4 Fun Spring Themed Activities for Cognitive and Speech-Language Development

Spring is around the corner! Can you believe it? Seasonal activities are one of my favorite ways to change up the usual play routines around the house! I find that switching my toys and books out with the change of the seasons is a great way to engage your child in play routines for longer periods of time. Longer play sessions lead to more repetitions of words and sounds! For our early language learners, repetition is KEY for successful speech, language, and cognitive growth. So, if you find that your children are becoming "bored" with the usual play routines after just a few minutes, here are some activities that you can easily incorporate into your week to work on functional skills while having fun!

1. Springtime Reading for Vocabulary Growth

Reading is such a great way to work on seasonal vocabulary, as well as sequencing, inferencing, and comprehension. I love to to read a book from front to back every so often, but most of the magic happens before, throughout, and after the reading in my sessions. When reading seasonal books, be sure to stop when you reach an unfamiliar word. If it is an action word (verb), model what it means and take a movement break to act it out. For example, when reading "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick," take time to show, explain, and encourage your child to act out swallowing. If it is an object (noun), describe the object and make it relatable to the child if possible. For example, in "Little Blue Truck Springtime," show the child what makes the two lambs twins and relate this to any twins that you may know or siblings in your child's life. I always find it to be silly and fun to talk about alternate endings to a book or to guess what might happen next. You will be surprised to see how creative your child can be! Allow your child to take turns "reading" and retelling the book as often as they want. Some books are made with no words for this exact reason!

2. Spring Bingo

Family game night just got a lot more fun, because we have a game that is easy and engaging for the whole family. I recently stumbled upon this adorable Spring BINGO board and cards from "Crafts on Sea" that is FREE. I have linked it here.

If you have older children, work on their inferencing skills by giving them clues and descriptions of the object in questions (rather than saying it's name).

3. Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

With each new season brings a new landscape to observe and interact with. I love to bring the fun outdoors by creating a scavenger hunt for my little ones. Depending on their age, I will adjust the clues to fit their capabilities. Young toddlers do best with a simple color chart and paper bag where they can collect 1-2 items of each color. I find that an easy way to make this fun activity is so color 6-10 circles with different colors on a white piece of paper. Then, place it in a clear report cover and use it as your guide. Bring your guide, a paper bag, and a black expo marker on your next walk. Try to find an item for each color and place it in your bag. For school aged children, try using adjectives (fuzzy, small, smooth) and location phrases (under a tree) to add some difficulty!

4. Arts and Crafts

The options are endless. Something as simple as making a rainbow from your scavenger hunt items (see activity #2) can be enough to make your little one excited! More complex crafting activities can be used to help our children learn to process and follow multistep directions. Here is a link to enough cute ideas to keep you busy all season long!