Easily Adaptable to a wide range of ages and developmental levels

Aesop’s fables can be easily adapted to a wide range of ages and language levels.  You can easily adapt these stories with children as young as kindergarten through to high school.  The discussion of age appropriate materials typically doesn’t happen as it sometimes does with fairy tales.

Tier Two Vocabulary

Aesop’s fables are filled with descriptive language that can enrich a child’s vocabulary. From words like cunning, mischief to loyalty and compassion, these stories introduce students to a range of tier two words.  By discussing these words in the context of the story, we can help students understand their meanings then use them appropriately in their own speech and writing.

On top of this, many common idioms come from Aesop’s fables, particularly in other literature.  Using Aesop’s fables allows your students to expand their understanding of different idioms. For example, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

Story Grammar

Aesop’s fables offer a perfect platform for practicing story grammar skills. As we read these stories with our students, we talk about the story structure, and answer questions related to the story. This not only helps improve their narrative skills but also enhances their ability to organize their thoughts and express themselves. Looking for Aesop’s fables story grammar activities, check out these activities from TpT (click here and here).

Critical Thinking Skills

Aesop’s fables often contain moral lessons or hidden messages.  These require some level of critical thinking to understand. Encouraging older students, including middle and high school students, to think deeply about these messages. It can help develop their analytical skills. Additionally, discussing the characters’ motivations and actions can provide opportunities for students to practice perspective-taking.

Sentence Structure

The language used in Aesop’s fables often follows a structured pattern, making them ideal for teaching language structure and syntax. By analyzing the sentence structures and grammatical features of these stories, we can help students develop a better understanding of how language works. This can be particularly beneficial for students who struggle with sentence construction or have difficulty organizing their thoughts.

Background Knowledge

Introducing students to Aesop’s fables also helps broaden their background knowledge. These stories have been passed down through generations and are still widely read and studied today. They are often referenced in other books and videos at different ages. I remember a wordless video that was on TV during early morning children programming retelling The Lion and the Mouse story. By familiarizing our students with these classic tales, we can help them build background knowledge which is functional and will help students throughout their educational career.

Conclusion

Using Aesop’s fables in speech therapy can offer a multitude of benefits for our students. From enriching their vocabulary and enhancing their storytelling skills to fostering critical thinking and promoting cultural literacy, these classic tales provide a rich and engaging platform for language development. So the next time you’re planning your therapy activities, consider reaching for a collection of Aesop’s fables. You might find that these timeless stories hit the mark.

Use them in crafts.

Use them in crafts. Have students glue them to different pictures or crafts, such as these woven books. Have students say their words as they glue the cards to the craft.

If you need a quick activity, put out various craft materials and cut out mini artic cards. Have the students create their own crafts. Still have the children say the words if they are attaching the cards. Tip! Try to use materials that contain the students’ target sounds. For how to use child-directed crafts in therapy, go here.

Send them as homework.

A block or page of mini artic cards is a quick low prep option to send home as homework. It will save you time and trees as you are not printing off pages and pages of artic cards.

You can also send “homework cards,” as seen here. This allows a parent to add new words for the student to practice at home slowly. If your privacy laws permit, send a card back with the student during school. Have the student show their card to specific staff members and say their words. At one of my schools, the principal would spend part of her day visiting with children and doing a quick check-in on their word. Tip! Send home words that the student is most successful at pronouncing.

Use in five-minute artic drills.

Instead of carrying around cards to do 5-minute drills, print off the mini artic cards into a book. Then flip to the page you need for your student and start practicing. You can also use the artic book to probe students’ articulation skills.

Use as stickers.

If you have students who insist on having a sticker at the end of the session, print off the mini artic cards and use them like stickers. That way, the students’ “reward” is practical.

If you would like a copy of the homework cards, go here. If you would like my version of mini artic cards, get them here.

Let me know if you use mini artic cards and how you use them.

Relationships versus Compliance

Children, especially at this age, will have difficulty listening to or doing what you say when they don’t trust or know you. Take some time to get to know your students and them you. It does not mean that the children can do whatever they want. You still need to set some boundaries but know that it might take some time as you build a relationship. It will help you in the long run when you really need to target their therapy goals.

