Bird is the Word in Speech & Language Therapy!

During the spring and summers months, birds of all kinds can be seen flying across the sky. Children love to learn about these winged creatures. An extra bonus is that birds offer a wonderful starting point for speech and language activities.

Learn About Birds

Books offer a wealth of information to teach children about birds. This will help them become comfortable with the vocabulary, be able to describe different birds, and get excited for a birdwatching experience. Several popular titles are:

• About Birds: A Guide for Children by Cathryn Sill
• Letter Birds: ABC Bird Book by Pam Spremulli
• Who’s Nest is This?  by Heidi Roemer
• Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds by Tish Rabe
• National Geographic Kids Bird Guide to North America by Jonathan Alderfer

Be sure to look at your local book store and library for additional options. In addition to this, there are websites like National Geographic that offer an entire area about Backyard Birding. If you are able to go online with the children, there are multiple options to explore. Also check out stores like Target for bird flashcards which would work well during sessions.

Time for Birdwatching

Head outside and go birdwatching for a little while. If you are lucky, you will see some birds looking for food in the grass, flying by, or perhaps even building a nest. Before heading out, you can make some bird feeders with kids to help to attract birds in your area. To do this, you will need pine cones, peanut butter, and bird seed. Make sure that no children have peanut allergies before attempting this activity. Simply spread peanut butter around the grooves of the pine cone and dip this into a plate of birdseed. Hang up the bird feeder with string in a location where you will be able to observe it.

When you see birds at the bird feeder or on a birdwatching stroll, practice asking questions and answering. In addition to this, you could make this into a game of I Spy to keep everyone actively involved. Older children may enjoy taking paper and pencil outside to sketch what they see.

A great tie in activity that could be sent home in a bag would be the Guess Who like bird game by Diana of The Budget SLP. She has shared the cards she made on Boardmaker Achieve for others to use. Include directions so all multilingual families will understand and encourage playing together to help kids to use their budding language skills.

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