I’ve made some “goody bags” from items that I had around the house and from my crafting supplies.  Here are a few ideas for activities and crafting for young children.

Here’s what is in my bags:

Shaker Eggs (Music)

Place some dried beans or rice into plastic eggs and seal with tape.  I only fill about 1/3 or 1/4, you don’t need a lot.

Model the hand motions of your favorite fingerplays and songs.  Encourage your child to imitate.

Verbally model sounds and words as you sing your favorite songs:  “Wheels on the Bus”, “Twinkle, twinkle . . . “.

Have your child follow directions to place the eggs in a container for clean up and count them as you put them away.

Practice labeling body parts.  Ask your child where to dump the eggs . . . “on my head, on my leg, on my arm” . . .

Tube & Stickers

You can use a paper towel tube or pringles can with the bottom removed.

Decorate the tube with the stickers, crayons, and colored paper.  Use the tube for an “I-spy” game.  Model for your child:

“I see you!”,  “I see ___.”

See what you can find while going for a walk around the neighborhood or your backyard.   Look through the tube and play “I-spy”.

Use as a horn!  Take turns.  Encourage handing the tube back and forth for appropriate social engagement.

Practice some animal or car sounds using the tube.

Use the tube for placing small soft or light toys.  Hold the bottom of the tube until it’s time to dump them.  Say, “Ready, set, go”, or count the items as you put them in.

Feathers

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Here are some activities for toddlers and preschoolers

that use items that you may already have around the house.

Please follow this link to get to some crafting and activity ideas!

I hope everyone is excited to begin the fall season with all of its fun pumpkins and cooler weather.

Don’t forget to visit some past blogs that celebrate autumn.

Get out and enjoy some fun with your children after reading, Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere!

A great indoor activity is playdough in a variety of fall colors.

Read, Fall Fun with Playdough for some inspiration.

Let me know how it goes!  Enjoy!

A major goal for most of our kiddos includes functional language in order to get their needs met within their daily routines.  Children learn language when we model and they imitate.

Use modeling within your daily routines to boost social engagement, language, joint attention, and participation.

Why is functional language so important?

If you have a nonverbal 2-year-old or a child with limited communication, you already know the answer!

When a child has a means to communicate, he has a “voice”.

I don’t mean a literal voice, because the mode of communication could be gestures, signs, picture cards, or another augmentative means, as well as verbal.

When a child has a voice, he can:

1. make a choice
2. negate something by indicating “no” instead of having a tantrum
3. label an item to show common interest and joint attention.

There are a million things I could list here, but I think we all can agree that this is a biggie, as far as importance goes.

When a child has a means to communicate, he has power–he has an element of control within his environment.

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For most of the families that I work with, the family goals are social engagement, playing with toys appropriately, imitation, tolerating transitions, and appropriate attention-getting skills.

I have posted blogs previously that have touched on these topics.  As parents, you will be modeling verbal and/or signed language during all of your daily routines.  You can engage your child and encourage him to follow directions within the typical every day events and routines that your family experiences. Also . . .

Here are some very specific tips on how to set up your environment for socially engaging with your child in addition to those daily routines.

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