Anticipation games are great fun and easy to play with your child at home. This type of play can be encouraged in a variety of different playtime activities within your home. These games could include:

 

Peek-a-boo!

 

This is a classic game that our pupils love! Initially you could use a transparent scarf or piece of fabric that you trail over your face, so your child can see your face but then you briefly disappear. As your face is covered start saying 'Peek-a-boo', then pop your face out from under the fabric and say 'boo'. Our pupils generally enjoy this type of activity and will often laugh, smile or simply request 'more' by perhaps passing the scarf back to the adult leading. You could try trailing the fabric over your child's face and encourage your child to pull it back off. Once your child understands the idea of the game, you can make the game more interactive by leaving a long pause before saying 'Peek-aaaaaaaa' to allow time for your child to make an excited movement or noise, after which you could say 'boo'. You may notice that your child might say or attempt to make the sounds 'boo' as you play. Providing our children with this type of anticipation game will encourage and develop their communication and interaction skills with you.

 

 

Singing!

 

To help your children to develop their language skills sing them a motivating, familiar song and wait for them to respond whilst you pause at a key word. A great example of this is singing 'Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, if you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream (Pause) and look for your child's response before you scream. Your child may choose to scream, make a noise, smile, give you more eye contact.

Songs like this are great if you can include lots of actions or hand gestures. Another great song we use a lot in Enfys is  'Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear, one step two step tickle you (Pause) under there'. The children will smile, laugh and request 'more' of this song by putting their hand out again.

It is important to remember when singing songs like this to sing slowly and encourage your child's participation by looking at your child and leaving a gap for them to then fill in however they choose to do that. 

 

Ready, steady, go games

 

This type of game is all about helping your child understand that if they make a sound, gesture, point, look at you etc, exciting things will then happen. This type of game can be applied to many activities at home.

You could try building a tower of bricks together, then say 'Ready, steady' and wait for your child to give some form of response before you then say 'go' and you knock down the tower.

Other games could include bubble play, balloon play, playing outside on a swing, using a trike, ball play or bouncing on a trampette. 

 

Classic clapping games

 

Throughout the day in school we encourage lots of games through 'clapping' this is usually during songs or when we are praising each other. When children are clapping, they are communicating that they are enjoying something. There are some great songs we like to clap to in class , I will include some on this page. If your child isn't clapping on their own yet, you could sit infront or behind your child and move their hands to a clapping position as and when.