All of these games will help develop your child’s speech,
language and communication skills.
All of these games will help develop your child’s speech, language and
communication skills. The games are broken down into different areas.
 Play skills
 Turn taking skills
 Non verbal communication (natural gesture)
 Verbal expression
 Attention & Listening Skills
Play Skills
He/she should be encouraged to engage in a variety of play activities. The
following are some suggestions:
 Construction play with building blocks, stacking cups, threading beads.
E.g. Building a Tower: Take it in turns with your child to put a brick on a
tower. Talk about the tower getting ‘taller’. You could also take it in
turns to knock the tower over, saying ‘Ready, Steady……GO’.

Pretend play with dolls, teddies, animals, toy cars etc.
Turn-taking Skills
Turn taking in play forms the basis for turn taking in conversation so it is
important that he/she gets involved in simple activities that involve
taking turns.
The following activities may prove useful:
 Throwing/rolling a ball between 2 or 3 children/parent and child
 Rolling miniature cars/trains/buses between 2 or 3 children/parent
and child
 Taking turns adding a brick to a tower of bricks until they all fall down
 Taking turns doing the actions to a song (e.g. Old Mc Donald had a
farm)
Non Verbal Communication
Communication is more than speech alone. Information is also conveyed
non-verbally (facial expressions, hand/ body movements, eye-contact etc.)
He/she can maximise his/her communicative ability if he/she is
encouraged to use communication rather than just speech. Your aim for
him/her is to develop his/her communication skills. The following are some
suggestions:-.
1. When you are playing with him/her try to use gesture in addition to
speech and language. If you are asking him/her a question such as
“Would you like something to drink or your doll”, you could try using a
gesture for drink e.g. raising your hand to your mouth and then using a
gesture for doll eg. Pretending to rock a doll in your arms.
2. When you are playing with him/her exaggerating your own facial
expressions to convey different emotions will show him/her that
he/she too can use facial expressions to convey a variety of feelings.
Verbal Expression
You can help develop his/her expressive language in a variety of ways. The
most important thing to keep in mind is that opportunities for
communication need to be present regularly during the day in order that
there is actually a need for him/her to communicate. You can help his
expressive language in the following ways:
1. Try to ensure that he/she has to make choices during his daily
activities e.g. A choice of what activities to play with. You could try
keeping the toys out of view so that he/she has to ask you for a
specific toy or use a gesture to indicate which one he/she wants.
2. When reading with him/her, try to keep your own language simple, use
lots of noises (animals, cars, trains etc.) and at all times pause at
regular intervals to give him/her a chance to point at the picture or
comment on what he/she sees.
Attention & Listening Skills
You can facilitate the development of his/her attention and listening
skills by focusing on short (5-10minutes maximum) activities with him/her.
During that time play a simple game with him/her or listen to a favourite
song. It is important that during this time there are no distractions. You
should close the door/window and turn off or move away from extraneous
noise. Remember that during this time you don’t have to talk.