g. “pop”, “blow”) and experiment with cause and effect.

2. Shaving cream

Shaving cream is a fun way to explore receptive language skills such as following directions (e.g. “draw a circle then a square”) and allows your child to practice spelling, reading and writing skills.

3. Stacking cups/blocks/containers/pots and pans

Stacking materials and containers is a great way to target the use of prepositions in language (e.g. on, under, below, on top), exploring colors, counting and reinforcing early concepts (e.g. shape and size).

4. Grocery items

Any food or grocery items are an easy way to target expressive language skills at home or in the grocery store.  You can use the food to encourage object descriptions (e.g. color, size and shape words), build vocabulary and practicing categorizing items (e.g. fruit, vegetable, etc.)

5. Mirror

Any household mirror is a great way to visually reinforce articulation targets.  Have your child practice their speech sounds in front of a mirror to provide visual feedback.
Katelyn Sinclair, SLP