The Patriots are going to the Super Bowl! With so many houses gearing up for Super Bowl Sunday Parties, the SLP in me can’t help but realize all the ways you can work on speech and language while planning and having parties. I know the last thing most families want to do is work while watching the game and that is not what I am suggesting. Here are some ways to have children work on Speech and Language Skills while cheering on the Pats!
Party planning: Have your children help you plan. What items do you need for the party? What foods will you make? Who is invited? For older children, they can make lists for you to practice spelling and writing sentences.
Inviting people over: this is a great way to work on pragmatic language! Rather than sending that text invite, have your child call and invite people over. Practice the steps to making a call and what to say. Or make invitations, you can work on following directions with concepts to make the invitations and spelling.
Decorations: Brainstorm with your child what kind of decorations they want. Then make decorations together. Planning and constructing banners and flags with team colors and mascots works on both use and understanding of language while working together.
Food: I’ve talked before about how cooking with your children is a fun way to work on reading, problem solving, planning, understanding directions, sequence and quantitative concepts, as well as, socially working together. Plus, for picky eaters, involving your child in the process of cooking helps with exposure to various foods. Don’t forget to make menus!
Commercials: Have a scavenger hunt with the commercials. Make a list of items you have to find in the commercials as a family. Some ideas could be: animals, cars, celebrities, foods, restaurant chains etc.
Game time: Talk about the rules for playing football and help your child understand the game. Discuss players and who does what. There are so many rules while playing football so make sure your child understands, as much as they can, the basics.
Predictions: Work on making inferences what will the final score be? Math skills will play into this for older children talk about how teams score and make predictions. For younger children talk about who they think will get the most points.
Social skills: Let’s face it, these games can be stressful for adults. Talk to your child about expected and unexpected behaviors (or language) that may happen during the game. If you are a massive fan, or married to one, when a bad play or call happens so does yelling and becoming upset. Talk with your child that in real day to day situations to have an outburst when angry is unexpected.
Go Pats!!