Yay Summer time!!  It’s time for Summer break and spending days at the pool.  Make sure not to lose all of those great speech and language skills just because it’s summer.  You can keep up your practice by working on speech and language with these pool activities!

Pool Activities One:

Preparing for the Pool: Vocabulary, Sorting, Making Plans

Before you leave to go to the pool, or when you’re hanging out sometime talking about the pool, talk about all of the things you will need.  Talk about the things you do at the pool and what things you would need to do them.  For example, to swim you will need a swimsuit and maybe some floaties.  To dive, you will need goggles and diving sticks.  To dry off, you will need a towel.  Go through all of these things and get them all together if you’re going today.  Label what each thing is called and what its function is.  You could even put together a big pile of things and have your child sort them into things that go to the pool and things that don’t.  Before you go, have your child make a plan of all of the things he wants to do at the pool.  Is he going to go down the slide?  Or jump off the diving board?  The possibilities are endless!  Help him use good full sentences during these pool activities.

Pool Activities Two:

Responding to Other Children at the Pool

Playing at the pool can be very exciting!  In fact, sometimes it’s so exciting that your child may forget all of those great social language skills you’ve been working on.  Responding to other children is a language skill that is perfect for working on at the pool.  Chances are, other children will speak to your child while at the pool.  You need to make sure that your child knows how to respond appropriately.  Explain to your child that you don’t want her to talk to strangers, but talking to other kids at the pool while a parent is with you is completely ok.  Remind your child ahead of time that if another child asks her to play, asks her a question, or talks to her, she needs to respond.  Hang out near your child in the pool for a while so you can provide her with appropriate responses if she doesn’t know what to say.  You don’t have to do this all the time, but doing this every once in a while will keep it fresh in her head.  If she’s doing pretty well with responding, try to encourage her to stay with the friend and maintain the interaction for a little longer instead of swimming away or getting distracted.

Pool Activities Three:

Will it Sink or Float?

The concept of sinking or floating is very difficult for some children with speech and language delays but it’s a great concept to address during summer time due to the abundance of water activities.  You can do this one at home, school, or in the pool.  If you’re doing it at the pool, take a bunch of different pool toys and see which ones float and which ones sink.  Make sure to use the words “float” and “sink” while demonstrating this for your child.  Many of the toys will float so make sure you find some that sink (like diving toys) as well.  If you’re doing this activity at home/school in a sink, bathtub, or tub of water, you can use other things that you find around the house to see if they float or sink as well.  Have your child make a prediction first about whether he thinks it will float or sink, then find out if he’s right.  Just try to avoid the “Will Mommy’s I-Phone float or sink?” discussion!

I hope these pool activities get you off to a splash-tastic summer and you have a great time in the pool with your child this summer!  Don’t forget to wear sunscreen and re-apply often!  Those beginning of the summer burns are the worst!  Also, if you’re looking for more activities to keep your child busy this summer, try some of my speech and language games that you can find in my store.  Thanks for reading!

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