Halloween offers plenty of opportunities to improve and even accelerate language skills with your kids without adding formal exercises to an already busy family calendar. 

Turning everyday activities into learning opportunities doesn’t require a lot of multitasking; it’s mostly practicing sequencing and preparing for social interactions.

The simplest approach is to describe what is happening around you as it happens. Parents can talk through activities with their children, ask questions and follow their interests without having to do any planning in advance.

Decorations and pumpkins

Start by talking through the day’s plan: ‘First, we’re going to shop for decorations. Then we’ll choose a pumpkin. After that, we’ll set everything up.’ 

This introduces sequencing, the ability to organize events in a step-by-step order with a beginning, an end and the steps in between. It helps children follow directions and organize their own language.

Pumpkins are especially useful for building descriptive vocabulary. Is it big or small? Will it be scary or friendly? When it’s time to carve, is the inside slimy, gooey or stringy? Is the pumpkin hard or soft? 

Decorations offer similar opportunities: how scary should they be, and will they make loud noises? The idea is to see how much a child can describe during an ordinary activity.

Children can also collect supplies, then follow simple directions such as ‘Put the pumpkin at the bottom of the paper’ or ‘Glue the bats into the sky.’ Parents can also switch roles and let the child give the directions. One enjoyable activity can involve vocabulary, sequencing and following instructions.

Choosing a costume

A child’s costume choice can open up a conversation before anyone goes shopping. 

If they want to be a vampire, for example, what will they need? A cape? Teeth? What colours will they choose? Parents can work through the costume piece by piece, discussing the face, body and accessories along the way.

Depending on the child’s age and interests, the discussion can go further: What do they know about vampires, ghosts or witches? Why did they choose that character? There is no need to turn the conversation into a quiz. 

Following the child’s lead helps them add detail, explain their thinking and build a narrative around something that excites them.

Parties and trick-or-treating

Because Halloween only happens once a year, the routine may feel new even to a child who has participated before. Children who find unfamiliar situations difficult may benefit from talking through what to expect and rehearsing it in advance.

Before a party, parents can discuss who will be there, what everyone might wear and what snacks or activities to expect. 

Before trick-or-treating, they can explain the walk from house to house, practice knocking on a door and saying ‘trick or treat,’ and even try a practice run with a familiar neighbour.

It’s also a chance to ask what a child is excited about or worried about, and to give them words for expressing their needs: ‘I’m scared,’ ‘I don’t want to go to this house’ or ‘I’m ready to go home.’ Parents can practise simple safety scenarios, such as what to do if an unfamiliar adult offers them a ride, and agree on expectations around candy ahead of time.

The goal is to keep the celebration enjoyable through enhanced communication. Through describing, planning and role-playing, families can turn familiar activities into useful language practice at the child’s own pace—it doesn’t feel like homework and no one has to know!

About Us

Founded in 2013 by Tamara Paull M.SC. SLP(C), Speakable Speech & Language provides in-person and virtual speech therapy in Montreal, Toronto and the Laurentians. The Speakable team of clinicians in good standing with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO) or l’Ordre des orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec (OOAQ) aim to engage children in 30-45-minute sessions that are therapeutic, educational and fun.