Using Adapted Books in Speech Therapy

Adapted books are one of my favorite ways to teach new skills.  They are fun and interactive. During the session they keep my students focused and engaged.  I love using them with my students to teach them how to answer who and what questions. I am going to go through how I use my adaptive who and what books with my students. 

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Vocabulary

The first skill I use these book to teach is vocabulary.  I go through the book with both who and what questions, labeling each pictures.  I have my students repeat the names or point to the picture.  The small choice pictures can be used to match with the larger pictures in the book.

Sorting people vs Things

After reviewing the vocabulary we sort the small choice pictures into people and things.  I have them velcro the people on the who grid and the things on the what grid.

Answering Questions

I start my students using the what book that has no people in it.  I read the question “What is next to the house?” The student finds the answer and places it on the sentence below the picture.  I then read the answer.  When my students are able to read the sentences and respond verbally they are encouraged to do this.  As my student become proficient in answering what questions, I introduce the who book.  We continue to sort people and things each session to help the students differentiate between who and what questions.  As my students master this skill I introduce the book with both who and what questions. For students that struggle with the transition to this book I will limit their choices to only people when a who question is presented.

Themes

Each month I switch to a different set of who and what books, so my students do not memorize the books without truly learning the skills.  This BUNDLE of adapted books includes the following:

• Adapted Family who and what questions
• Adaptive Fall who and what questions                                                                            
• Adapted Halloween who and what questions 
• Adapted Thanksgiving who and what questions
• Adapted Christmas who and what questions
• Adapted Snowman who and what questions
• Adapted Valentine’s Day who and what questions
• Adapted Leprechaun who and what questions
• Adapted Spring who and what questions
• Adapted Beach who and what questions 

Click HERE to check out the entire BUNDLE.

I hope this helps you use these books to improve your students vocabulary skills and ability to answer who and what questions.

Basic Concepts for SLPs

Building vocabulary skills are so important for my students.  One area that always needs to be targeted is basic concepts.  Everyday in school my students are expected to understand basic concepts, but they often struggle to be successful.

My students have a great deal of trouble with the concepts of most, least, fewest and equal.  We play a fishing game to work on that.  As we fish we talk about who has the most, least or are the number of fish equal. We play this game frequently to reinforce these concepts. Click on the link below to get a copy of this free resource.

Free Fishing Concept Game

Every month we make a small basic concept book that is related to the season or a holiday.  These books target next to, beside, between, in front, above, below, under, over, left and right.  I use the pages that have concepts my students need to learn.  The monthly repetition helps my students learn to understand and use these concepts. I can also add concepts as my students master them.

Target basic concepts every month

Play-Doh is one of my favorite toys to use in therapy.  One last activity that I use with my students is  basic concept Smash mats.  They target whole, half, all, some, first, second, third, between, through, above, below, left, right, around, in, out and next to. I select mats that target the concepts each individual child needs to learn.

Basic Concepts Seasonal Mats

It is always exciting when my students start to learn their concepts.

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Easy Data Collection for the busy SLP

Are you looking for an easy way to collect and store data. As the new year starts one of my goals this year is to keep up on my data collections. It seems to be a never ending task for me. I need to collect data every session and also data for my IEP goals.  This year I am going to use a group data sheet for each session. This seems to be a natural part of therapy. I use this data to drive therapy and I use it when I bill for Medicaid.

My biggest challenge is keeping up with the data for my IEP goals. My goals are written without all the prompts and scaffolding I typically use in therapy. I also want my students involved in their own data collection. Last year I decided to create lap books with graphs inside for my 4th and 5th graders.  My students created a lap book and every two weeks we added a data point.  It was be a good way to review their goals and talk about their progress.  I gave out brad tags when my students beat their previous score. It was so successful with my older students that this year I am going to expand it to all my students. 

Progress Monitoring Lap Books

Bar graph for Vocabulary Words

Page to glue on Brag Tags

Goals, a line graph and a place for more brag tags.

