Using the Water Tray for Social Skills and Language

The water tray activity is one way to meet them at their stage of development and move them from individual play (on their own, seeming uninterested in others), to parallel play and eventually collaborative play.

The water tray is great because most kids enjoy the tipping, the pouring, the splashing and will do individual separate play.Jugs, sieves and funnels are enough toys to start with.

We recommend being outdoors and hope you don’t mind getting wet.

So how do we begin to engage them in more parallel play?

The first goal is shared attention. Join them in the water tray and do whatever they are doing. They will start watching to see what you do and sometimes copying your activity, especially if you come up with something interesting. You can sometimes copy them.

Move to gentle splashing.Then take an opportunity if they splash to jump and seem surprised. Don’t be loud, as that might startle them, but it helps if you’re dramatic – act surprised and amused, not cross.

Usually they notice and do it again.

Don’t get upset. This is exactly your goal. You splash, they splash, you jump, you’re surprised.

Don’t splash back yet. Wait until you’ve established that they are looking for a response from you. Then very gently splash back.

Sometimes keep your eyes closed and wait for them to splash.

From there you can move to the next step: One of you holds a pot and the other pours something in. One of you holds the funnel and the other gathers the water. Introduce toy animals and splash them or pour water over them. At this point start talking about what is happening. Don’t demand a response but if you get any language, even unintelligible, recognise and respect it.

See whether you can move your child from individual separate play through parallel play to collaborative play. That’s the very beginning of communication.

This activity is, by the way, also really helpful for getting children who don’t speak the same language as you to start interacting and engaging.