You will need:
- Flashcards
- Something to temporarily fix flashcards to a surface (tape, sticky tack, etc)
- Working flashlight
- darkened room
Put the flashcards of whatever you are working on with your child around a room (preferrably a room that can get dark). Make sure your child doesn't see where the cards have been placed to make it even more fun. Turn out the lights and give the child the flashlight. Let him/her find or "tag" the flashcards with his/her flashlight. Once he/she finds the flashcard, then have him work on that skill. Once that turn his complete, let the flashlight tag game continue and have him/her find another card!!
This is great because it can be used with so many deficit areas:
- Articulation: Put pictures or written words up that contain your child's speech sound. If your child is working on a sound in conversation, then put up pictures and have your child describe the picture or tell a story using the picture to illicit that sound.
- Language: Is your child working on plurals? Cut out or print out pictures of multiple items (i.e. shoes, cats, dogs, etc) and tell you the plural of the word. Is your child working on pronouns? Print out pictures of little girls and boys and have them say: "that is his hat" or "that is her cat" or "she is playing ball". Is your child working on is/are? Print out pictures of single items and multiple items. Your child will have to say: "that is a brown cat" or "they are walking". Is your child working on answering questions? Print or cut out pictures with multiple people or things going on in the picture so you can ask: "who is holding the cat" or "where are they" or "what is she eating". The list could go on and on!
- Listening: Once your child finds the picture, ask your child a question about the picture to answer. Another idea is once your child finds two or three pictures, then line them up and have him/her find a specific picture. You could also put up three pictures right in a row that are similar, but not the same and tell your child "find the cat with orange polka dots" (you may have a cat with green polka dots, orange squares, and orange polka dots). Let him/her use his/her flashlight to look at all three and light up the correct answer!
- Fluency: Is your child working on smoothing out his/her "bumpy" speech? You could play this game and when the child finds his/her picture, simply have the child say the name of the object, a short sentence, or a longer description (whatever closely matches what they are working on in speech therapy) smoothly.
- Pragmatics: Is your child working greetings or introducing himself/herself? Print pictures of kids and let him practice greeting that child and introducing himself/herself. Is your child working on taking turns in a conversation? Print pictures of favorite topics for the child and then have a short conversation with your child about the picture he/she "tagged". Make sure he/she is taking turns while talking.
- Voice: Is your child working on reducing hard onsets or talking at an appropriate volume (decibel) or pitch (frequency)? Make sure those good skills are being practiced when they find pictures and talk about them! It can be especially hard for a child not to yell in excitement when a picture is found! :o)
I hope this game is a useful and fun one for you! It's also a great game to play just before going to bed... when it's already dark!