Playing with Stacking Cups to Encourage Early Speech and Language Skills

Here’s a basic toy that most children have seen and most adults played with as children.  We all know you are supposed to make a tower (stack) and then place the cups back inside (nest) to clean up. When playing this way, try some of these words/phrases…

Up
On
In
Uh-oh
More
Crash!
Ka-boom!
Fall down!

What if your child doesn’t want to stack or isn’t interested in stacking?  Here are some other ideas:

1. Make animal noises or other loud sounds into the cups like a microphone.  The amplified sound is fun to listen to and your toddler may want to do it again and again.
2. Take them to the bath and pour water onto body parts or other toys.  Name what is getting washed/splashed. Tap them together to the beat of your favorite bathtime song.
3. Fill the cups with smaller toys (shapes, puzzles pieces, balls) and shake them to make lots of noise. Name the game “shake shake” and play with “GO… STOP!”
4. Put a cup on your head like a hat then say a two-part word to make it fall off. “Up” (cup on head) and “down” (lean forward for it to fall off).  “Achoo” and “uh-oh” also work well.
5. Get out some spoons, turn the cups over, and play the drums: “bang, bang, tap, tap”

How does your toddler play with cups?