 I am excited to see how it goes. It is always exciting when data collection goes well.  I get such a feeling of accomplishment.  I hope your do too.

Preschool Games for Speech Therapy

Games! Games! Games! It is one of the reasons I love being an SLP.  The tricky part is turning commercial games into therapy tools.  My students love to play games, so what better way to motivate them to practice their speech targets.  I love to use Pop Up Pirate, Jumpin Jack, Shark Bite, Pop the Pig, the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, Yeti in my Spaghetti and Fishing games.

One way you can use them is with articulation or language decks.  The students practice their sounds or language target and then take a turn.  Quick and easy.  I have also started to use Game Companions that go along with each game. These game companions replace the dice or spinner that comes with the games.  The spinners have targets that the students practice before they take turn.

Shark Articulation and Language Game Companion

For the games that do not use dice or spinners I use game mats that have articulation or language targets on them. When you remove game pieces from Fishing games or spaghetti from Yeti in my Spaghetti you place the game piece on the mat.  There are targets on the mats that the students practice.  These can also be used as Smash mats.

Yeti Spaghetti Articulation and Language Game Companion

I have created 2 Freebies that I wanted to share with you.  I created free K sound spinners that I use with Jumpin Jack.  The spinners can also be used by themselves as a game.

Free Rabbit Game Companion for K sounds

Another Freebie that I have created is for commercial Fishing games.  It includes mats that target early apraxia syllables.  There are mats for VC, CV, CVCV and CVC syllables.

Free Apraxia Game Companions for Fishing Games

Games are such a great motivators for our students.  They are a great way to work with those mixed groups that always present a challenge in therapy.  I hope these spinners and mats are helpful.

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Do you struggle to get 100 trials in Speech?

Is it hard to keep your students engaged while they practice?  I have found that by using games and activities my students enjoy therapist directed drill play.  It can be a lot of fun and the therapist can obtain 100 trials of the targeted sound or process.  I have found that their are so many commercial games and activities available that easily lend themselves to therapist directed drill play.  For all of these games and activities I like to select 3-5 pictures that will be targeted during the session.  The number I select depends on how often the student needs to engage in play and stay motivated.

Yeti In My Spaghetti :  Every time my students practice their pictures I give them a piece of spaghetti to place over the bowl.  When the game is assembled we play the game.

Kerplunk:  As my students practice they put a stick through the tube.  When all the sticks are in we practice the pictures as we add the marbles to the tube.  When it is all ready we have fun playing the game.

Mr Potato Head:  I set up a variety of parts that the student can select.  We practice the pictures and them add a part to the potato.  After a few potatoes are assembled we play with them.

100 Trial sheets:  I like to use crayons, markers and stamps with 100 trials sheets.  The child marks a picture after each production.  This freebie includes six Spring 100 trials articulation sheets and 2 data collections sheet.  The data collection sheets can be used with any of these activities.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS FREEBIE

Progress monitor your entire group easily

Legos:  I like to have my students practice their pictures and then I give them 2-3 legos to put together.  They build and practice at the same time.

Ned's Head:  I put multiple copies of the students pictures inside the head.  I place a sticker on one of the cards.  We take turns pulling a card out of Ned's Head.  The student who finds the card with the sticker shouts "I win!" This game is quick and can be played multiple times.

Cariboo:  I cover the original cards with Holiday or a theme.  After each child practices their targeted words they open  one box.  It they find the ball they get to put it in the treasure chest.  We play until the treasure box opens.

Chipper Chat:  Practice the pictures and them put a chip on the card.  When the card is full use the magic wand to clean up the card.  Take time to play with the chips and magnets at the end.

Jenga:  The students practice their pictures and then place a Jenga block on the tower.  When the tower is built we play the game.