Attention spans

Remember, preschoolers have very short attention spans. The general rule of thumb is a child’s attention span is roughly 2-4x chronological age. Also, children with language delays typically have shorter than normal attention spans.

Keep your activities short; you may only have 6-8 minutes of focused time. Less if they don’t understand the activity, don’t like it, or are overwhelmed by it.

Sitting

Children at this age typically don’t like to sit in chairs. Children are meant to be moving. Don’t expect them to sit still for long periods. Build movement into your therapy. Look to see if the children have been sitting for long periods. They may need to move between activities if you’re also doing a sitting activity. It may also mean moving around the classroom and doing therapy in different spaces.

Play

Play is essential for young developing brains and bodies. You can, and probably should, spend some therapy time playing with your students. You can target most goals during play.

You can mix free play (the child is entirely in charge) and adult-directed play (the adult may choose the toys or start the play script). If the children are new to you, spend way more time free playing. You will learn how the children play and what they like and don’t like.

In general, follow their lead (even in adult-directed play) and use language facilitation strategies. If you are looking for more info on play? Check out this blog post on play.

The Classroom Team

Being a part of a team can be amazing; it can also have bumpy patches. Take some time to learn about your team members’ likes and dislikes. For example, I worked with a team member who hated water beads. We had to have discussions about using water beads in the classroom when I proposed to use them. We ended up compromising. Water beads were not used when I was not supervising that station in the classroom. For additional SLP preschool push-in therapy tips for working on a team, check out this blog post.

Have Fun!Working with this age group can be very challenging. It should also be fun. For ideas on using school and apple themes in preschool therapy, click here for the link for free handouts. Let me know what are your SLP preschool push-in therapy tips.

1. Get an up-to-date list of students on my caseload.

Students (at least here) tend to move around, so knowing if anyone has left or moved is important. Getting an up to date list will let you know who is no longer in the district and if any children have changed schools. This will help you to do a quick organization of your caseload and help you update your databases if needed. Organize to meet with other SLPs to pass off student files etc…

2. Find out my student’s teachers and touch base with them.

This is usually quick if the teacher and you have worked together, but for new to me teachers, it is usually a longer chat.  Talk about the students you work with and the services that you provide. Also get in touch with the student’s case managers (if applicable).  Again if you have worked together before, this is usually a quick check in and if not, it’s a longer conversation. It is also a good idea to check in with the school’s admin. Make sure that consent to assess and treat forms are sent out to new students on your caseload.

3. Get class schedules for all my student’s classes.

It’s a great way to start to the scheduling processing.  Some schools/districts have rules about what subjects you can and cannot pull student’s from.  For myself, I don’t pull from gym and literacy classes.  Gym is either my student’s favourite class or they need to be moving to help with gross and fine motor skills. If you can, find out what your students’ favourite classes are and try not to schedule during those times. Click here to get access to my current year at a glance calendar.

4. Figure out my schedule and send it to everyone who needs it.

This can be the most frustrating part of school start up.  You are going to have to make revisions. Some SLPs send it out with tentative days and times and have teachers sign their student’s up, other make a schedule and send it out.  Do what makes the most sense for your situation. Make my year-at-a-glance calendar. I find that having a year-at-glance calendar helps me organize my time. I also make them into attendance calendars for my students. Click here to get a copy of my calendar.

5. Send out introduction letters.

I send out two different letters. The first one is to the school staff.  It goes over again my role and who in their class is on my caseload.  I also send out introductory letters to all my families.  It goes over information that they will find important, including how to contact me.  These usually go out after I have had a chance to try and contact families.

Why do I talk with staff and families and then send home letters?  I was at a management course once and they said that for people to fully understand the message you are trying to express, you have to tell the information more than once and it needs to be in more than one median (e.g., call, in person, email, letter etc…).

Those are my top five beginning of the school year organizational tips for SLPs.  What is your favourite tip?

