Smoothie Time

I love a good smoothie. Littles do too. More than drinking smoothies, littles love making them. Littles love cutting bananas with (dull plastic kid safe) knives.  Littles love digging their hands into a bag of spinach and grabbing a handful. Some littles have sensory aversions, and thats ok. Use the ingredients and level of touch interaction that works for your family. Maybe mom will count out the blueberries. Maybe dad will drink the smoothie. Just have some fun. Also, always speak to your pediatrician before introducing new foods to your child's diet - such as peanut butter or raw honey.

Recipes:

Littles can't read. Make them an illustrated recipe, so that they can "read" it with you while you build your smoothie. I googled "illustrated children's smoothie recipes" and generated a few nice ones. I even made my own. (Click link to download PDF file to print - recipe from www.theveganchickpea.com)

Some ways to incorporate language and learning:

Cutting - "chop chop chop" "cut cut cut" teach knife safety and caution, talk about that we only use knives with adults, use dull child safe knives, another fun idea is to break out some clean kid safe scissors and chop up spinach

Measuring - lay out some measuring cups and spoons -"which measuring cup is bigger, give me the small spoon", nest the measuring cups together, if your child hasn't mastered size differences yet, show them which one is bigger or smaller and talk about it

Pouring - toddlers can practice pouring liquid into the blender, you measure out the liquid in a pouring cup and they can pour it in

Scooping - scoop frozen blueberries out of a bag, chia seeds, oats, almond butter, you get the idea, model the action word "scoop"

Counting - count pieces of mango or count to 10 while the blender blends

Colors - nothing gets me more excited than the colors of fruits and veggies, talk about the colors, sort colors, pick one color and try to make a smoothie with as many ingredients of that color (may taste a little odd but put on a grin and atleast pretend to like it)

Modeling word labels and requests - names of fruits, veggies and ingredients - produce lots of words, for younger littles, keep sentences short and simple, model repetetive words, 2 word phrases, pause 5-10 seconds after modeling to allow them opportunity to soak it up and maybe even imitate, if they are already talking, ask questions, engage in conversational turn taking ("I like blueberries, what do you like?"), Provide choices of 2 or ask your little to identify an ingredient out of a choice of 2 (if they have reached this milestone, make it harder by adding more choices and open-ended questions, like "What do we put next?")

Model prepositions - IN the blender, ON the counter, UNDER the sink

Model signs/gestures- for the nonverbal little, models requests for "more, open, all done, eat, drink, milk" etc., with signs paired with verbal model, google a "sign" if you are not familiar with it


And remember, its ok to make a mess, have fun, clean it up together, enjoy (preferably from an open or straw cup)!

Share your favorite smoothie recipes, smoothie ideas and silly smoothie stories below!

Welcome!

Hi friends! My name is Jen. Welcome to my blog. This blog was created to share fun ideas for parents, caregivers and therapists to use with toddlers throughout daily routines to promote language and learning. I am a speech language pathologist working with children from birth-3. I love cooking, crafting and hanging out with my dog. I welcome you to my corner of the internet with open arms. Please leave comments, share your own ideas and engage in positive interaction here. This blog is not intended to take the place of speech therapy for your child, if your child requires speech therapy. This is simply a page to share ideas. Please remember the age old rule, if you have nothing nice to say, go say it somewhere else. Thank you for visiting and I look forward to having some fun together!