Does your child struggle to learn prepositions? A preposition usually precedes a noun or pronoun and expresses a relation to another word or element in the clause, as in “the man ON the platform,” “she arrived AFTER dinner.” Some examples include on, off, under, and next to. Here are two different games you can play with your child to work on prepositions:

1) The Listening Game

Gather a group of about 10 items or toys. They can be anything; cars, superheroes, ponies, etc. Take turns telling each other where to place certain items. For example you can say, “put Wonder Woman UNDER the chair.” The child should follow your instructions by placing the toy under the chair. Then it’s time to switch roles. The child will give you direction by telling you where to place an item.

2) The Hiding Game

Collect a group of about five items. Take turns hiding the items around the room. When the seeker finds an item, they say, “I found Wonder Woman UNDER the couch.” If they are having a hard time, tell them what you’re doing as you hide each item, “I’m hiding Yoshi ON the chair.”

Prepositions are important pieces in the structure of sentences. They mark relationships between people, objects and locations. Building sentences is a huge milestone in language development. These games help to generalize the use of prepositions and give visual representations for the child to learn from, which will then enable them to create coherent and more complex sentences.