April Showers - Using Water in Speech/Language Therapy

Hello! I'm teaming up with the Frenzied SLP's to tell you how I've been using water in my speech/language sessions this past month.

It's springtime in Oregon, which means rain, rain, rain! We've had an abundance this year; I think I read somewhere that we're 14" above what is normal for this time of year. Crazy, right? So one thing we have no shortage of right now is water.

Since this is the climate that all my kiddos have grown up in, we spend a lot of time talking about the rain, and concepts and vocabulary related to rain gear and weather. And since we don't get much of an opportunity to go outside and play during the winter and early spring months, we all get a little too much build up of pent-up energy, so I try to incorporate movement into our sessions as much as possible. Here's what I did this past week to address both of those goals:

I made an indoor rain puddle!

Here's how I did it.

I bought a blue tablecloth from a dollar store and some bubble wrap (the kind with the larger bubbles).

Actually, my husband bought the bubble wrap for me...

...and he bought enough for me to make 300 puddles, but that's another story! I digress.

Back to puddle construction.

I cut three pieces of bubble wrap, approximately 3 feet long each.

I used packing tape, and taped the bubble wrap pieces together to make a big square.

Next, I cut the bubble wrap into a random "splash" pattern.

Then I stuck the "splash" onto a square I cut from the tablecloth using loops of packing tape.

And there you have it, a puddle! A puddle that kids can jump into and not get wet, but still have the thrill of making a bubble-popping splash.

So, what did I do with this puddle?

We played a version of Go Fish that we instead called Go Splash with a movement twist.

This game is played just like Go Fish, where players make matches by asking each other for specific cards. My Go Splash version features colorful rain boots and umbrellas, which were great for working on colors, vocabulary, plurals and bilabial sounds.  Mixed in with all the matching pair cards are movement cards that direct you to perform an action, like this:

The kids absolutely loved jumping in the puddle through out the game. And the loved it even more when I had to do it, too! So much fun!

This game is available in my TpT Store and it's called Go Fish, Go Splash, Go Hop! if you'd like to check it out. This product contains 6 different versions of Go Fish, each with its own unique movement twist.

I didn't just use my puddle to play Go Splash, by the way. I used it other ways, too.

I put it along side my swing and had the kids reach for the bubbles to pop them. This was great for kids who needed extra sensory input. It was also a fun way to work on the /p/ and /b/ sounds, saying "pop" and "bubbles".

I also spread out picture cards around the puddle and had kids retrieve them while laying on the swing. They said their target words and phrases as they picked them up. This was a huge hit, and was very motivating, even for those kids who usually don't enjoy practicing their target words.

My bubble puddle lasted all week and was worth the time it took to put it together. I did a little "puddle maintenance" by taping new squares of bubble wrap right on top of the "splash" throughout the week so all the kids had a chance to pop some when the puddle started to get flat. Easy peasy.

So how are YOU using water in speech/language treatment? We'd love it if you'd link up and share!

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