Activity Spotlight: Picking up Clothes
Continuing on from last week’s post, I want to talk about some every day routines and activities you can do with your toddler right away, to boost their speech and language development.
So…who picks clothes off the floor in your house? Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle, I’m looking at you! If I had to guess, if you have a toddler, you, the caregiver, are picking up dirty clothes (and let’s be real, clean ones too) off the floor.
What if you got your toddler involved? And better yet, what if you could use this as a teachable moment, too? You’re already going to do this task, why not teach your toddler about it while you’re at it?
Let me break it down.
What: Cleaning up clothes.
Who: Toddler and caregiver, plus siblings if you’re feeling brave.
Where: Wherever dirty clothes end up: in your toddler’s room, in your room, in the bathroom, living room (I’m not here to judge), etc.
When: If it were me, I’d do this at my usual time, but obviously you’ll need to adjust if you’d usually do it while your toddler is asleep. But pick a time and try to stick with the time of day or day of the week to keep things consistent.
Why: Because you can work on so many skills: following directions, receptive identification, expressive labeling, following a model, matching, categories, etc. (wow that’s a long list for only one activity!)
How: Be sure to think about your child’s developmental level and teach to it or slightly above. For example, if your child is using single words, I wouldn’t expect them to say “put it here” so no need to teach that yet. But if your child is starting to use color words, it’s great to model and encourage them to use those words here. If we teach skills that are too hard, our kids will quit.
Honestly, I’d err on the side of making the activity too easy, particularly when you’re just teaching the routine. We want to make it fun, and attainable and if it’s too hard you’re going to loose them faster than yelling “Daniel Tiger is on TV!”.
Below are some ideas I’ve used, but try to pick only one or maybe two targets to teach during the activity. Repetition is important when learning new things and if you try to teach too much, you’ll become overwhelmed and so will your child. Keep it simple and repetitive (you may be bored but your child won’t be).
Receptive Labeling: Tell your child to retrieve items: shirt, pants, socks, underwear, etc. and put them in a basket or drawer. “Get a shirt” for example. Give them at least 5 seconds to retrieve the item before you repeat the direction. If they’re having a hard time, help them by getting the item and modeling.
Sort by Color: Show your child how by starting piles of clothing organized by color and tell them what you’re doing “Here are the red clothes, here are the blue clothes” etc. Hand them items of clothing and see if they can sort. If not, help them and show them where they go.
Sort by Item of Clothing: Show your child how by starting piles of clothing organized by item of clothing and tell them what you’re doing “Here are the shirts, here are the pants” etc. Hand them items of clothing and see if they can sort. If not, help them and show them where they go.
Clean vs. Dirty: Help your child identify which clothes are clean and which are dirty. Then show them where each go. “Dirty clothes go in the basket, clean clothes in the drawers”. You can talk about stains, mud, smells, etc.
Give Me: Have your child hand you items of clothing they pick up and use the same cue each time “Give me” or “Give the shirt to me” or simply hold your hand out for a giving gesture.
1-Step Directions: Similar to above but you can use a variety of commands like “Throw it in the basket”, “Hand me the shirt”, “Pick up the red socks”, etc. Just be sure your language matches your child’s developmental level.
2-Step Directions: Same as above but for older toddlers. “Get your red shirt, then put it in the basket” and the like. Again, be sure your chid is ready for this step.
Pointing: Model pointing to items of clothing and see if your child looks where you point. You can also ask them to point to an item of clothing. You can even simply model this to show your child how by saying “Look! Red shirt!” to get their attention and model pointing. If they look you can say “Yes, that’s the red shirt!”.
Expressive Labeling: Tell your child the names of items: shirt, pants, socks, underwear, etc. as you clean up and toss them in a pile or basket. Pause between each item to see if your child will model your words and try to say them too. You can also play the “bye game” by saying “bye shirt!” as you put it in a basket and see if your child will model you.
Expanding Phrases: If your child is using 1-word, model 2-words. If they’re using 2-words model 3-words. If your child says “shirt” you could respond with “red shirt” or if they say “dirty shirt” you could say “dirty purple shirt” so that you’re always modeling language at a slightly higher level. Emphasis on slightly.
I hope those ideas were helpful and that maybe one or two of them will work within your routine. Remember, start slow, repeat, and show your child what to do and they will follow.