Fun With Play Dough To Promote Language
I love activities that hold my kids attention AND ones that help them achieve developmental milestones. Play dough is a great activity for young kids and elementary-aged kids that is both of these things — fun and supports development. Read on to learn more about how playing with play dough can support children’s development.
Play is Essential
Play is one of the best ways for children to learn and develop new skills in all areas. When playing, children are able to explore, move, imagine, and try new things. When a caregiver plays with a child, it is a great way to bond and create new memories. I love this quote here about play:
Child-Directed Play
I am a big fan of child-directed play. This means that the child decides what to do and directs the adults that they are playing with. It is a great way for children to share their interests and for adults to follow their lead. There are lots of other benefits to child-directed play including promoting confidence, problem-solving and conflict resolution skills, social skills… and the list goes on!
Behaviorally, it allows children to hold an adult’s attention as part of a positive experience. This reinforces that children can get and maintain an adult’s attention with positive behaviors.
As a parent and a speech therapist I cannot encourage caregivers (and healthcare and educational specialists) to listen to what the child wants (or doesn’t want) to do. Even if a child is too young to speak, they are able to play. Each child, especially very young children, will attend to an activity better if they are interested and invested in it.
Play Dough Activities
Play Dough, clay, and other commercially available dough products are a great toy that is enjoyable for all children over the age of two. Children under the age of two often mistake play dough for a snack. Pro tip — Don’t eat play dough, it is not edible.
I put together a list of ways to play with a toy that most caregivers have around the home. All of these activities I’ve done with my own kids and I have implemented as a speech therapist.
Play dough provides the opportunity to engage in pretend play while promoting fine motor, sensory integration, and language development. It is an activity that is low-prep, easy to clean up, and fun for all ages. It’s a winner on all fronts.
Note: All activities need to be done with adult supervision :)
Play Dough and Vehicles
Materials needed: Play dough and some vehicles
You can incorporate almost any hard plastic or metal toy with play dough to make each toy even more fun to play with. Gather a few of your child’s favorite vehicles, the small ones work best, and find a hard surface that is safe to play on. Having your child choose which vehicles they want to play with is a great way to promote child-directed play.
Using child-directed play, listen and watch how they play. Mirror their play — if they are pushing a car or squishing the play dough then you should push a car or squish the playdoh. Let them lead the way and play the way that they want to play.
To expand their expressive vocabulary, describe your play using the vocabulary below. For example “I made a big ball!” and “I squished the blue play dough.” Modeling language without the expectation that a child will repeat is a great way to introduce new words. The expectation is that children will listen to you. Don’t ask your child to repeat what you say during this type of play.
Fun vocabulary to target:
Verbs — push, drive, roll, squish, poke, pat, flatten, kneed, pull, cover
Prepositions — next to, under, behind, near, far, against, above
Adjectives — squishy, hard, round, big, small, long, short, big, small
Play Dough Chef
Toddlers and elementary-aged children love to play with food, real and pretend, and play dough is a versatile medium for kids to make their own pretend culinary creations. Follow your child’s lead — they could make whatever food they like or they can “take your order” like at a restaurant. Both are equally fun!
To promote the development of age-appropriate receptive language and memory sprinkle in some requests. Don’t barrage them with questions but occasionally ask your child to hand you things that you need. Once asking for one thing gets easy, ask them for multiple things. For example, “Can I have the blue play dough?” and then “Can you make some pepperoni and put it on my pizza?” This also helps to work on listening skills.
Materials needed: Play dough and optional kitchen equipment
Fun vocabulary to target:
Verbs — squish, cut, roll, flatten, make, eat, pretend, bake, cook, mix, stir, chop
Prepositions — on top, inside, in, next to, between, above, below
Adjectives — flat, hot, cold, big, small, and any colors, squishy
Hide and Seek Play Dough
Materials needed: Play dough and small beads or coins
Hiding small objects inside play dough is one of my own children’s favorite way to play with play dough. They take small (cleaned) coins and beads and hide them inside. They enjoy burying things in the play dough and squeezing the play dough with the small objects inside
Pushing, stretching, and poking beads into the play dough is a great fine motor activity. Fine motor activities are those that require the smaller muscles in the fingers and hands to make coordinated movements. These movements are important later on in school for drawing, writing, and typing. Playing with play dough is a great way to develop the hand strength needed for those activities.
Fun vocabulary to target:
Verbs — poke, push, stretch, squeeze, flatten, pinch
Prepositions — in, under, behind, inside, next to, between, above, below
Adjectives — many, few, rough, smooth, bumpy, any color words, squishy
Summary
Play dough is a great toy for kids of all ages and adults as well. It is a great activity that is low-prep, fun, and can promote development in a variety of areas including language, social skills, sensory integration, and fine motor.
When playing with play dough, or any toy really, allow the child to direct play. This will help them to stay engaged and will encourage them to communicate how they are playing. It also helps with bonding and a child’s confidence.
I hope that you will try some of the activities I suggested and have fun exploring with your child. Just remember, all activities should be done with adult supervision. Some young children like to explore things by tasting them so make sure to watch that no play dough gets into their mouth!
I hope you enjoyed these fun ideas that let kids explore while promoting language and development!
TLC Speech Therapy is a speech pathology private practice, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in feeding, swallowing, and communication skills in infants, children, teens, and adults.
For more information check out our website at tlcspeechtherapy.com or contact us at hello@tlcspeechtherapy.com
Disclaimer :)
As a speech therapist, I have extensive experience working with children and adults in all types of settings. The information in this article is meant to encourage children and their caregivers to explore playing while promoting development. It is not meant as clinical advice. If you ever have any concerns, please consult with a physician.
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