Simple Social Interactions - You don't always need toys to interact and play with your child!

Lets admit it, toys are sometimes a hassle, you pay a lot of money for a toy and your child doesn't like it or they get bored after one time playing with it.  We've all been there and it's frustrating!  Well the good news is, you don't always need toys to interact and play with your little one! There are several toy free "games" that consist of two people interacting with each other that are just as fun and engaging. The social interaction games listed below are great for building speech, language and of course social skills!  You can focus on making eye contact, joint attention, turn-taking, requesting, imitation of actions/nouns and much more!  As a speech therapist, I work with many children who have a difficult time with social reciprocity and engagement. The child is often lacking those joint attention skills (looking at an object, then at the person, and back to the object) during interaction and play time. I have found that these toy free social interaction "games" work wonders and almost always get the child more engaged with me!  

Some examples of social interaction games include:

• Peek-A-Boo
• This Little Piggy Goes To The Market
• Tickles 
• Leap Frog - Can work on action word "hop" or "jump"
• Chase - Can work on action word "run"
• Patty Cake - Can work on action words such as "roll" "pat" "bake". 
• Airplane - Lie on your back with your feet in the air and have your child rest their tummy on your feet. Pretend they are riding an airplane.  Incorporate sound effects such as "whooosh" "vrooom" 
• Bouncing - Have your child sit on your lap and bounce them up and down.  You can rock back and forth or sway side to side.  You can work on words such as "fast" and "slow"
• Race Car - Sit down with your knees raised up and have your child sit down with their back against your knees.  You begin steering them by leaning side to side.  You can work on sound effects and words such as "go" "crash!" "utoh!" "stop!"
• Horsey Rides - Get down on your hands and knees, have your child climb on your back and pretend they are going on a horsey ride.  Incorporate those horse noises!
• Ahh-Choo Game - Although this toy involves a small object, it's a classic and works wonders.  Place a small toy on top of your head and pretend to sneeze saying "ahh-choo!".  It is a great way to make your child look at you, make eye contact, laugh and engage with you.​

 

• Song Examples
  • Row Row Row your Boat - Sit across from your child, facing each other and hold hands, move back and forth like you are rowing a boat
  • Ring around the Rosie - Work on action word "fall down"
  • Itsy Bitsy Spider - Accompanied by hand motions.  Hopefully your child will attempt to imitate the hand movements he/she sees
  • Wheels on the Bus - Accompanied by hand motions as well

​Children are always craving movement and they are naturally drawn to variations in pitch, intonation, and loudness in our voices, so it is important to move around, be fun, act silly and incorporate sound effects during these games.  This will facilitate the interaction between the two of you!

Enjoy!
 

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