I love to read books that connect language with art. A Day With No Crayons is a clever story about a little girl who-you guessed it–lost the use of her crayons for the day. This would be a great book for an art teacher to use to introduce colors. Little Liza loved apricot, fuchsia, tickle-me-pink, and screamin’ green. When she ran out of paper, she decided to continue her drawing on the one blank canvas left, the wall. Just like so many kids who lose themselves in the creative moment, little Liza didn’t realize what she was doing. When Mom snatched up her crayons and put them away for the day, Liza couldn’t imagine a day without them. She managed to create her own palate of colors by squeezing the blue toothpaste, dragging muddy feet on a basketball court, and brushing her grass-stained knees. Suddenly she saw color everywhere. By nighttime, when the crayons were to be returned, Liza had so filled her world with color and pattern that she considered going one more day without crayons.
Use the story for prediction. What will happen when Mom sees the wall? Where will Liza find color without crayons? Take a picture walk before reading the story and describe how she got color on the basketball court or made the camels. Make up fun descriptive words to precede the colors just as Liza did with “laser lemon.” Brainstorm, “Where would you go to find color during your day?” Finally, make collage pictures of a face, dog or other object showing that art can happen without crayons.
Tomorrow, March 2, is Read Across America Day, celebrated on Dr. Seuss’ birthday!
What better way to celebrate than to help a child make a book of their very own. Whether you are a parent or a speech therapist, this exercise increases kids’ delight in books and reading. Start with some read-alouds by Dr. Seuss. Depending on the age, a fun one to introduce is Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith. Based on 14 rough drawings and verses left behind when Geisel died, this book was completed in his fashion and is full of Seuss like fun. Once again, the story behind the story is fascinating as editors gathered the drawings and scratched out lines from Geisel’s secretary, revealing the process of his storytelling. I reviewed the story here.
When it’s time to make a book, it can be as simple as stapling a few sheets of paper together to making a book’s covers from a cereal box. Here are detailed directions from alphamom on how to make one with a cover from the Cheerios box.
Use the inside to encourage kids you might be working with on language goals. Write a little story or have them dictate it to you on the computer so you can print it out and glue it in their book. Create a short poem and emphasize rhyming words or add on to a story you have read. Don’t forget to have your little author step in as the illustrator too! Provide lots of markers and colored pencils for the drawings to back up the text.
It’s almost March and we are having two snowstorms out east this week. So even though I see readers requesting Spring lessons for therapy, I am still literally stuck in the snow! Here are a couple of fun books I used today with kids with language delay and on the autism spectrum:
Snip, Snip…Snow! by Nancy Poydar. Little Sophie is anticipating some snow since she has to wear her heavy jacket with the hood and can see her breath. She stomps inside yelling, “No Snow!” as if her mother is responsible for the absence of fluffy white stuff. Finally she gets a favorable forecast but gets up the next morning to no snow again. Arriving at school, she pleads with her teacher to let the class make their own snow. They get to work folding and snipping and making their own flakes. Amidst the excitement of paper snowflakes flying, they look outside to see…you guessed it–real snow! Add some fun at the end of the story and make your own snowflakes, talking through the steps, or shread paper and make a snowman mosaic like Sophie did in the story for a take home, so kids can re-tell the story to Mom and Dad.
Lucille’s Snowsuit by Kathryn Lasky. Little Lucille is left behind to negotiate her snowsuit while her older siblings get a head start in the snow. So many obstacles to overcome–her boots get stuck, her zipper catches, and then she starts to sweat! (reminds me of me trying to go skiing). Finally she gets out in the snow and realizes that her “babyish” snowsuit is the perfect piece of clothing for fun on a snowy day. This is a fun story to re-tell, talk about categories such as clothes, snow activities etc.
First Snow by Emily Arnold McCully. This wordless picture book is a perfect opportunity to take a picture walk with a child. The mouse family piles their sleds into the back of the pickup truck and takes off for the first snow adventure of the season. Packed with vignettes of getting stuck, trudging through the snow, ice skating, making a snowman, sledding and being courageous, this little tale is great for a language lesson.
As speech language pathologists, we try to link the classroom curriculum with language goals. Currently I have elementary aged students who are studying weather, the Civil War, the nervous system, the rain forest, poetry and Black History. I look for the best books to use for teaching the student, grammar, concepts or thinking skills, while reinforcing concepts in their subject areas.
I came across an environment education series that is excellent for teaching and reinforcing IEP goals for students. It is the “Adventures of Riley” series by Amanda Lumry and Laura Jurwitz. This author-illustrator duo combines an English degree from Yale and a Visual Environmental Studies degree from Harvard to tell an educational story through clever illustrations combined with photographs.
