Movement Activities in Speech-Language Sessions: Boosting Engagement and Language Skills
Get those bodies moving and minds buzzing with excitement in our speech-language sessions!
Why is it helpful to incorporate movement activities in speech-language sessions? Let’s explore why adding motor movement can be beneficial for children with communication impairments. Here we go…. jump right in!
Research-backed Reasons to Get Moving:
Increased Attention and Engagement: We all know how tricky it can be to hold a child's attention during therapy sessions. Integrating movement activities captures kid’s focus and boosts active participation. When children are physically engaged, they become more invested and motivated to learn and the activities become more functional!
A Calming Touch: Have you ever noticed how certain movements have a magical calming effect? It's like waving a wand of tranquility. Pairing learning tasks with motor movement helps children stay calm and relaxed. Those rhythmic motions, like rocking or bouncing, work wonders in reducing anxiety and promoting a sense of peace. This can work especially well for our autistic clients or children with sensory disorders.
Increased Cognitive Skills: Let's give those brilliant minds a workout! Movement activities stimulate various cognitive processes, from problem-solving to spatial awareness. By engaging the body and mind together, we can enhance overall cognitive development (including communication skills)and critical thinking skills.
Help Decrease Behavior Problems: Frustration and difficulty expressing themselves can lead children with communication impairments to act out. Movement activities offer a constructive outlet for releasing energy and emotions. This, in turn, reduces behavior problems and promotes self-regulation.
Boosting Memory: Ever wish there was a way to make those therapy sessions stick? Research suggests that movement helps facilitate memory formation and retention. By linking speech and language tasks with specific movements, children are more likely to remember and apply what they've learned.
10 Beneficial
Speech and Language Activities Paired with Movement:
Obstacle Courses: Create interactive obstacle courses that include language-based challenges. Children can identify objects, follow directions, and describe items along the way. Adding speech sound cards to the path provides motivation to get all those trials in!
Dance and Sing: Combine language-rich songs with dance movements to target vocabulary, sentence structure, and expressive language skills. Get those little feet tapping!
Yoga for Speech: Blend speech and language tasks with yoga routines to promote breath control, body awareness, and language expression.
Imitate Book Actions: Bring books to life by acting out characters' and objects movements, using gestures. Watch comprehension and expressive language soar! I have an engaging book companion to the book “TipTip Dig Dig”, “The Napping House” and “Dinosaurumpus” and kids can act out what items and people are doing in the story (i.e.” tip like a dump truck”).
Ball Toss Games: Spice up ball toss games by incorporating speech and language targets. Children can say words, answer questions, or use target sounds before throwing or catching the ball. Write or draw target words or sounds on those plastic beach balls with dry erase markers and wherever the child’s hand is they say that sound or word.
Puppet Play: Unleash the power of puppets! Engage children in conversations, role-playing scenarios, and narrative development.
Sensory Bins: Dive into sensory adventures by incorporating language-based tasks. Children can explore textures, categorize objects, describe items, and engage in meaningful conversations. I use sensory bins ALOT and have themes bins with book companions in my store.
Action Songs: Teach children catchy songs with accompanying movements that target specific speech and language goals, such as articulation, phonological awareness, or grammar. It's like a musical language extravaganza! Think 5 Little Monkeys Jumpin’ on the Bed, while kids jump off a mini trampoline acting like those monkeys.
Feed the Animal: Use target cards for kids to feed an animal, puppet or monster! Use cut out animals with holes for mouths that kids can drop cards into.
Ball poppers with targets: Attach articulation cards to binder clips to create a target to hit with a ball popper.
If you want children to choose activities like ball poppers or swatting cards with a fly swatter, I have a free choice visual that children can use for what to do with speech sound cards.
Customize these activities to suit the unique needs and goals of your little communication stars.
So, let's get those bodies moving and minds buzzing with excitement in our speech-language sessions! Embracing movement activities opens doors to dynamic and effective learning experiences, empowering our young heroes to communicate with confidence.