Considerations

In my experience, the most effective home programs are the ones that are convenient for the parents. Make it too big and complicated, and it will likely overwhelm the parents.

Keep the activities short. Parents are much more likely to use activities that only take a few minutes.

Use equipment that parents most likely have. We don’t want, nor should we expect, parents to go out and buy things that they don’t have. Try to use activities where the families already have everything that they need.

Use home routines as activities. If the activity is something the family does it regularly, then they are most likely to adjust it to work on their child’s goals.

Give the parents some control. Ask them what kinds of activities they do and don’t like to do. I have many parents where playing with play dough or using scissors with their children are no-goes. Ask about their regular days. This info will help you tailor the home program for what works for them and increase the odds that all the work you put into the program will have results.

Lastly, send home any printed materials your families may need for the activities (e.g. speech cards/words). It may seem obvious, but a long time ago, a parent asked me for cards when the child’s regular SLP forgot.

Ideas for Home Programs

Calendars. There are lots of really good calendars out there. They’re great because they are usually quick, simple activities that families can do every day.

Photo books. Making photo books (aka memory books) are also a great way to work on a child’s speech and language goals. They’re usually pretty easy to make, and families can use the pictures and activities they already do. Check out this blog post for a more in-depth description of photo books (Click here).

Use Home Routines. Now this will take more patience on the caregivers’ part, but they are a great way to work on functional speech and language goals. Like with calendars, there are many great handouts to help you and the child’s family work on these goals. For more info, check out this blog post (Click here).

Play Handouts. These types of handouts are great for kids working on their play skills. Handouts will give families ideas on what to say and what to do while playing with their child’s favourite toys.

If you are looking for more ideas, please see this post by Linda in Looks Like Language, click here.

Let me know what you’re favourite home program activities are.

Use Visuals

When introducing new topics or concepts, use visuals. Sometimes seeing a picture will help the student retrieve the word. Also, if the student can’t retrieve the word, they can point to the picture.

Have a Variety of Alternate Materials Available

When learning materials, it can be helpful to have a wide variety of different of books and other related materials (e.g., YouTube videos) available.  Having information available in different mediums and in different ways can be very beneficial.

Provide Extra Time

Give students extra time to understand the message and some extra time to respond. Extra time will give the student a chance for them to use their strategies to “find” the words they are having troubles retrieving.

Help With Word Retrieval Strategies

After giving the student with an appropriate amount of extra time and if a student needs help using their strategies, you can cue them with the specific strategies that work for them. You can have the student talk with the teacher about which strategies, they would like the teacher to use.

Explicitly Teach New Vocabulary

Include features such as the first sound and how many syllables. If the word contains prefixes, suffixes, or common root words, talk about those too. Word webs are a great tool for teaching new or less familiar vocabulary.

Play Word Games

Play word games with your class. Games like Penguins to Pickles and Scattegories are fun games to play. But games like “What does not belong?,” Name as many [category] as you can, can be fun and effective. You can also try games where you name synonyms, antonyms, etc. for older children.

Word retrieval strategies can be a helpful tool for teachers to help students “find” their words. If you are interested in a handout that explains word-finding difficulties, check out this handout (click here).

Where to Start?

Children learn prepositions easier when they can physically experience the preposition. For example, standing between two chairs. Children with vision and mobility difficulties tend to struggle more with understanding these concepts. Doing activities where the children go under, beside, next to, between, etc. help children understand where their body is in space. At school, you can talk about where they are lined up. E.g., John you are between Suzy and Jane. Or Go line up behind Frank.

You can play games at the park where you tell the children to go to specific locations. E.g.. Run and stand beside the swings. If you can create an obstacle course and tell them how to go through can also be a fun activity (e.g. go through the tunnel, stand beside the chair). Playing with boxes are also a great activity to teach spatial concepts.  Go here for more ideas on how to use boxes to target prepositions in speech therapy..

Preposition Activities

Make a preposition book with the child. Have the child pose for pictures and then make them into a little book where you and the child can read. If the child doesn’t want to be in the pictures, use a favourite toy to take the pictures. Reading books about spatial concepts can also be a great addition to your speech therapy sessions.

