Time For Tupperware
Long gone are the days of using containers purely as food or toy storage. You can click them, snap them, and pop them into place. Now…you can use them for language development! Storage containers are a fantastic language facilitation tool. Studies have shown that children enjoy looking at and playing with things that adults use frequently. Below, find some ways that you can use this to your advantage:
Teaching Early Language Concepts and Enhancing Vocabulary
The great thing about a storage container is that there are no limits as to what you’ll put inside! Children can help to pick what will go inside (toys, food, to anything in between!). Meanwhile, you can be reinforcing early language concepts and providing your child real examples of this more arbitrary use of language.
In addition, using words such as in/out, on/off, and open/close as you are completing these movements with the container will help your child to understand these terms. Above all, eventually start to use them to continue the play activity!
Musical Instruments Galore
Dried beans, pasta, and rice all make for wonderful additions to homemade maracas in storage containers. You can use these instruments to introduce and engage in music time with your child. Shared music time will help to increase your child’s interaction skills, and is a fun break from typical language use.
However, we still use a great amount of language while singing! Children learn about word order, anticipating language at the end of a stanza, and to sequence “events” that happen throughout the song.
Make it a Sensory Bin
As previously mentioned, the options for what we put inside a storage container are limitless. Consider turning containers into sensory bins for your child to experiences new touches and tactile experiences. You can do this by adding water, shaving cream, sand, shredded paper, slime, or dried beans, noodles, or rice.
In addition, to incorporate enhanced language use, hide some of your child’s toys in the bin and label them as you pull them from the bin. As your child’s language develops, expand this discovery by using phrases such as “I see the….” or “I found a….”.
Easy-Peasy Microphone
Once the lid of the container is off, your child can use it as their very own cordless, powerless microphone! In early stages of language development, use this “microphone” for sound and word imitation. After that, as you take turns using the container with your child and modeling a word for them to imitation.
Children love to play around with the volume and intonation (stress-like characteristics of speech, such as lifting the pitch of your voice at the end of a word). Similarly, this cause-and-effect experience provides the child with feedback immediately, as the sound that they made is “echoed” back to them!
Learning the Basics of “Clean Up” and Functional Use
Storage containers come in so many shapes and sizes. You might as well use larger containers to begin to reinforce the concept of “clean up” at an early age. Therefore, it is an important language skill for your child to understand when play is finished. They must be able to transition to a new activity.
Children enjoy when this time is clearly announced and paired with a song. This is also a great time to incorporate some gross motor skills. For instance, pushing the bin to its destination, your child squatting to pick up toys and move them to the container, or once more strength develops, your child carrying a bin to its final designated space.
Need More Help?
As you can see, this common object can be used in many ways throughout your day and can be used to expand language experiences as your child grows. No need for a stop in the toy aisle! Finish those leftovers, and make way for your new language facilitation tool!
Need more help with language facilitation with your child? No worries! We have professional players at Chicago Pediatric Therapy & Wellness Center. They can help turn ordinary objects into extraordinary play things for lots of talking with your little one! Call us today at 773-687-9241!
