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Bubbles are one of my favorite activities to use in therapy.  Not only are they fun for the kids, but they can be used to target a wide variety of goals.  Here are some ways you too can use bubbles at home to practice speech and language skills:

• Oral Motor skills– Bubbles are a great way to practice labial rounding. Model how to round lips for blowing bubbles and if needed, give your child some tactile support by gently pressing against the corners of the lips.
• Language Development– For prelinguistic children, signs for more, me, open, or bubbles can be practiced. Always pair the gesture with the verbal model.  To find the signs for these words and many more, visit https://www.signingsavvy.com/. For children who are just starting to develop language, model short, 2-3 word phrases.
• Requesting– Any activity like bubbles that is immediately reinforcing is great to use for requesting. Some simple requests may include “Open bubbles”, “More bubbles”, or “I want bubbles”.
• Eye Contact– Children love watching bubbles grow. Wait until your child makes eye contact with you before blowing the bubble.
• Turn Taking– Practicing taking turns blowing the bubbles. This can be done with any amount of people.  Model saying “My turn!” and “Your turn!” and wait for the child to say these phrases before giving them the bubbles.  Praise your child for waiting their turn and giving the bubbles to someone else once their turn is over.
• Prepositions– Blow the bubbles in different locations and ask the child where the bubbles are. Blow bubbles up, down, under the table, on their feet, etc. Get silly with it!
• Bilabial sounds– Bubbles are great to use when working on early developing bilabial sounds “p”, “b”, and “m”. Words to target may include “bubble”, “pop”, “more”, “me”, “blow”, “my”, “open”, and “up”.

Practicing these skills at home is a fun way to carry skills over from the therapy room to the outside world!

-Nicole C.