Playing Restaurant: Social Skills and Language Building

There is no better vehicle for developing language and social skills than an authentic play experience. Children love to act out familiar scenes, take on roles that are interesting to them, and interact in pretend play scenarios. Playing “restaurant” or “diner” or even just at-home eating can be a great time to practice those skills with little or no adult intervention. For those with little or no dining-out experience, this is also a way to gain knowledge of an unknown situation. 

You don’t need a lot to get started :) A simple play set is great, but you can also work with cast-off kitchen pieces and recycled containers - your kiddos will take over whatever you make available. Just make sure they’re clean and unbreakable, for safety reasons. 

If you have access to a pretend play kitchen area, your students can work with that, but a simple disposable plastic tub, turned over with Sharpie details was embraced by our friends as a cooktop :) 

This post - Make Your Own Toys!  - is all about making your own set from things you have at home :) Kiddos will work with whatever they find ... and a healthy dose of imagination! 

 

For “dining out,” don’t forget an order pad for students to role play and take down all their customers’ food orders!  Small friends may draw or make little marks, while older kiddos will get excited to try out their spelling tricks! 

Making a menu board or some menus might be another fun writing exercise. Invented spelling and drawn pictures, or illustrations cut from magazines, will complete this task :) 

Social skills such as taking turns and sharing supplies will get lots of practice, as different roles are taken on. Push in to work on specific vocabulary and language skills with those who would benefit from intervention, but sit back to observe the natural conversations that may emerge. 

Have fun!!