Each adventure begins with a letter inviting Riley to an exciting faraway place to find answers to real-life environmental quandaries. Uncle Max asks him to join Aunt Martha, Cousin Alice and himself as they travel the globe, learning, doing research and solving problems. How can we save the koala’s habitat of eucalyptus trees? Why are the polar bears becoming endangered? Why are areas of Australia’s coral reef dying and what are the implications? As kids follow the clues, and learn about animals, their habitats, and the balance of nature, they have to identify the problem, predict outcomes, make inferences, summarize and draw conclusions.
What a wonderful way to learn about animals, their habitats, and challenges, while building language skills.
I have used and enjoyed:
The Adventures of Riley South Pole Penguins
The Adventures of Riley The Polar Bear Puzzle
The Adventures of Riley Project Panda
What are “Spoon People” you ask? After over 35 years doing speech and language therapy, it is fun to invent something new that really works with kids.
I was trying to think of a way to interest one of my kids on the autism spectrum to re-tell a story. He just recently has become interested in picture books (only if they are the right combination of fun, simple, short, and inviting). I usually have two books in our repertoire, one that is very familiar that we have read and re-told in new ways, asked questions about and done a little predicting, and one that is new to him. Once i get him engaged in the fun and familiar book, I quickly move into the second one before too much protest. Soon the second book becomes the familiar one and so on.
Well now we are moving to re-telling the story. How can we do that in a fun way? I copied pictures of the characters in Timothy Goes to School by Rosemary Wells. I took Timothy, Claude, Timothy’s mom and Violet as my main characters. I glued them to a sturdy cardboard backing and in my search for a stable stick to hold them, I came upon a plastic spoon—and my spoon people were born!
First we took the spoon people and re-told the story. Then we moved to flexibly changing the story. My little friend didn’t like that Claude was mean to Timothy and quickly changed him to a “friend” and invited him over for cookies after school.
Next, I used the spoon people for practice in description. We take turns picking a character and keeping its identity secret while the other person guesses his identity from our clues. My little client held Timothy and said, “He’s nice.” “He is wearing a new shirt.” “He goes home with Violet.”
Spoon people have been known to go on to enter pretend play with a child’s favorite animals to animate. We got out the blocks and Timothy and Violet went to the aquarium with the sharks. Kids love the spoon people because they get attached to and familiar with the characters. They don’t want to leave them behind in a book!
Here are some more Valentines Day books to use in speech therapy to liven up your sessions:
Love, Splat by Scotton
Splat has made a special valentine for his secret crush, Kitten. A little bashful about giving it to her, he also discovers that his rival, Spike, has eyes for Kitten too. In fact, Spike has a bigger valentine for her than Splat. Losing his nerve, Splat drops his valentine for Kitten in the trash. Turns out that Kitten finds it, and prefers Spat over Spike inspite of his rumbling stomach and bendy tail.
- A cute story to use to re-tell, talk about the beginning, middle and end, as well as the problem and solution.
- Extend the story to talk about how kids treat you at school. What makes a friend? What do they appreciate in you?
- Make some valentines for friends. Talk about what you appreciate in each one and dictate or write a message telling them that.
- Talk about the difference between being good at something like soccer or drawing versus a character trait like generous, kind or helper
- Talk about the comparatives, “I love you higher than the highest bird ever flew,” or taller than the tallest tree.” Encourage the student to make their own comparatives: bigger than…., wider than……happier than….. and illustrate your words.
- Point out the descriptive words, “swirly skies,” “sneaky shadows” or “wavy waters.” Collect pictures or objects around the room and add a descriptive word to the noun. See how many you can brainstorm.
- Talk about places your student has gone, and add a descriptive word to it.
It’s time to talk about love, hugs and kisses and use some fun stories to work on children’s speech and language goals. More books are included in last year’s blogs.
Here are some fun books for preschoolers and early elementary aged students to encourage language:
Max’s Valentine by Rosemary Wells
Max of course wants to sabotage Ruby’s activity making valentines by eating the candy, yum yum glitter and all. Finally Max gets his own valentine delivered from Grandma, full of chocolate ants!
- Use the story to talk about sequence–making valentines, mail them, receive them.
- Create your own valentines with lots of options for fun candies to glue on the hearts
- Practice sounds and language structures as the child re-tells the story.
- Re-tell the story using drawings, or objects representing the different steps a letter or package goes through to get to its recipient–letter sorter, truck driver, airplane captain, mail truck driver and mailman.
- Change the story with each child offering what gesture or words they would like to “send” through the mail.
- Talk about the words that describe each kiss. Add more thoughts or adjectives to each one–a breakfast kiss could be slurpy, buttery or tasty.
