Playing games is a great way to encourage language skills.

There are many commercially available and free games that encourage language development, but the most important factor is the language that is exchanged between the people playing.   The language of games (words used during game play)  is important for reading and math skill development.   For example, games help with vocabulary like: forward, backward, skip, match/pair, to name a few.  Some of our favorites include:

Free Games

I'm thinking of
Go Fish (if you make your own cards)
I spy

Commercially available games

Guess Who
Connect Four
Memory
Zingo
Outburst Jr
Scrabble, Scrabble Jr.