You have often heard that a good SLP can “do therapy” with two sticks and a rock. Being “old school” or a speech therapist of a certain age/era, we learned to do just that. We could use a stack of Peabody picture cards for all our therapy, but thank goodness we don’t have to do that anymore! We have a multitude of wonderful materials at our fingertips….literally…just a click away!
Sometimes I think SLPs are missing out in all the creative ways resources like my Fun Facts series can be used just because they aren’t listed as being for mixed groups. I’d like to get you thinking about ways to use these cards other than just for listening for details (auditory comprehension).
1- Articulation
A. For sentence practice, you can have the student go through the cards and highlight their target sound in the sentences. Then they can read them aloud. Depending on the needs of the group, you could let the artic student be the teacher and read the card to the students needing to work on auditory comprehension.
B. At the word level have the student find their target words in the sentences and practice saying those words at their turn.
2- Auditory memory
Have the student recall and retell the sentence.
3- Syntax
See if the student can create a sentence in response to the questions on the cards using the sentence structure you are targeting.
4- Grammar
Have your students respond with proper grammar such as using the correct pronoun instead of the noun, subject-verb agreement, etc. Let your students identify the nouns or verbs, etc.
5- Vocabulary
Can they substitute a synonym or antonym for a particular word within the sentence? Are there multiple meaning words in the sentence? Can they tell how that word could be used in two different ways? Can they add a prefix or suffix to the word in a sentence? Can they state attributes for a particular word in the sentence?
6- Pragmatics
Use the cards for conversation starters or for staying on topic.
Does this help you to see how you can use a resource in ways other than the obvious target it was created for? I hope this gets you thinking and helps you utilize all your materials in your mixed groups.
The samples used in this post are from my Autumn Fun Facts which you can purchase here.
I have a series of Fun Facts in my store:
Christmas Fun Facts
Winter Fun Facts
Spring Fun Facts
