7. Hug the baby/feed the baby
Sit on the floor with your child. Put a pillow and blanket on the floor to make a bed. Tell him you need to feed the baby. Model how to feed the baby and then give the bottle to the baby. Stimulate language by saying “Baby’s drinking baba”. Then hand the baby doll to your child and ask him to give the baby her bottle. Prompt by modeling again or by putting the baby doll in his arms and helping him give the baby a bottle. After giving baby a bottle, tell your child it’s time to put the baby doll to bed. Model how to give the baby doll a hug and then put her on the pillow and cover her up. Stimulate language by saying, “Baby’s sleeping.” Then hand the baby doll to your child and ask him to give the baby a hug. Prompt by modeling again or by putting the baby doll against his chest and helping him put his arms around the baby.
8. Book
Sit with your child and look at a book (or photos of family members) with him. As you look at the book, point to the pictures. Stimulate language by labeling each picture. To prompt him, tap the picture that you’re talking about. Let him hold the book if he wants to. The goal is for your child to maintain attention to the pictures that you are labeling.
9. Mr. Potato Head
This activity is good for teaching your child facial features (e.g., eyes, ears, nose). Have Mr. Potato Head and extra parts lying in front of you and your child. Give him Mr. Potato Head’s body and say, “Here is Mr. Potato Head. He has no eyes. Let’s give him eyes.” Pick up the eyes and demonstrate how to put them into the proper holes. Hopefully he will want to explore the other parts of Mr. Potato Head. After each new Mr. Potato Head piece is introduced, ask him to point to the corresponding body part on himself (e.g., After you put a nose on Mr. Potato Head, ask your child, “Where is your nose?” Then touch his nose and say, “There it is”).
10. Blocks
Sit on the floor by or in front of your child. Stack the blocks. As you are stacking, say “Up, up, up”. When the stack is tall, knock it over. As it falls, be animated and say, “Oooo” or “Uh-oh.” Do it again and be sure to vocalize as it falls. Your child may grab blocks as you stack them, which may make the stack fall. If this happens, just react to it. Prompt by building the tower out of his reach and then pausing before you knock it over. This pause may trigger him to vocalize in order to get you to knock over the stack.
11. Blow bubbles
Sit on the floor with your child or kneel while he is standing. Make sure you are close to eye level. Blow some bubbles and say, “Bubbles.” Say it several times without saying anything else while you continue to blow bubbles. Prompt him to say the word by asking between blows, “What do you want?” or “You want bubbles?” This activity can also be used to stimulate the following words: off, pop, more, all gone, yuck (if he gets bubble mixture on himself), out (as you take the wand out of the container), and all done (when you finish the activity).
12. Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Bring over toy farm animals, sit on the floor with your child and tell him that you are going to sing a song and that you are going to be a cow and that a cow says “moo.” Exaggerate “moo”. Show him the cow and sing “Old MacDonald”. Stop and say, “Let’s do it again.” Repeat the song. Then say, “Now we’re going to be horses. Horses say ‘neigh’ ”. Show him the horse and repeat the song. Continue on with the other farm animals. The important thing here is the repetition and simply telling your child what to expect. This song is good for targeting developmental sounds, e.g. “m” for “moo” and “b” for “baa”.
13. Music
Set a CD player on floor and turn it on while using the verbal model “on.” Allow your child to listen to music he enjoys for a short period of time. When he becomes engaged, turn the music off. Allow him to attempt to turn the music on. When he is not able, ask, “What do you want?” or “Do you need help?” Prompt by holding out your hand or reaching toward the CD player. If he becomes frustrated but doesn’t gesture for help, turn on the CD player so he begins to associate coming to an adult for help with obtaining a desired object.
Apraxia of Speech is a speech disorder characterized by difficulty in planning the motor movements for speech production. Often, children with Apraxia of Speech have typical language abilities, but they are not able to express themselves verbally.