Your preschooler is growing and developing each day. Playing language games with your preschooler introduces him to things like rhyming, alliteration, the parts of a sentence and vocabulary, all in a fun and relaxed setting. Language games can help prepare your preschooler for kindergarten and give her the tools necessary to feel more confident in her language skills. Try a variety of games that teach different components of language for her to become more comfortable with language and vocabulary.
Picture Sentence
Since most preschoolers can't yet read, talk to yours about the structure of a sentence by making a picture sentence game. Draw pictures of different nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs on small index cards, and use them to put together a funny sentence. For instance, your preschooler may choose "The blue dog jumped quickly." See how many funny sentences you and your preschooler can come up with together.
Reading Detectives
Have your child learn about reading comprehension in an interesting way, suggests the North Central Regional Education Laboratory. Teach reading comprehension by inviting your preschooler to be a "detective" while listening to a short story. Once the story is done, quiz him on different aspects of the story, like what the main character was doing and how he solved the problem. This teaches your preschooler to listen for the right things.
Rhyme Time
Rhymes can help preschoolers recognize speech patterns. Teach about rhyming words with a set of flash cards either from a store or make your own with rhyming pairs. Then, flip all of the cards over and play a memory game; your preschooler must flip over the cards and find a rhyming match to gain a point.
Storytelling
With a group of preschoolers, help them invent silly stories that allow them to practice sentence structure, vocabulary and storytelling. Sitting in a circle, start the story with a character and location. After saying a few sentences, pass a bean bag onto the preschooler and tell him to continue the story. After a few sentences, he can pass the bean bag onto the next preschoolers. They'll likely get silly and tell outlandish tales, but it will be an excellent exercise in language.
Computer Games
A variety of free computer games exist to help teach your preschooler about language skills. Starfall.com has an entire section dedicated to phonics and story telling, and children can easily navigate the site. NickJr.com offers language games that are based on your child's favorite cartoon characters, as does PBSKids.org. Your computer can be a valuable tool for language games for your preschooler.
