Children’s books are a readily available and easy to use resource for targeting receptive and expressive language skills. Here is a look at 5 popular children’s books and how they can be used to target a variety of language goals
Age range: 3 years to 5 years
Suggested Vocabulary:
Lizard
Lamb
Tiger
Chimp
Lion
Bunny
Toad
Snail
Ox
Kitten
Fox
Cricket
Ant
Bee
Whale
Shark
Clam
Shrimp
Target Language Skills:
Syntax:
Contractible copulas
Predicate adjectives
Adjectives
Articles
Concrete nouns
Pronoun usage “I” and “me”
Semantics:
Classifying words – land animals, sea animals, big animals, small animals
Comparative words – quick/slow, big/small, happy/sad, hot/cold, loud/quiet
Activity 1: Opposites
Happy face and sad face puppets – Direct the child in drawing a happy face on one plate and a sad face on the other. Child can then practice labeling facial features and colors. The puppets can then be used to practice pronoun usage for “I” and “me” during pretend play and for playing Simon Says targeting opposite concepts such as fast/slow and loud/quiet.
Materials needed: paper plates or paper bags and markers
Activity 2: Categorizing Animals
Direct the child in grouping the animals by big or small, then by sea animals or land animals.
Materials needed: felt board or poster board, felt animals, pictures of animals or toy animals
Age Range: 3 years to 5 years
Suggested Vocabulary:
Hen
Yard
Pond
Haystack
Fence
Beehive
Target Language Skills
Syntax:
Prepositions
Prepositional phrases
Interrogative pronouns (Who went on a walk?)
Subjective case pronouns (Rosie went on a walk)
Verb tense
Temporal words
Articles
Semantics:
Comparative word-pairs
Activity 1: Obstacle Course
Create an obstacle course outside or in the therapy room. Provide objects that will give the child an opportunity to act out the prepositional phrases presented in this story.
Examples:
Go across the sidewalk
Go around a tree
Go step over some flowers
Go past a structure
Go through the doors
Go under the table
Activity 2: Hen on a Haystack
Provide visual instructions for making this craft to target following directions. Cover the cone with pieces of hay and place the hen on top of the haystack.
Materials needed: Styrofoam cone, hay, glue, plastic or paper hen
Age Range: 3 years to 5 years
Suggested Vocabulary:
Caterpillar
Apple
Pear
Plum
Strawberry
Orange
Cake
Ice Cream
Pickle
Cheese
Cupcake
Watermelon
Moon
Egg
Leaf
Sun
Butterfly
Target Language Skills
Syntax:
Articles – a and the
Prepositions
Prepositional phrases
Subjective case pronouns “…he ate through one apple”
Negative sentence type “Now he wasn’t hungry any more….”
Infinitive phrases
Conjoining
Predicate adjectives
Sequencing
Semantics:
Spatial concepts
Temporal concepts
Quantitative concepts
Qualitative concepts
Categorization
Activity 1: Fruit Salad
Place fruit cocktail and coconut in a bowl. Then slice the bananas and add them to the fruit and coconut. Mix and let chill. Target following directions and vocabulary by having the child following visual and verbal directions for making the fruit salad.
Materials needed: 2 large cans of fruit cocktail, 1 can of Bakers coconut and 2 large bananas
Activity 2: Sequencing exercise – Caterpillar, cocoon and butterfly
Materials needed: 3 medium Styrofoam balls, 1 large Styrofoam ball, 4 pipe cleaners, 2 googlie eyes, markers, butterfly pattern and brown yarn.
Caterpillar - Color the 3 styrofoam balls green. Form the body of the caterpillar by gluing the balls together. Glue eyes on the face and attach pipe cleaners for antennas.
Cocoon – Wrap the large ball in brown yarn.
Butterfly – Color the butterfly pattern and attach pipe cleaners for antennas.
Age Range: 4 years to 6 years
Suggested Vocabulary:
Goat
Valley
Meadow
Bridge
Troll
Target Language Skills:
Syntax:
Verb tensing: -ed marker
Pronouns: they, he, him
Plurals
Articles
Prepositions: in, over, under, into
Prepositional phrases
Interrogative pronouns
Infinitive phrases
Contractible copula
Pragmatics:
Narration and role playing
Semantics:
Comparative word pairs
Comparative and superlatives
Quantitative terms
Qualitative terms
Temporal concepts
Activity 1: Sequencing
Instruct the child in making goat puppets. First you color the goat, then you put glue on the bag, last you put the goat on the bag.
Materials needed: 3 paper bags, 3 patterns for goat (small, medium, large), markers, glue
Activity 2: Narration and role-playing
Have the child act out the story using the puppets.
Age Range: 4 years to 6 years
Suggested Vocabulary:
Dough
Dough
Gingerbread
Woman
Man
Boy
Feet
Eyes
Mouth
Raisin
Jacket
Cow
Horse
Wheat
Threshers
Mowers
Fox
Target Language Skills:
Syntax:
Prepositions: in, into, on, across, out, down
Prepositional phrases
Pronouns
Comparative concepts
Temporal concepts
Verb tensing: -ed marker
Negative sentence types
Pragmatics:
Narration and sequencing
Activity 1: Baking Gingerbread Boy Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup of shortening
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses
2 tbs. vinegar
3 tbs. baking soda
5 cups flour
1 ½ tsp. salt
3 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground gloves
Cream shortening and sugar together. Beat in the egg, molasses and vinegar. Set this mixture aside. Sift together the dry ingredients. Blend the dry ingredient mixture with the first mixture and chill for 3 hours. Roll dough out to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly greased cookie sheet and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool slightly and remove from the cookie sheet. Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating.
Activity 2: Narration
Retell the story using a gingerbread boy puppet. Create the puppet using the cookie cutter from activity 1, brown construction paper and sequins.
Karran Morris M.S. CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
MedCare Pediatric Rehab Center - Northshore
