Outdoor play - why and how?

 In today's techno pro world where children have been left confined indoors to indulge in excessive TV and computer, the charm of outdoor play and fun is fading away. And the ones bidding adieus are the variety of learning opportunities that are fostered through outdoor play. My daughter will complete 9 months in a few days and as a mother I know that she loves the 'park time' way better than her favorite I pad games!

Lets see what do outdoor activities help a child achieve - 


1. A medley of developmental tasks - fine and gross motor skills, exploring, risk taking
2. Physical Exercise - must for development of motor skills and cardiovascular endurance
3. Enjoyment - children need opportunites to explore, manipulate, expand, experiment, discover, practice, sing, yell, change and create!

4. Learning about the world - how do plants grow? do sticks stand in sand? why do we slide down instead of up? How do I make my bicycle go faster? etc.. new doors of curiosity are opened..

Not only do children learn lots of basic and fundamental information about how the world works in a very effective manner, they are more likely to remember what they learned because it was concrete and personally meaningful (Ormrod, 1997).

5. Learning about self and the environment - how high can I go on the swing, Can I slide on sand, Can I go on the slide with the head first? To learn about the physical world, the child must experiment with it.

6. Health - Fresh air and exercise always improve childrens' health.

Find some interesting outdoor activities here 

Four magical words!

There are four magical words that I always carry in my speech bag, and they are - 
one, two, three, start!
As you can guess, this set of words can be used every time you want your child to do an activity or start any action (even talk!)
This set of words if used carefully, can even entice and motivate a non talker to jump on her first word! Just like other words in the speech therapy world, its more about how and when you use them than what they mean.
The magic begins when the child hears the word - 'start'.. the numbers ( 1, 2, 3 ) act like a preparatory set for the child to get ready for some speech.
You can start by preceding any exciting activity by these words. For instance, speak out these words and do something that the child loves ( sing her favourite song, toss her in the air, swing on your arm, play peek - a- boo etc). The idea is to reinforce this set of words when the child is happy and automatically she would learn that something new and exciting will begin soon.
I use these words before starting any sort of game/activity/rhyme etc with the kids. They can just read my eyes and wait for me to say the word 'start'. You will often find that kids start copying you by saying out these words out loud in unison with you.
Consistency is the key like always. You might have to use these words hundreds of times before your child understands what you are aiming at. 


Keep going :)

"Bag mein kya hai?" (What's in the bag?) - A language game

If you have seen any of my sessions you would be familiar with this game. I employ this simple activity to work upon skills of- instruction following,comprehension, identification, differentiation, naming of different objects, along with language stimulation & expansion and turn takng.


What do I do?
I take a small attractive/colourful bag , fill it with the objects of target words ( e.g transport vehicles or animals or daily objects etc). I swing the bag in front of the child while singing.."bag mein kya hai..." ( you can cook up your own tune) and ask the child to take out any 1 object. Then we talk about the target object/toy in hand..sing related rhymes and keep it away to move on to the next object.I switch turns and reward on each good attempt by the child.This activity works superbly in one on one or group sessions too. 
I also use it as an articulation game sometimes when I place small articulation cards of the sounds Im working on.

Tip - Choose a translucent bag, so that your child cant see its contents right away.Hence the mystery quotient is maintained..


You must give this game a try and I'm sure your little one will love it :)