Water Play

It already feels like summer in South Carolina, which means water play! Water provides a great opportunity for sensory play and language learning! Here are some of my favorite activities:

Car Wash

Take your favorite cars and trucks, and have a blast getting them dirty! You can run them through real dirt outside, or for a less messy option mix up some food coloring with whipped cream or shaving cream, place onto a baking sheet, and drive the cars all around! If you are working on first words, model sound effects and environmental sounds like "ew, yuck, wow, beep beep, vroom vroom". Kids often use these types of words first and may have an easier time imitating them.

Next, fill a tub or bucket with water and (optional) soap. Use a rag and unused toothbrush to brush the cars all clean, practicing prepositions by describing what part of the car you're cleaning - the top, front, back, underneath, between the wheels, inside, outside. If your child is older, have them give you directions for where to wash- encourage them to use their specific vocabulary instead of pointing or saying "this" or "there".

All clean! Where will they drive now?

Gather your toy animals! You can use zoo or farm animals, but it's best if you stick with one category at a time. This is a great opportunity to give your young child choices and elicit vocabulary: hold up two animals and ask "do you want the giraffe or the lion?". If they are not speaking yet, see if they will point to one. Then you can provide the vocabulary- "oh, the lion! You want the lion!".

Use a brown washable marker to color all over the animals and make them dirty. As you work on each one, practice animal sounds, which are often some of the first words children use. If you have an older child, discuss the traits of each animal- which ones have a tail? Who has soft fur? Who is tall, and who is short?

Then, fill a plastic container with water and soap. Continue to model animal noises while you wash the animals with a wash cloth! Use repetitive and simple language like "wash wash wash, your turn, more animals, dry dry dry, all done!"

Hooray, the animals are clean! Put them back in the zoo or farm and say "bye bye!"

Bath Time at the Zoo (or Farm)

Baby Doll Bath

If you have a toddler, you've likely noticed that they love to act out daily routines in play. This is an important developmental step and helps them make sense of their world. It also builds executive function skills like sequencing, planning, and task completion. I bet your little one will love playing 'grown up' by giving their baby a bath!

For this activity, you don't need to get the doll visibly dirty first, but if you want a bonus activity you can "feed" the doll real food beforehand so they are extra messy! Then, place them in a bathtub with water, or a tub/container/bucket outside. Use a wash cloth or loofah (for extra sensory fun) to give baby.a bath! This is an excellent time to practice body parts - label baby doll's body parts as you wash them, or if your child already knows body parts, practice following directions by telling them what to wash. You can even practice 2-step directions by giving two body parts, or saying things like "wash baby's foot, then give me the wash cloth".

All done bath! Have fun watching the water drain or dumping out your bucket. What is baby going to do next?

I hope you enjoy trying these activities as the weather warms up! Let me know which one you try, or if you have another favorite I didn't include!