It is no secret that Paw Patrol is a popular cartoon and children greatly enjoy watching it. We love seeing children do things they enjoy, but don’t want them staring at a screen watching the show for hours each day. Below are some “pawtastic” ideas on how to use the characters from Paw Patrol to work on speech and language skills! All you need are pictures or figurines of the characters from Paw Patrol.
Language Skills:
- Describing:
- Put all the characters in a bag. Take turns taking a pup from the bag and talk about what the character looks like! “I found Rebel! Rebel is an animal, he wears a yellow hat, and drives construction vehicles.” Simplify the activity by labeling who your child found with a descriptor, “yellow Rebel!” Describing can include colours, shapes, sizes, categories, and other attributes.
- Prepositions:
- Hide the characters around the house and let your child find them. Once they find a character ask, “where is Chase?!” If your child is unsure of the right preposition, give him/her a choice of 2 “is Chase under or on the table?” Proceed to model the correct preposition “Chase is under the table!”
- Use a bucket, farmhouse, doll house, or car with the characters. Give your child a simple direction with a preposition for him/her to follow, “put Marshall beside the car.” If your child needs help, repeat the direction and give a gesture to show what beside means. To make this simpler, model where you are putting the character. To make this harder, give your child 2-step directions with prepositions, “first put Rebel in the car then put Sky behind the car.” Prepositions include in, on, under, over, in front, behind, between, beside, etc.
- Verbs:
- Take the characters around the house and talk about what they are doing. Take Everest to the kitchen and say, “Everest is baking in the kitchen.” Take Chase on the trampoline, “Chase is jumping.” Pair the action verb with a gesture to help your child understand what the verb means so they can use it independently. To make this harder, take a character to a place in the house and ask, “what is Zuma doing?” Give them choices of what verb would be appropriate in that context. Expand this activity by talking about what Zuma did yesterday and emphasize the past tense verb “yesterday Zuma baked in the kitchen.”
Speech Skills:
- Choose a desired character and have the character complete speech homework with your child. Play a game and take turns having the character say his/her word then take a turn then have your child say their word and take a turn. This way your child is getting the model on how to say the word and having fun completing their speech homework!
- Find a Paw Patrol colouring page and have your child say their word 5 times before colouring another part of the picture.
- Find Paw Patrol stickers and a blank piece of paper. Set a goal for how many words and trials you want your child to practice, “let’s practice 5 words and each time you say it you get a sticker for you sheet.” Discuss your goals and have a reward for when the page is completed, “if you fill your paper with stickers, we get to watch a movie.” Keep in mind the reinforcer must be motivating for your child!
Working on speech and language skills can be challenging for kids but using objects or activities that they are motivated by will help practice the skill and make it more meaningful! When practice is meaningful there is a better chance of the skill transferring to daily life. These activities can be done with any characters from any show, these activities are not limited to Paw Patrol. If your child has a Speech-Language Pathologist, ensure you are practicing the skill at the level they recommended too. If practice is too hard at home, they may not want to participate in the activity. Practice speech and language skills using characters from your child’s favourite show and remember to have fun!
Written by Kristen Lipp, Registered Speech-Language Pathologist (Provisional)
