“Foodie” Fun for Kids: Ice Cream Sandwiches Encouraging Speech & Creating Yum!

Encouraging Speech & Creating Yum! Ice Cream Sandwiches

It’s the start of summer and, what’s better than to kick back and unwind than by enjoying a yummy, ice cream snack? Not only is it a delicious treat, it’s also a great way to have fun with the family!

Ingredients:

• Cookie dough: Any Brand you prefer (homemade or pre-made, your choice).
• Vanilla ice cream: 1 pint
• Sprinkles: We used Red, white, and blue, but, any color will do.

Instructions

Parent: Preheat oven for 350 degrees.

Kiddo: Place cookie dough onto baking pan.

Parent: Bake cookies for about 10-11 minutes (as you see fit). Let cookies sit until they are room temperature.

Kiddo: Place your sprinkles into a bowl during this time.

Kiddo: Put 2 scoops of vanilla onto your cookie, then take another cookie and place it on top of your ice cream.

Parent/Kiddo:  Even out the sides of your ice cream sandwich so that it is smooth on the sides.

Kiddo: Dip the ice cream sandwich into the bowl of sprinkles (make sure all the sides are covered with sprinkles.)

Parent/Kiddo: After all the sandwiches are done, place them into a large “Tupperware” container and allow the sandwiches to cool in the freezer for up to an hour.

Enjoy the ice cream!

Language Time:

When you are making ice cream sandwiches with your child, make sure to emphasize key vocabulary such as nouns (e.g. cookie, ice cream, sprinkles), actions (e.g. bake, eat, spread), descriptives (e.g. hot, soft, cold, sweet, yummy) and prepositions (e.g. on, off, in). This can help build your child’s ability to expand their vocabulary, build sentences, comment, and improve their ability to sequence. Encourage commenting by modeling it yourself (say, “wow, these cookies are hot after coming out of the oven” or “the ice cream sandwiches are cold after coming out of the freezer”). After making the recipe, encourage your child to retell you the steps of the recipe by asking, or using, different prompts such as “We put the ice cream on the ______” or using choices, “Did we make ice cream sandwiches or turkey sandwiches”?

When making this recipe with your child, have fun and take pictures while doing it. You can use these pictures as visuals to augment communication, improve visual awareness, answer questions and help improve sequencing and narrative skills. Remember, giving clear simple choices can provide your child with the opportunity to communicate, participate more actively and request appropriately (e.g. have them choose what cookie they want to make the sandwiches out of, what flavor ice cream, what color sprinkles).

Language Tips by Becca Eisenberg

Becca Eisenberg is a mother of two young children and a speech-language pathologist, author, and instructor. On her website, www.lifeskills2learn.com, she writes children’s book recommendations, app recommendations, and teaches life skills for children.

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This post originally appeared on our July/August 2013 Magazine