Your children learned the first nuances of language while they were babies in their mother’s womb. That learning continues at an explosive pace through their formative years, when their brains are primed for grasping sounds, grammar, and vocabulary. As their parents, you have great power to boost their language skills at home, and it can all be done in fun.
Check out these six games you can play with your child to expand their comprehension as well as their vocabulary.
I Spy
A great form of entertainment while at the park or in a mall, I Spy actively involves preschoolers in observing their surroundings in search of something square, or blue, or pointy, or soft.
Who Am I?
Similar to I Spy but more useful in confined spaces such as waiting rooms or in a fast-moving car, Who Am I requires choosing a character from movies, cartoons, or books and making the other person guess who it is by answering yes-or-no questions.
ThinkFun Zingo
This board game variation on Bingo is fun, fast-paced, and helps kids 4-8 years of age associate a picture with the spoken and written word.
Hello Sunshine Game
For kids as young as eighteen months, this is an active hide-and-seek game with an adorable stuffed sun that’ll help teach your toddler the names of common objects in a room as well as positional expressions like “on top of” and “underneath.”
Rhyming Games
Rhymes teach kids to recognize language patterns, which is one reason why so many nursery songs rhyme. Singing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” or “I’m A Little Teapot” introduces these concepts to younger children. By messing with those rhymes in silly ways, you can entertain older children, though it might require a little thought!
Humpty Dumpty Sat On A Ball, Humpty Dumpty Had A Great Doll! And All The King’s Horses and All The King’s Hens Couldn’t Put Humpty Dumpty Together Again!
The Minister’s Cat
For older children, consider this Victorian parlor game, a higher-level version of musical chairs. Clapping to the rhyme, the first person says “The Minister’s Cat is an (adjective that begins with ‘A’) Cat,” and the next person follows with the same rhyme but a different adjective that also begins with ‘A.’ In a large group, the first person who fails to come up with a new ‘A’ adjective is eliminated and the next round begins with ‘B.’
The great thing about kids is that they absorb everything they hear (and even the things you don’t want them to hear!) Games and rhymes are fun but the best thing any parent can do is talk to them, engage with them, read with them, and listen as they learn to express themselves to the world.
