Ideas for Preschool Language Development Activities

Preschool students acquire new words every day through various activities. Language development lessons in the preschool classroom enable the students to expand their skills further. Hands-on activities expose children to new words and help them develop their thoughts into spoken words. Language development activities also work well at home to continue the development.

Dramatic play enables preschool students to process the world around them while developing their language skills. They engage in active play by pretending to be a particular person or play a particular role. The kids interact with one another in their given roles using both verbal and nonverbal communication to make sense of the situation. Provide costumes and props for dramatic play. Themed dramatic play kits allow you to change the area and make it relevant to other classroom topics. Let the kids lead the dramatic play activities so they can express themselves.

Reading is one of the easiest ways to improve language development in preschoolers. They hear new words in context, which allows them to better understand what the words mean. Stories also help young children understand the structure of sentences and verbal communication. To encourage children to use their own language skills, ask them to predict what will happen in the story. Stop at certain points in the story and have them make predictions. They must rely on the story's framework and any pictures to construct a logical prediction. They call on their cognitive processes to develop the idea and verbalize it. All of these actions improve their language skills.

Sharing, sometimes called show and tell, offers an informal language development activity for preschoolers. Each child brings an item that is significant to her life. She shows the item to the class and describes it to them. Encourage the children to explain what the item is, how it works and why it is important to them. Ask leading questions to help them verbalize thoughts about the object. Allow the kids to ask one another questions about the objects for further language development.

The guessing bag game adds an entertaining twist to language development. Place an object inside a bag or box so the kids can't see it. Offer a clue about the object inside. The children will call on their previous knowledge to make guesses about the contents. Continue offering additional clues using as many descriptive words as possible. Use some new words that might push the preschoolers in their understanding.

A question of the day gives children a chance to develop and share an answer. Choose a different open-ended question each day. The question should allow the preschoolers to create a two- or three-word answer that takes some thought. Examples include what rules they would make if they were in charge, what type of books they like to read or their favorite part about the current season. The students share their answers one at a time to improve their verbal communication skills. To save time, select only a students each day to share their answers, making sure each child gets a turn at least once a week.