Speech Therapy is happening at home and in the kitchen too. The chances are good that the word games and activities you’re playing with your child are already ones that help strengthen speech and language skills. Remember, working on speech and language skills at home doesn’t have to be time consuming or difficult. It can be fun and quite frankly…..tasty!
At TinyEYE, we love making cookies with our early elementary kids. Some of our best speech therapy sessions use creative and “hidden” ways to have fun with our children. Cooking encourages independence, creativity, responsibility, teamwork and more. Here are a few ideas on how you can incorporate a little “education” while whipping up a yummy treat for the family.
Measure: Measure out ingredients. Talk about how measuring tells us how much we need of something.
Scoop: Scoop out the ingredients while using the word in a sentence. Think about it, most cookies involve “scooping” the flour.
Stir: Children love to stir. Have them use “stir” in a sentence to request a turn! Go ahead and stir those yummy chocolate chips.
Slice: Discuss and show the difference between chopping and slicing. Be careful doing this with little ones and make sure those little fingers are far from sharp objects. This is a good chance to explain safety as well.
Timer: Set a timer. Talk about the time, what it means, and what to do when it beeps.
Vocabulary – Expose your child to new vocabulary words. Between ingredients, measuring units, cooking techniques, textures, tastes, etc., your child can learn lots of new vocabulary words.
Sequence: Have your child collect and organize the ingredients/materials and then follow the recipe. Provide just enough support to keep them safe (and on target with the recipe), but encourage them to follow along as independently as possible!
Taste: This is the most important part. Have the child describe their senses and share with their loved ones. Enjoy!
If you would love to discover how our speech therapists can make a difference in your life, please schedule a demo here. Finally, if you need a little cookie inspiration, click below for some yummy ideas from Delish.com
