Wordless Picture Books

Graphics: KG Fonts, PrettyGrafikDesign

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

Using wordless picture books in speech therapy is a common way to elicit a lot of different language skills. Here are the links to some posts done by fellow SLP bloggers:

Smart Speech Therapy

Playing With Words 365

Let's Grow Speech

Miss V's Speech World has a list of wordless picture books on TpT

Why should we use these types of books?

-great for a range of ages, from the very young on up

-gives insight into a client's narrative abilities

-allows you to look at grammatical structures, sentence structure and overall vocabulary skills

-you can use the same book over and over again

-they can be great ways to help a child learn how to expand utterance length

-parents can use them at home

Amazon does have some, including the following:

 

The latest product to hit my store is one that I'm super pumped about. I've had the idea brewing for awhile, but it took a little bit to figure out how to best approach it. It is an expanding packet of short wordless picture mini-books. What does expanding mean? It means that if you purchase now, you get to download any additional updates for free! With each addition, the price will increase though.

Click below to be taken to the listing:

So, let's take a closer look. Right now, there are 4 stories included. They range from 10-12 half pages (to save on ink and lamination). The backgrounds are white, mainly because I didn't want to send my printer to an early death (haha) with really intricate backgrounds. I kept graphics simple and uncluttered because a lot of my kids get distracted if a scene is too "busy." Plus, I wanted to leave it as open-ended as possible. Additionally, there is a one page "pre-made" story that you can use if you wish to. They also are aligned to many common core standards!

The 4 stories right now are: 

1. The Sticky Spider Webs.

2. What Pet Shall I Get?

3. When I Grow Up!

4. My Community

Below are examples of what the pages look like:

The "pre-made" story is a full page. I used repetitive, but detailed, complex sentences because a lot of my kids struggle to formulate these types of sentences. Again, the use of the story is completely up to you. 

Enjoy!

Love It and List It Linky: Vocabulary Activities

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience.

This month, Jenna Rayburn's Love It and List It Linky features vocabulary activities. Check out her post here.

Here's what I use on a pretty regular basis:

1. Books: This is a no-brainer. I like to use books to discuss new vocabulary! It's quick and can quickly generate conversations in small groups, as the students discuss what they know and hear what others have to say.

2. Super Duper Sentence Building Fun Deck: These pictures are actually designed for sentence building, but I found that the pictures are pretty "busy" which leaves a great opportunity for discussing different vocabulary words (nouns, adjectives, etc). Some of my students really need visual pictures, so this is great.

3. Learning Games For Kids website: This website has a multitude of vocabulary games, including synonyms, antonyms, and homophones.

4. Teachers Pay Teachers activities: My fellow SLPs are enormously talented and creative, so why not use some of theirs and some of mine? Below are my favorites:

Out of This World Context Clues from Carrie's Speech Corner

Bug Out: A Multiple Meaning Word Activity from Let's Talk Speech Therapy

Secret Word from Sublime Speech

Don't Say It Describing Dash and Mirror-SYNANT are some of my most used products from my store 

There Was A Silly SLP...

I thought I'd try my hand at creating a mini-book just for SLPs!

This is the result:

There Was A Silly SLP Who Got Stuck To Some...Plurals

There is a 16 page mini-book that follow Susie, the silly SLP. Susie spills some glue on herself and then some strange things happens. She gets stuck to 6 regular plurals and 6 irregular plurals! I chose early developing irregular plurals (feet, teeth, mice, sheep, deer, fish). 

Pre/Post Test:

 Use the items on page 15 to sequence/re-tell the story:

 Regular/Irregular plural sort (use items on page 15):

Use this page and the following directions cards to "stick things on Susie." 

You have the option to read 1, 2, or 3 step directions to your students:

Talk about the different locations that Susie went and use the items on page 15 to place what she got stuck to in each:

Grammar: Susie says some silly sentences and your students need to fix them!

 Creative Writing Prompt sheet:

 Comprehension questions with visuals:

I plan to create more of these mini-books if it's something SLPs are interested in! Leave a comment to let me know what you'd like to see next and you might win a copy of this packet!

App Companion Packet?

By now, you've probably heard of all the great book companion packets that SLPs have created to go along with popular books. Here's something that I think is a new concept: app companion packets!

I have received permission from the author of the My PlayHome app to create this packet specifically designed for SLPs. This is by far one of my favorite apps to use in therapy sessions! I wanted to create something that could be a go-to resource for a variety of skills that SLPs target on a regular basis. 

Bear with me for this long post as I want to give a good description of this packet!

This is a picture from the packet with everything that is included:

Each room is on a separate page and features the vocabulary items that are in each room. There is a receptive and expressive task that can be carried out for each room:

There are 1 step directions (again separated by room):

There are two versions of 2 step directions. One version DOES NOT involve switching rooms and one DOES in order to make it a little more difficult. The star shows the abbreviations I used for each room:

 3 step directions don't involve switching rooms:

There is a page for each room with concepts that can be targeted, such as on, off, in front, behind, etc:

There is also a page with additional activity ideas. I really hope you enjoy using this! It can be found HERE. Please download the preview in order to get a better idea of what's included. To win a copy, leave a comment below and I'll pick someone on Sunday! 

Maybe more app companion packets to come? :) 

Expressive Fiesta

Just finished a new expressive language activity using the same "fiesta" clipart as the Formulating Questions Fiesta! I call this new activity Expressive Fiesta and it targets older students. While it's labeled as an expressive activity, it can also be used to target WH questions, vocabulary skills, auditory comprehension and sequencing. 

First you need to cut out these 6 pictures and affix them each to a side of a die:

Then each student is given a worksheet like this:

Students will roll the die and pick up a corresponding detail card. The cactus means you pick up a WHO card, the guitar means you pic up a WHAT card, the maracas means you pick up a WHERE card, the chili pepper means you pick up a WHEN card, and the sombrero means you pick up a WHY card. The student then fills in the details on the worksheet. Examples of the cards are below. WHO, WHAT, and WHERE cards  have pictures!

Once the details are all filled in, the student creates a story. He/she can write it out or verbalize the story. Other students might be asked to re-tell the story or asked questions about it. An example page is included in the activity:

Let me know what you think!  You can get this activity HERE!

Don't Say It Game - A Different Vocabulary/Language Activity!

I love the idea of adapting commercially available games to use in therapy. I based my new activity off the games "Catch Phrase (TM)" and "Taboo (TM)" to get: Don't Say It - Describing Dash. It's a vocabulary building/expressive language game where students have to draw cards and describe the given item, BUT they can't use the word(s) on the card! The game is leveled in that beginners are not supposed to say the first word given. For more of a challenge, students can try to describe the word without using the first word or the word in the parentheses. For example, the word is "donut." The "don't say it words" are "circle" and "sweet." The student could say this item is round, you eat it for breakfast, it has a hole in the middle and sometimes has frosting.

The game is broken up into categories: food, animals, household items, sports items, and school items. There are 30 cards for each category, plus a blank card for you to add your own. There is also a picture of each item plus the written word. The cards for each category have different colored outlines for easy identification. Students earn "coin" with points after completing a card. At the end of the session, the student with the most points wins. 

Food category cards have a red outline:

Animal category cards have a green outline:

Household category cards have a blue outline:

Sport category items have a purple outline: 

School category cards have an orange outline:

Each category includes a blank page to add your own word and "don't say it" words:

Print 2 copies of the "coin" pages. Students earn coins after completing cards:

There is a "describing words" visual with other game play hints, like using another word that means the same as the word you can't use (say round instead of circle). Plus, students can use gesture to act out the item on the card (like charades!):

You can get this game HERE!