Winter Speech Boosters: 15 Language-Rich Activities for All Ages

Fun, multi-age winter activities that help toddlers, children, teens, and adults build vocabulary, communication, and social language skills at home.

Winter routines naturally create opportunities for meaningful communication. Whether you’re enjoying cozy indoor activities, celebrating holidays, or navigating the seasonal slowdown, this time of year invites connection—and connection fuels communication.

For individuals of all ages—from toddlers to teens to adults—speech and language skills grow strongest during everyday experiences. Research shows that shared activities, rich input, and functional communication practice enhance vocabulary, processing, memory, social interaction, and expressive skills (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 2023a).

This guide includes 15 SLP-approved winter activities designed for all ages, all communication styles, and all neurotypes—including AAC users, bilingual families, and adults in communication or cognitive-linguistic therapy.

❄️ 1. Winter Scavenger Hunt (Indoor or Outdoor)

How it helps:

• Vocabulary

• Describing

• Word retrieval

• Following directions

Try this:

Create a list of winter items (ex: gloves, mug, candle, blanket, scarf, pinecone).

Participants can:

• describe items (“soft,” “cold,” “red,” “heavy”)

• categorize items (clothes, decorations, outdoor things)

• work on expressive phrases (“I found the ___!”)

Support for AAC:

Preload fringe vocabulary: cold, snow, find, look, where, I see it, next, finished.

❄️ 2. Hot Cocoa Sequencing

How it helps:

• Sequencing

• Time concepts

• Speech clarity

• Narrative skills

Have the person explain each step:

1. Heat water/milk

2. Add cocoa

3. Stir

4. Taste

Great for kids learning “first, next, last,” and adults working on memory, executive function, or articulation carryover.

❄️ 3. Winter Describing Game (“Guess What I’m Thinking Of”)

How it helps:

• Critical thinking

• Word finding

• Category skills

One person describes a winter object without naming it; others guess.

Example clues: “It’s cold, it melts, and you can build with it.”

Great for aphasia therapy, fluency practice, and kid-friendly play.

❄️ 4. Ornament or Decoration Labeling + Storytelling

How it helps:

• Narrative language

• Emotional expression

• Memory skills

Invite the person to choose a winter item and tell a story behind it (“We got this on a vacation…”)—this builds cohesive speech and memory.

❄️ 5. Snow Sensory Play (Real or Fake)

Helps with:

• AAC commenting

• Sensory tolerance

• Vocabulary expansion

AAC examples: cold, soft, wet, more, again, wow, help, look.

❄️ 6. Winter Clothing Routine Practice

Helps with:

• Functional communication

• Vocabulary

• Independence skills

Labeling and requesting winter items (“I need my gloves,” “Put on hat,” “Zip coat”) supports children and adults with expressive needs or cognitive-linguistic rehabilitation.

❄️ 7. Gingerbread House or Baking Directions

Helps with:

• Receptive language

• Following multi-step directions

• Planning/organization (executive function)

Make it social: take turns adding decorations.

❄️ 8. “Walk and Talk” Neighborhood Adventure

Helps with:

• Social language

• Executive function

• Pragmatics

Research shows movement increases cognitive flexibility and communication readiness (Ratey, 2008).

❄️ 9. Winter “I Spy”

Helps with:

• Visual processing

• Vocabulary

• Turn-taking

Great for all ages, including adults recovering language after stroke or TBI.

❄️ 10. Cozy Reading Time

Helps with:

• Literacy

• Language comprehension

• Emotional regulation

For adults: choose poetry, devotionals, short essays, or newspaper columns.

❄️ 11. Holiday Card Writing or Digital Messages

Helps with:

• Sentence formulation

• Social communication

• Written expression

Perfect for older kids, teens, and adults.

❄️ 12. Board Games for Communication

Helps with:

• Turn-taking

• Strategy language

• Problem-solving

• AAC navigation

Best SLP-friendly games: Guess Who, Hedbanz, Sequence, Connect 4, Scattergories, Taboo.

❄️ 13. Winter Photo Walk + Captioning

Helps with:

• Describing

• Vocabulary

• Social media communication

Take winter photos—then create fun captions aloud or in writing.

❄️ 14. “Winter Word Bank” Challenge

Helps with:

• Word finding

• Categorization

• AAC vocabulary expansion

Make lists of:

• foods

• clothes

• weather words

• feelings

• traditions

• sensory words

❄️ 15. Cozy Conversations

Winter naturally slows schedules. Use this as an opportunity to practice:

• conversational turn-taking

• asking follow-up questions

• expanding answers

• emotional expression (“What was the best part of your day?”)

Great for children, teens, couples, families, and adults in communication therapy.

Winter is filled with natural communication moments. With simple activities, families and individuals of all ages can build vocabulary, expressive language, social skills, and cognitive-linguistic abilities—while staying cozy and connected.

Small moments create the biggest growth.

Works Cited:

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2023a). Spoken language disorders. Retrieved from https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/spoken-language-disorders/

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2023b). Roles and responsibilities of speech-language pathologists in early intervention. Retrieved from https://www.asha.org/policy/ps2008-00290/

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2023c). Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Retrieved from https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/augmentative-and-alternative-communication/

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2020). The power of playful learning in early childhood. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/play

Ratey, J. J. (2008). Spark: The revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain. Little, Brown and Company.

Snow, C. E., & Uccelli, P. (2009). The challenge of academic language. In D. R. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of literacy (pp. 112–133). Cambridge University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

Looking for winter activities that build speech and language skills? Discover 15 SLP-approved ideas for toddlers, teens, and adults. Fun, easy, and perfect for home!

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