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Learning through play and in a natural environment is essential for all children. Play kitchens are great tool that can be used to teach various skills such as language, play, and more! Here are some tips and ideas for teaching through play using a play kitchen.

Tips and Ideas for Teaching Through Play

Label Common Items: Simply naming the items that your play kitchen includes is one way to expand vocabulary. Point to an item such as a spoon and pair it with the name 鈥渟poon鈥� to teach the names of different items. This helps with expressive communication for children who are just finding their voice.

Receptive Skills with Common Items: Ask your child to point or show you where the different kitchen items are 鈥� 鈥渟how me the spoon,鈥� 鈥渉and me the ketchup鈥� or 鈥減oint to the oven鈥� are different ways to phase it. This helps with receptive communication.

Examples of Common Items included: plates, bowl, spoon, knife, sink, oven, microwave,, phone, refrigerator, chalkboard, clock, cabinets, coffee maker, pots, pans, oven mitts, grocery bag, and more!

Label Actions: Narrate what you and your child are doing. For example, 鈥測ou鈥檙e cooking pancakes, yum! I鈥檓 washing dishes.鈥� Have your child do the same. Ask him/her 鈥渨hat are you doing?鈥� or 鈥渨hat am I doing?鈥�

Receptive Skills with Actions: Have your child show you actions. You can phrase this by saying, 鈥渟how me 肠辞辞办颈苍驳鈥� or 鈥渙pen the cabinet so we can put the dishes away.鈥�

Examples of Actions to teach: cooking, washing, baking, drawing or writing (on a chalkboard), talking (on the phone), etc.

Learn Prepositions: You can teach your child prepositions by labeling the prepositions 鈥� 鈥渢he spoon is 颈苍蝉颈诲别鈥� or 鈥渢he plates are on top,鈥� etc. You can then switch it around and ask your child, 鈥渨here are the spoons?鈥� and teach them to answer using the correct preposition. Practice their listening skills by delivering an instruction such as 鈥減ut the spoon inside the sink.鈥�

Examples of Prepositions: inside, outside, on top, above, in front, behind, next to, over, under, etc.

Fill-in-the-Blanks: a prerequisite to answering questions is filling in the blanks. Going back to the basic skills on expanding vocabulary, you can use simple phrases such as 鈥渢his is a _____鈥� and hold up a spoon or point to the clock.

Functions of Kitchen Items: Teach your child about the functions of kitchen items by labeling what they are used for. For example, the sink is to wash dishes or wash your hands. The oven is to heat up food. The refrigerator is to keep food cold. This can be done by using the fill-in the blank method (鈥渢he refrigerator keeps food ____鈥�), or if their language is at a higher level, simply ask, 鈥渨hat does a refrigerator do?鈥�

Examples of items to learn: oven, refrigerator, clock, cabinets, sink, microwave, stove, pots and pans, spoon and fork, cups, etc.

Pretend Play: Using their own imagination or imitating what Mom or Dad does in the kitchen is a great skill for children to have. They can make up stories while playing in the kitchen, pretend they鈥檙e cooking or preparing a feast, make cookies or bake for a bake sale. Pretend play can be so diverse and literally be anything!

This post was written by Jenna Almirol at . Jenna has a BA in Psychology and a MA in Counseling Psychology. She currently works full-time as a Clinical Supervisor, primarily with children diagnosed with ASD.