When playing with a doll house or a farm set, tell your child where to put different furniture/equipment/animals. E.g., “Put the tractor beside the barn.” When everything is set up and you start playing talk about where your people/animals are going. E.g., “My horse is out of the barn! She is beside the tractor.”

Play Hide and Seek with stuffies. There are a few versions of this game. Take turns hiding the stuffies around the room and the other person/people look for them. When looking, name where you are looking. E.g., “Is the bunny UNDER the table?” “No. It’s not UNDER the table.” You can also do this when people are hiding. Another version is to have one person tell another person where to hide the stuffy.

Like the elf that sometimes come around at Christmas, have a stuffie hiding around the house or classroom where children need to look for and tell you where it is.

Activities for home

Help with putting the groceries away. Tell your child where to put the different food. E.g., “The apples go on the middle shelf in the fridge.”

Help put laundry away. Tell your child which shelf/drawer the clean clothes needs to go.

Have your child help set the table. Tell them where to put the dishes and cutlery. Note! You can use paper or plastic dishes and cutlery to avoid dishes being accidentally broken.

Activities on TpT (Teachers pay Teachers)

Lastly there are many paper or structured activities that you can buy on TpT (teachers pay teachers).  Click here to explore what is in my store.

If you would like a parent/teacher friendly handout on how to work on prepositions, click here.  Let me know what your favourite activity you do to target prepositions in speech therapy.

What is Pink Shirt Day?

Pink Shirt Day occurs on February 22nd in Canada. It is a day to talk about bullying. Staff and students come to school wearing pink shirts in support of stopping bullying in school. For more information about Pink Shirt Day, click here.

Why Should We Be Involved?

Most SLPs work with students who are bullied and with students who are bullies. Neurodivergent students are frequently the victims of bullying. On the flip side, we also work with neurodivergent students who bully. As we have extensive training in social communication. We have a role in helping these students. We should also be active in greater school-wide anti-bullying initiatives.

Pink Shirt Activities

1.  Teach neurotypical students about Autism. As you hear in the neurodiverse community, we SLPs and others spend so much time teaching neurodivergent students how to behave. The problem is we don’t teach neurotypical people how to interact with neurodivergent people. This will benefit both the neurodiverse and neurotypical communities.

These can be formal activities where we talk about how people’s brains are different and how some people need various tools or activities to help them learn at school. If you have Autistic or other neurodivergent students who feel comfortable talking about their experiences, that can be impactful. If not, talking about brain differences can still be powerful.

2. Teach about communication differences. Some neurotypical peers feel awkward and unsure of how to talk with some of their neurodivergent peers. Again, explain the different ways to communicate and providing tips to communicate. It can help neurotypical peers have more understanding. As well, it can make them more confident in talking with their peers. These talks  can be as simple as teaching peers general language facilitation techniques. Click here for a student handout to help remind them language facilitation activities for peers. For more ideas and information on how to talk about AAC users in a mainstream classroom, click here.

3. Play cooperative games.  Cooperative games are great because you have to work together to win.  There is also no winner.  There are great games for young and older students that will fit your needs.  Here’s another post on how to use cooperative games in speech, click here.

4. Have students plan an activity together.  These can be pretend activities, like planning a trip to another country or they can be real outings. For younger students it may be planning to watch some videos on YouTube. For older students, it might be an outing like to a fast food restaurant or to Timmy’s.  These activities will require a lot of coaching on your part but they are worth it.

5. Bake or cook together.  This can be very similar to having students plan an activity together but you pick what they are going to make.  If the students are able, have them choose who does what. If that is not possible, you assign activities.

For ideas on addressing bullying and stuttering, check out this great post on Speech Sprouts’ blog (click here).

What are your favourite anti-bullying activities?

Why is it beneficial?

