Show Your Love
Looking back on the past year, many of us may agree that spreading love and appreciation to our friends and family can truly make a difference! We believe “the little things” can truly leave a wonderful impact on others. Heading into this Valentine’s day, the speech therapists at Pediatric Interactions wanted to share some ways you and your family can spread the love and appreciation to those closest to you - all while teaching the meaning behind love and kindness to your little ones. We have created a list of a few Valentine’s day activities as well as Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) experiments for your family to try at home for the love-themed holiday. Allow your children to participate in these engaging activities while also finding ways to target their speech and language skills!
Writing a Letter - Teach your little ones the meaning behind Valentine’s day by having them write a hand-made Valentine’s day card. This activity can allow for a perfect opportunity to teach children the importance behind friendship, caring for someone, and thoughtful gestures! While doing this activity, you can target following directions (e.g. putting in envelope, sealing, stamping, addressing), and locational/prepositional terms while decorating your card with stickers (e.g. “put it on top/under/next to/in front/behind…”).
Sorting Valentine’s Candy - Using candy-shaped hearts, target your child’s sorting and categorizing skills by putting each colored heart in their own colored category. Target counting and comparing skills by having your child count how many hearts are in each colored category, then compare which has more! Continue with this activity by building your child’s vocabulary skills while reading off the message on each candy heart. Discuss the meaning behind each message and come up with possible synonyms or antonyms for each!
Fizzy-Heart Experiment - Use your heart-shaped cookie cutters and fill them with baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix together vinegar and pink/purple/red food coloring. Before using an eyedropper to add in the colored vinegar to the baking soda, target your child’s prediction skills by having them explain what they think might happen once the ingredients are mixed together.
Heart-Shaped Magic Milk Experiment - Fill a large heart-shaped pan or cookie cutter with milk (put a plate or tupperware underneath). Add some red drops of food coloring into your milk. Dip a cotton swab into some dish soap and gently tap the cotton swap onto your food coloring. Talk with your child about what happened when the dish soap was added. Use this activity to target expressive language skills by incorporating describing words: fast, quickly, rapid.
Valentine Sensory Lava Lamps - Using sensory jars at home can further support a child’s ability to self-regulate in an efficient and effective manner. Grab your old jelly jars and fill them ⅔ of the way with cooking oil and ⅓ with water. Add in your favorite color food coloring as well as your valentine’s confetti, glitter, and/or hearts. Add in the Alka Seltzer tablet for the lava lamp effect and watch the science happen. Allow your child to describe to you what happened when the tablet was added using their describing words (e.g. fizzy, bubbly, slowly, shiny, etc).
More Sensory Bottle Ideas - Materials/Instructions: Fill an empty halfway with water and ½ cup of clear glue. Add in pink and/or red glitter, and a few drops of pink liquid watercolor paint. Fill to the top with water, leaving about 1/2 inch space at the top so there is room to shake. Hot glue or superglue the lid closed and cover the top with colored tape.
Written by Carolyn Radecki, MS, CFY-SLP/L
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