“Boo!”  It’s time for Halloween which means it’s the best time to capitalize on one of the easier words for little ones to learn – BOO!  If they haven’t mastered “boo” in the classic game of Peekaboo then it’s time to revisit the word for Halloween fun!

If you’ve read many of my posts, you’ll know that arts and crafts are not my area of expertise but there are tons of crafty moms who will fill your Google search and Pinterest pages!  I tend to stick with painting pumpkins, sticker scenes, window clings and tissue ghosts.  Painting pumpkins is fun and messy and a perfect time to practice words like “up, down, water, tap, dot” and all the colors.  We add stickers on the second day (once paint dries).  Sticker scenes are great for language such as naming which person/object goes in which area of the house and what goes under, next to, beside, in front of, etc.

trick or treat

Trick or treating can be a great way to practice speech and language skills! You say a word and you get a treat… pretty big incentive!

Before you head out, have your little one practice holding a bag or bucket and say some version of “trick or treat” to mom, dad, neighbors, grandparents, puppets, dolls… and let them receive something, anything so that they get the idea. Then when the big event comes they will better prepared and able to maybe say something to all of the complete strangers they are about to meet!

“Trick or treat” is a pretty complicated phrase to say accurately – even for preschoolers. Here are some of the common versions of this Halloween phrase:

“chi uh chee”
“ti uh tee”
“twik oh tweet”
“di oh dee”

If this is just too much for your little one, try just practicing “please” and “thank you”. If they aren’t yet talking or are hesitant to talk to strangers give them a card to show or to point to that says “trick or treat”.  I know I didn’t talk to anyone I didn’t know until I was at least 10 years old…or something like that.  Trick or treating was fairly intimidating to me as a child.

One of the best Halloween songs is “Five Little Pumpkins”.  It has gestures, meaningful sounds, words, phrases, and you can make visuals pretty easily with five orange, round objects (balls or pieces of felt or paper).

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Happy Halloween!!!

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Also, once Halloween is over… you might start thinking about Christmas shopping!!!  Be sure to check out Best toys and gifts: a speech therapist’s list!

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