1. Messy play can help regulate your sensory seekers. We all know it isn’t easy to provide therapy and see gains when children are dysregulated. Incorporating messy play can help keep children regulated while learning new language skills.
2. Many kids enjoy it, and we can build language around activities that children enjoy. This helps children connect with other children with similar interests, talk about their interests, and build their confidence.
3. Children are often more engaged in therapy. You can get more done and have a more effective therapy session.

Messy Play Tips.

1. Know what your students like. Know if your students have strong likes or dislikes of certain textures. Some children love rice but give them a wet, slimy, and they revolt. 
2. Get out the plastic tablecloths. This will help make clean-up easier. If you can’t find a tablecloth, buy cheap plastic shower curtains.
3. Have the children dress in paint shirts if you are doing wet/dirty messy play. This will make it easier for you to clean up and keep parents happy too.
4. If your students use AAC, put their device in plastic zip-up bags. The children will still be able to use them, and the device will stay dry and clean.
5. Double-check that you are not using materials your students are allergic to or may worsen a skin issue.

You can also use all sorts of art materials to meet sensory needs in therapy. For more information on using art materials, check out this blog post (click here). If you would like the child-directed art handout, click here. What are your favourite materials to use during messy play in speech therapy?

Paper timers are very similar to “I’m working for …” timers in that you move a picture to another spot when the time or part of an activity is complete. When all the images are transferred to the finished side, then the child is done with the task. The advantage of these types of timers is that you can change the requirements for moving a picture based on the activity. So, if you are doing a worksheet, then you can move the picture after two questions or, if you are using it to work on an art project, then you can move a picture every three minutes.

Reason for Using Paper Timers

For this type of visual, the goal is to show when an activity is done, not that you get a prize or treat. In this sense, these visuals are very different from “I’m working for …” visuals. You can use visual paper timers with a first/then board so that the student knows what will happen next.

The advantage of this type of timer is that it is flexible. You can use it for time or the number of what you want the child to complete. The other benefit is that you can slowly adjust the time or the number of tasks completed. This is particularly effective when a student is used to the timer. So, you can go from one minute to a minute and a half to two minutes using the same boards. If your goal is for a student to complete a task and it looks like they are struggling to do so, you can shorten the time they need to move a picture. It allows the child to feel proud that they have done what you wanted them to do.

To Make

Pick a size to make the board. Keep in mind your child(ren)’s fine motor skills, as smaller pictures can be harder to take off. For preschool and many kindergarten and Grade 1 students, I have used full-size pages and reduced the number of moveable pictures. You should have two sides for the moveable parts. Make one side always the “start” side and one side always the “finished” side. I like to have a picture in the middle.

Decide what size you want the board to be. You can use images that go with a theme. Pictures that go with interests can also be very engaging. If a child loves My Little Pony, then add My Little Pony characters. If they love Transformers, add Transformers. Using their interests in the timer can be rewarding for the children. It can also be memorable if you make it with the child.

Print everything on card stock and laminate it. Cut out the small moveable pictures. Attach a hook-and-loop fastener (e.g., velcro dots) on the start and finish sides, and the corresponding fastener on the moveable pieces. You are now ready to use it.

Implementation

Introduce this visual during a more preferred activity. Introducing it during a non-preferred activity can make the child feel more frustrated. Introducing it during a more preferred or neutral activity can teach the child how to use the timer in a less “high stakes” activity.

Decide the criteria of when to move a piece to the finished side. Tell the child the requirements for moving a piece. An adult is going to have to be in charge of when the child moves it over. Some children can start with moving the pieces over right away. Some children will do better if you are in charge of moving the pieces over at the beginning. Slowly transition to having the child move the pieces.

**Note! Try to avoid one-to-one correspondence with these types of timers, especially if you are using them to complete a specific number of tasks. Children will quickly get into the habit of doing one item then moving one picture. It can make it harder to increase the number of items per picture, making it hard to move to a timed activity.**

If you are interested in a free copy of a No Time Timer?  Click here. If you are looking for some hints and hacks for making visuals check out this blog post. If you are looking for pre-designed paper timers, go here and if you are looking for an indepth introduction to visuals, check this book out.

Do you use paper timers or wanting to try.  Let me know how it goes.