Attention and Interaction Home Activities

Speech and Language
Therapy
Activities for
Developing Attention
and Interaction Skills
This pack has been designed by the Speech and Language Therapists from the London
Children’s Practice. It includes some activities and games that can be used to target key areas
relating to attention, interaction, and understanding and use of language and communication.
Speech and Language Therapy is a profession focused on helping children and families in
developing and supporting a child’s communication skills, attention, play, and social interaction
skills. Speech and Language Therapists typically place more importance on helping children
engage and communicate with the world around them, not just through speaking and using
language, but also through other means like signing, gesture, visuals, and shared enjoyment in
interaction.
Attention and Listening Skills
The development of attention and listening skills is an essential part of the development of
communication skills. Children need to develop their attention skills in order to help them
learn to play with toys and others, understand words, and express themselves.
Adjust YOUR Adapt the TASK:

INTERACTION: Use visual supports. For
example:
Adapt the ENVIRONMENT:
Play at your child’s level, Uses gestures/ objects
face to face, say the child’s alongside your words;
Reduce distractions in the name before you start to Use timers
environment (e.g. turning get their attention.
off the TV, removing Use start/finish boxes. Only
Change the tone of your once activity is put into the
distracting toys, turn off voice and your facial
music). ‘finish’ box then the activity
expressions, to be excited, is complete.
or different. This will make
the activity more exciting Break down instructions
Choose a time of the day to into smaller parts
play together when you and help sustain their
know that the child is at attention. Keep activities short and
their most comfortable Slow down your speech. try to always finish an
(e.g. not too tired or Pause between sentences activity (even if the activity
hungry). and instructions. This only lasts a few seconds).
allows more time for Play with toys that interest
children to process your child. Follow their lead
language. during the play.
1
Activities you can do at home include:
Ready… Steady… GO! Games: Encourage your child to wait until they hear GO before
each turn. Aim to increase the length of time between you say ‘steady’ and then ‘go’. Try these
activities, have your child…
Turn Taking Games: Take turns during simple games, slowly increasing the number of
turns that the child is able to wait. Try these activities:
2
Action and Hiding Games: Play games that involve listening to or copying actions, or
hiding items and having the child follow your instructions to find them! Try these activities:
3
Intensive Interaction
Sometimes children are not yet able to listen and attend to someone else.
They may seem to prefer playing on their own, make minimal eye contact, and may rarely
respond to something that is said or done by someone else. In this case, we would first focus
on building an interest in interaction – by being very interesting ourselves!
Intensive interaction is a great tool for this.
What is Intensive Interaction?
• ‘Intensive interaction’ focuses on developing early communication and interaction

skills. It is based on responding to and copying any noises, movements and actions
made by the child.
Intensive Interaction aims to build the fundamentals of

communications. This includes:
ü Learning to give brief attention to another person
ü Learning to share attention with another person
ü Developing shared attention and turning it into

'activities'
ü Taking turns in exchanges of behaviour
ü Learning to have fun and to play
ü Using and understanding eye contact
ü Using and understanding facial expressions
ü Using and understanding non-verbal commu-

nication such as gestures and body language
ü Learning to use and understand vocalisations, and

have your vocalisations become more varied and
extensive, then gradually more precise and
meaningful
4
Intensive Interaction
How do we do it?
• OBSERVE your child and FOLLOW what they are doing

– make sure they are leading the action!
• Copy what your child is doing, this includes:

- Imitating movements/gestures and facial
expressions (e.g. banging toys; clapping hands)
- Imitating noises - If your child is making a noise try
and make the same noise.
• WAIT for your child to do it again, and then repeat.

This builds turn-taking.
• Try and make a game out of the actions, take turns!

e.g.:- the child bangs the object/you bang the
object/ the child bangs the object etc.
• Try changing the sound/action slightly. For

example, if the child says “ah” you could say “ooh”.
This helps to build shared attention, and
encourages children to increase their range of
sound production.
• Remember it should be fun for the child! If they

indicate they dislike the interaction, you should
stop.

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Speech and Language

Adjust YOUR Adapt the TASK:

What is Intensive Interaction?

• ‘Intensive interaction’ focuses on developing early communication and interaction

Intensive Interaction aims to build the fundamentals of

ü Learning to give brief attention to another person

ü Learning to share attention with another person

ü Developing shared attention and turning it into

ü Taking turns in exchanges of behaviour

ü Learning to have fun and to play

ü Using and understanding eye contact

ü Using and understanding facial expressions

ü Using and understanding non-verbal commu-

ü Learning to use and understand vocalisations, and

• OBSERVE your child and FOLLOW what they are doing

• Copy what your child is doing, this includes:

• WAIT for your child to do it again, and then repeat.

• Try and make a game out of the actions, take turns!

• Try changing the sound/action slightly. For

• Remember it should be fun for the child! If they

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