We're bombarded with the good advice to keep our kids reading and learning in fun ways over the summer. Well, it's the same with communication progress. Let's not let the learning slow down over the summer. In fact, summer is an ideal time for you to extend your child's TapToTalk vocabulary. Here are some ideas:
Add pages or albums for summertime activities. Camp, the park, trips, new friends and such provide a great opportunity to extend your child's communication capability.
It may be time to expand some of the sounds played on your child's TapToTalk. For example, if your child uses one-word sounds, try a few sentences. If tapping the apple produces the sound "apple" try "I want an apple." Or maybe it's time to have both a green apple and a red apple from which to choose.
Engage your child in TapToTalk design activity. Can she help select pictures of things she wants to say? This can be fun, too. Maybe she wants to draw a picture and then you can take a photo of it and add it to her TapToTalk.
Watch for things your child points to or times he gets frustrated or excited for opportunities to add pictures.
If you have a speech therapist to work with, ask about how you can use summertime to enhance your child's communication.
Instead of a summer slump, let's keep communication ability moving forward.
