As you have seen in previous posts, I love to use books in therapy. This week I’d love to talk about the book Mix It Up by Herve Tullet (As usual, I don’t profit in any way in promoting this book). You might know him from his other book, Press Here. Speech Sprouts wrote a great post on how to use Press Here in therapy (click here for a link to that post). Here’s why I love using Mix It Up in speech therapy.
Make Predictions
Increase Verbs Understanding and Use
Describing Skills
Time Concepts
I have used Mix it up in speech to introduce and work on time concepts such as before and after. One activity I really like is a group painting activity (although it could be a one on one or smaller group activity). I did this activity the other day and it went great!
I used three colours (green, yellow and blue) and a visual board to help with the order of the directions. I had a small swatch of each of the colours. I first told the direction and put the colours in the appropriate places not the visual board. Next, I then repeated the instruction again as the child is adding their part to the painting. The children really responded well and as they become more proficient, you can use less and less cuing.
Social Language
Another reason I like this group painting exercise is that the children will often (and I encourage them) to make comments about the other children’s work. It is good for
- using conversational starters such as “what is your favourite colour?” or “what do like to paint?”
- learning to give compliments (e.g. “I like your bug.” or “Your man is cool.”)
- learning to accept compliments (this can be so challenging for some).
- learning when to talk and when to wait their turn or when it is time to listen or watch.
- helping children take turns and work as a team.
