Communication Activities for Preschoolers

Non-Verbal Activities

• Create non-verbal communication activities for preschoolers to teach them how to communicate with one another without talking. Have the children sit in a circle and whisper an emotion, such as happy or sad, into one of the preschooler's ears. He must stand in the middle of the circle and act out the emotion. The other preschoolers must try to guess the emotion he is acting out. For another non-verbal activity, the children can play a game of charades. Give a child an action word such as "wiggle," "stomp" or "dance." One child acts out the word and the other children have to guess it.

Verbal Activities

• Ask the children to sit in a circle and select one child to go first. She will start a story by saying "Once upon a time." The next player must add onto the story. Each player must add one sentence onto the story. Tell the children they must communicate together by adding sentences to the story that make sense. For another verbal activity, have each child make a sound that expresses a communication, such as "Shhhhh" or "Mmmm-Hmmm."

Pictures

• Have children draw a series of pictures on a long sheet of paper to tell a story, similar to a comic strip. Another picture activity is to have the children communicate by drawing pictures back and forth to one another. For example, one child can draw a picture of an animal and passes the paper to another child. That child can draw a different animal or add something to the animal picture, such as trees or grass, or have the animal perform an activity.

Signs

• Explain to the preschoolers that signs are a way of visual communication. Show the children a few signs, such as traffic lights, a stop sign or a yield sign. Tell the children what the signs mean. Give each child a sheet of paper and have him use crayons to draw a picture of as many signs as he can think of.