Listening and talking are skills that are easy to practise at home. Here are some ideas for simple games for all ages.
Encourage children to close their eyes or use a blindfold. Make a variety of sounds around the house (or listen for sounds during a daily walk, as long as it’s safe to close your eyes). Ask children to identify what they hear. YouTube has some “Name that Noise” clips with a variety of noises, some more difficult than others.
Give children three clues about an object in the room, or on your walk, and ask them to guess what it might be. For example, to describe a tree, you might say “I spy something tall and tricky to climb with leaves.”
Choose a favourite book to read or listen to, that your child knows well. When it’s finished, ask questions about what you have read or heard. Ask what happened in the beginning/middle/end of the story. Draw a picture of the favourite part of the story to show understanding. Come up with an alternative ending for the story.
Produce sound sequences using items around the house (e.g. bang on a table, clap hands, tap a pencil). Ask children to repeat the sequence. Start simple and build up to more complex sequences.
Tell your child “Simon Says do this…” and carry out an action. When you say only “Do this…” with no “Simon Says,” the child should not do it. See if you can catch each other out as you take turns at leading this game. (Primary 1/2 are particularly good at this game!)
Give your child a category and see how many things they can name, e.g. “How many things can you think of that have four legs?” “How many things can you think of that are round?” etc.
Create a list of celebrities/family members/friends etc with your child. Ask them to describe the person to you using clues, you guess who they are describing. Switch over and see if your child can guess who you are describing.
The first player begins by saying “I went to the shops and I bought a…” and adds an object. The second player continues by saying the first players answer, plus their own addition. Continue until someone forgets an object.
Give your child choices and ask them to choose what is better, e.g. “What is better, ice cream or chocolate?” You can make this game as simple or complex as you like. Give your child a chance to ask you the questions too.
Give your child objects to think about, e.g. “Football, Tennis Ball, Robot…What is the odd one out?” For challenge you can add more items. This works with people too, for example name two footballers and a singer and ask them to select the odd person out.
Choose a well–known song or nursery rhyme and alter the words with your child, e.g. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat…” and the child continues with “I wish you were a little cat…” etc. The funnier the better!
Agree on a rhyme family, e.g. “at as in hat” and take turns at saying a new word that fits the rhyme. See who runs out of rhymes first.
Agree on an initial sound and take turns at saying a new word that begins with the sound. See who runs out of words first.
Choose a category and take turns naming an item in the category for each letter of the alphabet.
Listen to the word the previous person said then think of a new word that starts with the last letter of the old word. For example, player one says “dog,” player two says “garden” player three says “notice” and so on.
Start the story by saying a sentence to your child. Then the next player carries on the second sentence. Continue until the story is complete or you have run out of ideas. For a follow up activity, older children can write the story and younger children can try to remember an illustrate the story.
Read out a list of true or false statements. Children listen carefully and decide if the statement is true or false. Thumbs up for true, thumbs down for false.
Describe a scene one step at a time for your child to draw. YouTube also has lots of guided drawing tutorials that are simple for children to listen to and follow.
Sit back to back, both with a piece of paper and a pen or pencil in hand. Person number one starts to draw, describing what they are drawing out loud. Person two tries to draw the same thing, only by listening to the description. Compare pictures then swap over. (Primary 7 were very good at this in class!)
Go for a silent walk to see what sounds you can hear. Works inside (walk around the house) or outside. Children can discuss and/or draw and write about their findings.
Fred Frog can only talk in sounds! Use Fred Talk throughout the day to help your child with their blending. For example, Fred Says put on your c-oa-t, get ready to go to b-e-d, etc. Reverse Fred Talk also works – choose a word and ask your child how Fred would say the word.
Write down some simple words for your child. Sound out each word. Child crosses it off as they hear it sounded out. Shout Bingo when they have heard each word.
Read simple sentences and children draw an object which rhymes to complete the sentence. For example – the cat had a…. (children would draw a hat, mat, etc).
List a series of attributes of an animal e.g. “4 legs, says Miow, has a tail.” Child guesses and/or draws the animal.
If you come up with any listening and talking games of your own, please add to the comments so your friends can play too 🙂
