Spring Prepositions and Vocabulary- Dora the Explorer May 2, 2012

I find that my students (whether it be preschool or school-aged) have difficulty using specific language when answering questions. “Where is the doll house? Over there;” “What do you want?  That.”

This is often due to lack of understanding and use of the content of language. Whether it be a lack of vocabulary (the name of an object) or lack of prepositional knowledge, a part of the message our kids are trying to communicate is being omitted.

Over the past few weeks I have been working on vocabulary related to “Spring,” and “Planting/Gardening.”  I find that real like 3D activities help kids relate to better to their world, and try out their language use in a safe and interactive environment.

One activity I have worked on is increasing vocabulary and use/understanding of prepositions.

I have used the free materials available at Nick Jr. :

Coloring Pages (Great for teaching early vocabulary)

Gardening Games (Great for the kids to practice interactive planting with quicker growing times)

And I have put together some simple printables to target both vocabulary and preposition use. Click on the image to view the document in Google Docs.

You can make several copies of which ever level your students are on, laminate, and have the students match the symbol to the picture or the word to the picture, or the picture to the picture.

I also used all the pictures from the boardmaker board above to make larger images that can be printed on sturdy paper (attached velcro, magnetic backing, or even just glue) and used as a barrier game to practice expressive and receptive language. Here is a site that has a really wonderful description of barrier games Playing with Words 365.

Expressive/Receptive idea for a group activity April 18, 2012

In honor of the guest post that will be up on Speech Bop next week, I want to continue talking about a group therapy. My current graduate student and I have been working on perfecting a group activity for a mismatched group with very different goals.

In the group, we have 2 students: the first student has difficulty listening and attending, and the second has difficulty formulating sentences and with word finding.

This activity is simple to put together and helps both students target their goals while working together.

The basic premise is: every student gets the same coloring sheet, and each takes turns giving their peer a direction. The student who has difficulty formulating sentences/finding the correct words, has visual supports and a word bank of sorts, whereas the student who has difficulty attending to the directive needs to listen to the directive and ask for clarification from his peer.

By the end of the session, the students are taking turns, and I as a therapist can take a bit of time to write down session notes.

One difficulty that I have encountered: sometimes students don’t want to color their picture in the way they were directed to by a peer. A solution to this is that the students are making the pictures for each other, so “you have to tell your friend how you want your picture colored, and then you can trade pictures.”

I have created a couple of simple sheets that can be laminates and reused again and again.

This is the basic template: (click on the image to download it)

The color coded columns and blocks help kids put the pictures from the word bank to to corresponding spot in the sentence strip at the top. I would suggest color pictures be put into each column.

I put together a simple spring planting activity with the images put into it the sentence strip page. I copied the pictures from “speaking of speech” http://www.speakingofspeech.com/AugCom_Materials.html which has simple Boardmaker boards sorted by group/category that would cover most early education topics. I also added the corresponding coloring sheets that could be used. I suggest printing 2 copies, cutting out one of the pages into each individual icon, and using Velcro to make this sheet reusable.

Hope this has been helpful! Happy Spring!!! (Or Summer as it has been close to 80 degrees here in NYC the last few days).