Fishing game:  I like to have my students say their words and them put a fish in the "pond".  When the game is complete we play it.  I have also created a game companion that can also be used.  The students practice again as they place them in the fishing net.

Articulation Game Companion

Connect Four:  Each time a student puts a chip in the frame they say their pictures.  We play until their is a winner.

Using these games in therapist directed drill play is a fun and easy way to get your students to practice 100 articulation targets in a therapy session. If you are struggling to keep your students engaged think about trying some of these games. I hope your students enjoy them as much as my students do.

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How to develop you student's language skills using toys.

Do you have limited space in your Speech room? Do you still want to engage your students with toys? I love being able to use a kitchen center when I am in the classroom, but I don't have the space in my therapy room. I solved that problem by creating a stove out of a box.  I later use that box to store all my kitchen toys. It is a quick and easy way to develop a kitchen center.

To create this center the first thing I did was gather the toys that I needed. I had a shopping basket full of play food, plates, cups, silverware, pots, a griddle, and a Play-Doh stove. I also add some paper plates, cups, notepads and markers. To make a stove I covered a box with yellow paper and made four burners.  To finish it off I added contact paper, so it would be more durable.

I like to target sentence expansion, vocabulary skills, asking and answering questions and syntax skills when I use my kitchen center.  As I bring out the food we focus on naming the food and cooking equipment. One vocabulary unit I like to focus on is Fruit vocabulary. 

Click here to download the fruit vocabulary cards and progress monitoring sheet.

I have my students label the fruit, sort them by color and match them up to a set of pictures. I like to model how to take and order food in a restaurant. We use notepads to write down the order and then we cook the food. Throughout the play we focus on expanding our sentences.  If a student reponds "I want apples" I might expand it to "I want two red apples".

It is amazing to watch how with repeated use of the same toys my students begin to expand their language.  When I first introduce the kitchen center my students typically use unspecific vocabulary and short, choppy sentences.  The more we use the same toys they begin to learn the vocabulary and expand on their play themes.  By the end they are able to pretend they are waitresses, waitors, bus boys and chefs.  They are labeling the food and the utensils.  I love to watch their language grow the more we use the kitchen center.

Creating a kitchen center can be quick and easy.  When we are done everything goes back in the box until the next time we play with it.  This has turned into one of my students favorite activities.

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Have more FUN when you TEACH WITH PLAY DOH

I love to use Play-Doh and so do my students.  In Speech there are so many skills that can be targeted with a new can of Play-Doh.  This month I have been working on vocabulary skills, basic concepts, articulation, rhyming and letter sounds all with Play-Doh.  I presented my students with cans of white Play-Doh, wiggly eyes, small animals, tongue depressors, beads and alphabet cookies.

As we were using the Play-Doh I suggested making a snowman.  We made snowballs in three sizes, added pairs of eyes and arms, buttons that were the same or different.  We used the cans of Play-Doh and the tongue depressors to make a bridge.  The snowmen and animals went over, under and across the bridge.  We added water so other animals could go in and under the water.  Later we made an igloo and a polar bear.  Our animals went on top of the igloo, next to it, inside and outside.  We all had a great time and I was able to targeted multiple basic concepts (small, medium, large, biggest, smallest, shortest, tallest, pair, same, different, next to, over, under, inside, outside and across) all while having a lot of FUN!

Another group made objects that rhymed with our animal figures.  We made rhymes for cat, bear, dog and pig.  Everyone loved trying to make wigs, frogs, stairs and at the end we made them all go splat (rhyming with cat).

The alphabet cookies were great for both articulation skills and reinforcing letters and sounds.  We found our sound cookie and made items that started or ended with our sounds.  My kids made cars, ladders, sharks, snails and more snowmen. As we made objects we created silly rhymes and tapped out the phonemes in the words.  My kids rhymed ladder with kadder, snadder,  and shadder,

We had so much fun learning and playing at the same time. Open a fresh can of Play-Doh and have some fun.

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