Speech activities by age

How to make these activities really work

The best speech practice rarely looks like practice at all. Children learn language for the things they genuinely care about, so the magic isn’t in the activity itself — it’s in how you do it. A few small habits make an enormous difference, and they’re the same ones we use in the therapy room.

• Follow your child’s lead. Play with whatever they’re already interested in and put words to it, rather than steering them to your idea of the “right” toy.
• Model, don’t test. Resist “what’s this? what colour is it?” — quizzing puts children under pressure. Just say the words for what they’re seeing and doing.
• Add one word. When they say “car”, you say “blue car” or “car go”. It shows the next step up without ever correcting them.
• Pause and wait. After you say or offer something, count to five in your head. That little silence is often what finally pulls a word out.
• Little and often beats long. A few minutes woven into bath time, the car and mealtimes works far better than one long “speech session”.

Keep it warm and pressure-free, and celebrate every attempt — a sound, a point, a gesture all count as communication. For more ideas you can use today, see our easy speech activities at home and how to build your child’s vocabulary.

These activities are a wonderful boost, and for many children they’re all that’s needed. But if your child is a long way behind, losing words, or these don’t seem to help over a month or two, that’s a good moment for a proper look. A developmental assessment or speech and language therapy will tell you exactly what’s going on — and you can always run our free check first if you’re not sure.