- Draw and cut out pictures of different lips to represent each kiss, add your own and write out the words that describe the kiss.
I am always looking for good stories that have a simple, fun story and clear illustrations to begin working on describing pictures, re-telling a story and answering questions about the content.
Some professionals who work with children with ASD asked me for book ideas so they can fill out their library of books to use with kids. I will be continuing to add to this list but here are some I have used recently (since September) that fit my critieria:
Popcorn by Asch
Queen of Halloween by Engelbreit
Autumn Leaf by Emerson
Halloween Mice by Roberts
Aaaarrgghh Spider by Monks
Red, Red, Red by Gorbachev
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Bobo and the New Neighbor by Page
Max Cleans Up by Rosemary Wells
Timothy Goes to School by Wells
Lucille Camps In by Dathryn Lasky
First Snow by Emily ARnold McCully
Snip, Snip…Snow by Nancy Poydar
Mrs. Armitage on Wheels by Quentin Blake
Bright Stanley by Matt Buckingham
Before I can ask a child who is language delayed to do a picture walk, I introduce stories, modelling telling the story in different ways each time, so I am not encouraging repetitive language. After several readings and talking about the story, then I ask the child to “read” the story to me. I find that kids enjoy bringing a book to “read” to me and enjoy describing the pictures. When their language is limited I simply add on a word like “so” or “and” or “then” to prompt them to continue the sentence. I also use a gesture with my hand which is like the sign language for “want” meaning, give me more language. They learn that I love more language!
I shared some of my favorite Halloween books last week and have used them when working with kids with typically developing language as well as those with auditory processing difficulties, and those on the autism spectrum. I had quite a fun time with Aaaarrgghh: Spider! with a little fellow on the autism spectrum that I wanted to share.
Our goals include being attentive to a book and answering wh-questions as well as building pretend play skills. It all came together with this goofy book about a spider campaigning to be the family pet! We started out with my wonderful collection of bugs, including spiders, a jar with a magnifying lid, Play-doh of course, and some little Fisher Price furniture and playground items.
We talked about the spiders, chose different ones to look at under the magnifying glass and then read the book. I pointed out the faces of the family and reactions to the spider’s attempts at winning them over. We copied surprised, scared and happy faces. Then we got out the Play-doh and made a web, stuck the flies and bugs in it for eating, and hung the spider down from the web to dangle over our dinner, as in the book. We copied the reactions of the family at the sight of a spider waving over our food.
Then, much to my delight, my little friend took off in his play. I was holding a fly and he had the spider when he hid the spider under a mound of Play-doh and started counting. I followed his lead of starting a game of hide and seek with our bugs! We took turns searching for each other’s bugs and he created two new spots for hiding–great flexible play. Then I got out my Play-doh oven as an option for a hiding place. After our bugs hid in it, he piled several bugs in and started to lift it up with sound effects. I asked what he was doing and he said, “It’s landing.” When I asked what is was (the oven), he said, “A plane.” Wow! That was an exciting step up in pretend play to assign a different use to an object than what is it intended for. He proceeded to fly his “plane” around the room on its way “to London” before it had to land so the bugs could go home.
Little steps like that make my day.
Encouraging a child to link a story they’ve read with their life experience, builds language skills. Understanding a concept in the story such as working through a difficulty, sharing, making a friend or reading about a fish, and then making comparisons to a similar situation in your life, requires higher level thinking and language. I work with a third grader who often tells me, “I have a connection!” and she proceeds to link some information we have learned in a story with something she has experienced.
Much to our surprise and delight, Will and I made one of those connections when we toured the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT. One of Will’s and my favorite books is Deborah Diesen’s The Pout Pout Fish. Will has memorized most of the book and fills in the lines as I pause when reading. As we rounded the corner approaching the big shark tank, we searched a very dark cavernous display and searched for its occupants. Camouflaged by the brown surroundings and hidden in a little passageway, we saw the pouty face of a fish peering out. When we checked the information card we realized we were seeing a real, live “Ocean Pout Fish!” Will and I got so excited that our friend who couldn’t shed his pout really existed, beyond the story:)
As we walked through the large halls, we spotted a giant squid, just like the one who spoke to the Pout Pout Fish, attempting to get him to smile. As you enjoy museums, aquariums, playgrounds and special attractions, try to link what you see to books and experiences that your child can relate to, to build their language skills. Older children can come home and write a comparative paragraph, contrasting what they saw and where else they have seen that, in a book or experience. Anytime you are comparing and contrasting, children have to understand and explain concepts–larger, smaller, faster, grumpier etc.
Most of all have fun with your children. Make learning a natural part of their experience.
