laundry load-in language

Everyday life is full of language opportunities - "teachable moments" some call them.  

But as parents, we often feel overwhelmed with all the daily duties of work, home and child-rearing.  Having your child's Speech Therapist give you activities and language lessons to review during the week just seems to add to the TO-DO list.

BUT here's a great activity that is a part of your home routine that is loaded with good language:

LAUNDRY

I HATE TO DO LAUNDRY.

BUT I LOVE TO DO LAUNDRY when my little boys help me out.

My 6 year old is a champ at taking the wet clothes I hand to him and toss them into the dryer.  Today, my 2 year old joined in the fun.

Here's some of the language that I modeled for him while we completed this task:

-Requesting: every time he reached toward me for another piece, I modeled "please" and "thank you."

-Vocabulary: names of the articles of clothing

-Category: "clothes"

-Description: "wet" and "dry" - "empty" and "full"

-Position: "open" and "shut" for the dryer door as well as "in" to the dryer and "out" of the washer.

So it sounded something like this:

"Okay, let's OPEN the door to the dryer.  The dryer is EMPTY... Let's make it FULL... Here's a SHIRT to put IN the dryer.  You want another one?  Okay say PLEASE [hand him one]... say THANK YOU.... do you feel how it's WET?  When we put it IN the dryer it gets DRY!  Look here's your PANTS... let's put them IN the dryer. UH-OH... that one fell on the floor... PICK it up PLEASE... Good job!!!" and REPEAT until the washer is emptied.

He not only had a chance to learn some new language-  he is learning a life-skill of doing laundry!  We had a chance to spend some time together!  And he was occupied so he wasn't climbing on the table!  Win-win!