Make up and Speech?

Mother and child playing with makeup

Your initial reaction might be " Nope! No way!", and I get it. For a certain age group, maybe tweens and teens you may be more open minded. For little ones, not so much. This is where I say, remember you are the adult and you set the ground rules. Maybe your child has older siblings and they want to mimic them, or it may even be you who has become their makeup guru, and watching you put on makeup is something different and intriguing. If it motivates them, you can absolutely use it to your advantage. Makeup is going to mean something totally different in the scenario where you are working with your toddler. Get creative. Use good judgement and be sure to check ingredients and only use items that won't irritate their sensitive skin. I tell parents, as much as possible, use what you have. This is going to look different in every household, but use the following as an example of what you can do, using what is already a part of your child's routine. If you already have traveling makeup containers, wonderful. If not, you can find them in the dollar store or in you neighborhood drug store. Scoop out some of the face cream you use on your child in one container, and the hand lotion in another. Place them in a makeup bag that you will be using with your child during these activities. There are of course different chapsticks, and petroleum jelly lip balms, non-toxic lip balms, do your homework. Check for allergens. If you find one that is safe for your child, great! Add it to the makeup bag. Nail polish? There are non-toxic options out there, again, do your research and choose one that is safe for your child. Print out the color board on the Tables and Freebies page and you have an activity ready. Request and identify colors of nail polish. Do the same with kid safe eye shadow, or face paint.

For mascara you can find empty mascara tubes and wands on amazon and in beauty supply stores. Partially fill it up with coconut oil, castor oil, or almond oil, something safe to use on their lashes. If they have a nut allergy, stay away from nut oils, and maybe just use water or vaseline. Depends on the child, and again use your good judgement. Fill a spray bottle with water as the "setting spray".

Travel bottle kit

Now, comes the fun part. The activity itself. Set up on the floor or at their feeding/high chair tray with a small mirror in for you both, and... play! If they are emerging verbal communicators or non-verbal, make a communication board or an activity specific board tha you can laminate and keep right in the make up bag. I explain how to make your own boards here:Making Communication Boards on PowerPoint . Use the board to have them identify the "product" you're using, tell you what they want next, request more, or request terminating the activity by pointing to "all done".

You don't need a board to focus on the vocabulary you want them to practice. Use phrases like scoop up, shake bottle, rub on hand, wipe off to begin with. You're creating a repertoire of phrases they can use across activities, whether art, cooking, make up, etc. You also have a good foundation to build on. Once you notice they are using these phrases on their own, start to elaborate. "Scoop up lotion", "scoop up cold lotion", "wipe off oil", "spray on face", "spray on your face"/ "spray on mama's face", "take out", "zip bag open and take out". You can choose to focus on verbs, for example, "tap","pat", "rub", wipe", and then expand on verbs by combining them with body parts. This would sounds like " tap face", "rub hands","wipe mouth", or "pat cheeks". Again, this is individualized to your child's needs, but you get where I'm going. Don't forget onomatopoeia and nonsense sounds for our non-verbal and emerging imitators. These sounds are a great way to get them to start imitating more frequently without the pressure of having to imitate complex ( for them) consonant vowel combinations. So go ahead and use the pshhh, the doo doo doos, and boop, boop, boops, or bop, bop, bops, and smack your chapstick covered lips together for that loud "POP!". They are all stepping stones to imitating and using words. Sprinkle them into activities with kids who are already verbal. It will only add to the fun!