Summer often means more time spent in the car, whether you’re heading to the pool, visiting family, traveling to camp, or taking a road trip. While screens can certainly be helpful on longer drives, car rides also provide wonderful opportunities to support your child’s development through conversation, play, and connection.
Here are 10 simple activities that can help build speech, language, social, and thinking skills while you’re on the go.
1. I Spy
Take turns describing objects you see outside the window.
Examples:
• I spy something red.
• I spy something that flies.
Skills targeted: Vocabulary, describing, listening, attention, and problem-solving.
2. Category Challenge
Choose a category and take turns naming items.
Examples:
- Animals
- Foods
- Things at the beach
- Things that are green
Skills targeted: Vocabulary development, word retrieval, and flexible thinking.
3. Would You Rather?
Ask fun questions and encourage your child to explain their answer.
Examples:
- Would you rather live in a treehouse or on a boat?
- Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon?
Skills targeted: Conversation, reasoning, and expressive language.
4. Story Building
Create a story together one sentence at a time.
Example:
Parent: Once upon a time, a turtle found a treasure map.
Child: The map led him to a giant castle.
Skills targeted: Narrative language, imagination, sequencing, and listening.
5. Sound Hunt
Choose a speech sound and look for words that contain it on signs or billboards.
Examples:
- /s/ words
- /r/ words
- /l/ words
Skills targeted: Speech sound awareness and carryover practice.
6. Guess the Object
One person thinks of an object and gives clues.
Example:
- It’s something you wear.
- It has laces.
- You wear two of them.
Skills targeted: Describing, inferencing, and vocabulary.
7. Memory Challenge
Take turns adding items to a growing list.
Example:
I’m going on vacation and I’m bringing…
- A swimsuit
- A swimsuit and a beach ball
- A swimsuit, a beach ball, and sunglasses
Skills targeted: Memory, attention, and sequencing.
8. License Plate and Sign Search
Look for letters, numbers, or specific words while traveling.
Examples:
- Find every letter in your name.
- Find numbers 1 through 10.
- Find words that start with the same sound.
Skills targeted: Letter awareness, visual attention, and early literacy skills.
9. Talk About the Day
Use travel time to check in and practice conversation.
Questions:
- What was your favorite part of today?
- What made you laugh?
- What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
Skills targeted: Conversation, emotional awareness, and narrative skills.
10. Observation Challenge
Ask your child to pay attention to their surroundings and share what they notice.
Examples:
- What’s something new you saw today?
- What’s different from the last road we were on?
- What do you think that building is used for?
Skills targeted: Critical thinking, language development, and observation skills.
The best part about these activities is that they don’t require any special materials or preparation. A few minutes of conversation during a car ride can support communication, learning, and connection while helping the trip pass a little faster.
Happy travels from all of us at SLC!
And parents, it is perfectly okay if some trips are spent listening to music and enjoying the quiet, too. Sometimes those moments are valuable as well.
