Ever heard of hiding veggies in your kids favorite meals by blending them in or chopping them finely? If you’re a mom, you’ve probably used these tricks and/or have others up your sleeve. I’ve used these tricks myself - as well as tricks to charm my kids into falling in love with reading, mathematics, science, engineering, and dance - all while growing their self-esteem and a healthy competitive spirit.

My secret: Game Night

We are big on ‘game night’ at the Milan household. In fact, we dedicate two hours of our Friday night to unwind with the kids playing our favorite games. Over time, they’ve gotten so good they beat us, which only motivates me to find a new game to challenge ourselves with.

Our kids are into math, science, dance, and reading. Getting kids excited or even interested in math, science, and reading is not always an easy feat, and that’s where Cooperative Games come in.

The benefits of Cooperative Games in children (and your family) will not only contribute to your child’s speech development, but they will also teach them about teamwork, and bring your family together.

Some of the most important benefits of Cooperative Games:

• Non-stressful play situations

• Emotional development

• Shared decision making

• Creative problem solving

• A sense of community

• Positive self esteem

• Playfulness and cooperation

Some possible speech and language goals to address through play:

• Syntax goals to include verbs, articles, especially conjunctions, etc.

• Association skills to choose an add-on concept that flows with the story.

• Vocabulary word finding articulation carryover auditory memory.

Excited to adapt this Milan family tradition? I’m hoping that you are and I’m looking forward to hearing about your game nights. To help make things a little easier, I’ve put together a list of cooperative games for your family to try. 

Check back often. We will continue to add cooperative games for family game night to this list. If you found this post helpful, please share it with your friends.

Got questions? Contact us today or send us an email now at info@southflspeech.com. We’ll get back to you within the next 24 hours.