Speech Games in the Car

If your family is like ours, especially if you have a special needs kiddo, you probably spend a lot of time in the car, driving from therapist to doctor to therapist! I try to use the time in the car as productively as possible, since the kids want to talk, and it is easy for them to focus, since they are confined to car seats! These are our favorite games in the car.

I think most people have played categories, but in case anyone hasn't: choose a category, then everyone takes a turn thinking of something until we can't think of any more. I have to help Chelsea think of some. I give her clues like "maybe something that is big, grey with big ears and a long trunk and lives in Africa". That is doubly helpful, because then she is working on her receptive language and deduction skills in addition to her expressive language by saying it.


Categories Car Game

Food

Dessert

Animals

Colors

Shapes

Numbers

Letters

Princesses

Clothing types

Things in a garden

Fruits

Vegetables

Things with Protein

Sports

Musical Instruments

Things in the sky

Things at a park

Things with wheels

Books

Movies

Things in a house

Things in a city

Things in a country

Things on a hike

Songs

Body Parts

What is something ­color?

 

I Spy

Again, everyone has played this, and it is great for playing in the car!

 

Name That Singer

This next game is Chelsea's very, very favorite game and she always begs to play this one. I sing a line from a song (usually Disney princess-y) the kids know, and have them guess the singer/ movie/ play where we heard it. I also drew pictures of folksy songs and put them in sheet protectors and put them on rings so the kids can flip through and pick songs that they want to sing with me. We like singing!

 

A dream is a wish

Someday my prince will come

I know you, I walked with you

Little town, it’s a quiet village

So this is love

I can’t belive I’m stuck with her all summer

Cinderelly, cinderelly

Part of Your World

Let It Go

Reindeers are better than people

First Time in Forever

Do you want to build a snowman

Summer (bees, they’ll buzz)

Love is an open  door

Fixer-upper

Far Longer than forever

Robin and Little John walking through the forest

Once there was the sun

That’s what you do for a friend

Super Readers- who looks into books

When somebody loved me

You’ve got a friend in me

I will be your wings

We are Siamese if you please

This is the night, and they call it a night…

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Feed the birds

It’s a Jolly holiday with Mary

 

Stories

We also tell lots of stories in the car. We make up long stories that can take a month to tell, which is fun, because then the kids have to think about what happened last time and tell me what they think will happen, and tell me about how they feel about the story, or what different characters in the story are feeling. I also tell familiar stories and have the kids try to tell it back to me. Chelsea is still working on learning how to do this.

 

Cinderella

Snow White

3 Foolish Wishes

Rumpelstiltskin

Ugly Duckling

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

3 Billy Goats Gruff

King Midas

Peter Pan

Little Red Riding Hood

3 Little Pigs/ Wolves

The Princess and the Pea

Jack and Beanstalk

12 Dancing Princesses

Rapunzel

Sleeping Beauty

Puss in Boots

Beauty and the Beast

The Little Mermaid

The Frog Prince

The Little Red Hen

Thumbelina

Tom Thumb

Hop ‘o’ my Thumb

Hansel and Gretel

Devil’s 3 Golden Hairs

Stories about the kids

Stories about when Mommy and Daddy were little