Outdoor Activities To Develop Speech And Language Skills

Effective communication is essential for growth, both career-wise and socially. It is hard for anyone to succeed at anything without strong communication skills. It is equally hard to develop effective interpersonal relationships with colleagues, friends, and family members without honing your speech and language skills. That is why you should focus your attention on activities that promote speech, learning, and development.

If you have kids, speech and language development is among the problem areas that you must address consistently. You must get out there and engage them in plays and multi-sensory outdoor activities that they will not only enjoy but that will teach them the art of effective communication. These activities will help you as an adult, but you can always complement them with tutorials from companies that offer speech development training for people struggling with speech problems. Such companies offer unique speech therapy tailored plans to each client, depending on the magnitude of your speech problem.

That being said, are you looking for outdoor speech and language activities for you and your kin? If you are, here are 4 of those:

1. Nature Walk

There definitely are many natural areas at your doorsteps. You don’t need to book air tickets to find at least one physical feature, say, a mountain, a hill, a natural forest, a river, a beach, and so on. Nature offers a plethora of fun outdoor experiences that you will enjoy either as a family or with your work colleagues.

One way to get your kids or colleagues talking is to ask them to identify and name different tree, birds, or animal species as you encounter them in their natural habitation. Everyone in the group will not only have fun but will greatly improve their vocabulary. Another conversation starter in a nature area is to follow nature sounds such as a river or a waterfall and asking everyone in the group to describe the sound. Everyone will be happy as they learn.

2. Bridge build

This game is great both for adults and kids who struggle with communication problems. Participants learn both creativity and effective communication. All you need to do is go to a nature area with about 4 or more people, divide them into two groups, and ask them to compete in bridge build. You should be a group leader in one of the teams if you also want to hone your creativity and communication skills. Each team needs to build half a bridge. Each of the halves should have identical designs so that they can seamlessly fit into each other once complete.

The challenge here is that the teams are separated from each other so that members from separate teams cannot see what is happening in the other team. And because the building materials are highly improvised- tape, sticks, or strings, the team members will have to reason together in order to succeed. By the time they are done, even the quietest member will be communicating and inter-relating with other members freely.

3. Traveling

Sometimes you will struggle with communication because of the fear that your knowledge in important topics is limited. But that is an easy fix! Just travel the world and meet new people in their natural settings. If you don’t understand the geopolitics in the Middle East, visit the region and interact with locals. If you feel like your knowledge in the African continent and the tribes therein, visit the continent. See the pyramids and other wonders of the world firsthand. Learn a new language and try new foods. When you come back home, you will have a lot to talk about authoritatively. People will want to listen to you. Your confidence levels will be up there, which is important for communication skills development.

4. Scavenger hunt

Organize your kids or friends in two or more groups, list several goofy tasks for each team to accomplish within a set timeline, and then compare notes at the end. The tasks could be as simple as interviewing random strangers in the streets, taking selfies with the opposite gender or with old as many random police officers as possible, or any other task that requires guts to do. And because the timer will be ticking all through, you will be in a hurry to finish up your project, which will force you to talk to and convince random people to help you win.

Conclusion

There are a lot of different games and outdoor activities that will get you and your family or friends excited about learning new communication skills and expanding your vocabulary. The key here is to find experiences that are difficult to verbalize and then posing them as group challenges. You will be happy to learn as you enjoy these outdoor activities with the people you love- people who won’t judge you harshly.