reading comprehension activities speech therapy

Evidence-Based Blog and Materials for SLPs!

• $ 0.00 0 items

Comprehending Reading Comprehension

Sadly, the above scenario is far from unique but occurs rather frequently. That is because many professionals providing intervention to children with reading comprehension deficits, fail to grasp that reading comprehension is not a unitary skill but rather a collection of skills   (Gray, 2017) that require mastery prior to improvement taking place.

So what does it mean for learners diagnosed with Developmental Language  Disorder (DLD) ? Well, studies show that their reading comprehension abilities will show weaknesses , which is why it would be important to improve those abilities explicitly in the context of language and literacy therapy services ( Gough Kenyon ,  Palikara , &  Lucas 2018 ) .

Hence, parents and professionals need to be mindful of “ illusory recovery ” or  “ a time period when the students with early language disorders seem to catch up with their typically developing peers” by undergoing a “spurt” in language learning, which is followed by a “ post spurt plateau ”. Due to their ongoing deficits and an increase in academic demands “ many children with early language disorders fail to “outgrow” these difficulties or catch up with their typically developing peers” (Sun & Wallach, 2014). As such, if a formerly discharged from language therapy student begins to display reading comprehension difficulties, it is very important to reassess their language abilities in order to determine the extent to which their covert language deficits are contributing to their reading comprehension issues.

Now let us move on to the role of attention in reading. If one “zones out” during reading tasks, becomes distracted, and attends poorly to text, their comprehension of read text will be adversely affected. To illustrate, studies on reading abilities of children with ADHD consistently identify their reading comprehension abilities as being poorer as compared to peers without the ADHD diagnosis (Miller et al, 2013) .

Finally, there’s processing speed which refers to the speed of task completion with accuracy. The tasks provided to the child can be visual (e.g., rapidly naming colors, numbers, letters, etc during RAN/RAS assessment), or verbal (asked to answer a question, summarize information, etc).  Children with slow processing speed may take a significantly longer time decoding text (Landerl et al, 2018) . This, in turn, will affect how well they comprehend the read text.  Together, memory, attention, and processing will affect not only the comprehension of read text but also the child’s ability to respond to open-ended concrete and abstract reading comprehension questions regarding the presented text.

Now that we have covered the role of impaired language abilities as well as memory, attention, and processing led us move on to cover numerous other components of reading comprehension. On the surface, reading comprehension involves understanding the meaning of the read text. However, there are numerous fundamental skills required for the readers to meaningfully understand they read as confirmed by a reliable assessment means. Of course, it is important to reiterate once again that in this post I am referencing specifically fluent readers. These are children who can decode the text accurately in a reasonable timeframe. This is important to reiterate because additional deficit areas will be present for non-fluent readers as related to reading comprehension.

To continue, to be good comprehenders, children need to know the meanings of numerous literate vocabulary words ( abstract nouns , metacognitive verbs , etc.), and not just in isolation but in the context of read text ( Nippold ,  Hegel , &  Sohlberg  1999; Nippold, 2006 ). This is once again a challenge for children with undiagnosed language deficits. On the surface, they may present with seemingly excellent vocabulary repertoires. However, when asked to define more abstract vocabulary words, use them in the context of discourse or reading comprehension tasks, parents and professionals become highly surprised to see how poorly these kids actually perform.

This brings us to the two hugely important determiners of reading comprehension: the ability to coherently and cohesively state the main ideas of read texts, as well as cogently summarize read texts. This is a monumental area of difficulty for children with language as well as social communication disorders (Fitch, Fein, & Eigsti, 2015) secondary to deficits in the area of Gestalt Processing (the ability to grasp the “big picture” vs. over-focusing on irrelevant details) (Brosnan et al, 2004). 

Good readers are also adept at following and grasping passage organization or text structure (e.g., descriptive, chronological, cause/effect, compare/contrast, primacy or the order of importance, problem/solution, sequencing or steps of a process, etc.).  Readers who lack this ability need to be explicitly taught . But the good news is that we have multiple studies with information on how to improve this ability (Roehling et al 2017) .

In addition to the above, students also need to have a good grasp of the numerous literary devices (e.g., foreshadowing, allusion, imagery, juxtaposition, flashbacks, symbolism, etc) used by authors of various texts.  Similarly, they need to grasp the mood of each text as well as to determine the writer’s purpose for writing the text.

It is also very important to explicitly point out that there are significant differences found between various texts even at the same grade level. To illustrate, fourth grade-level language arts passages may contain far simpler literate vocabulary words as compared to social studies and science texts containing esoteric vocabulary and explaining technical topics (e.g., electricity). Similarly, fictional texts also possess various complexity. Poetry contains a number of literary devices and as such is much more difficult to analyze than a simpler fictional text.

I could write on and on, as there’s still a great deal more to say regarding many other skills pertaining to reading comprehension, but for the sake of practicality, I would like to stop right here in order to address some of the effective ways good reading comprehension can be reliably measured.  This in itself is of course yet another problem as different tests of reading comprehension have been found to measure different abilities (Keenan et al, 2008) .

So what is the best way to assess reading comprehension? For starters, standardized reading assessments such as the GORT-5 or the TORC-4 , etc, are a good start to establish basic reading competence and ensure that the student has a solid mastery of foundational basics. Clinical grade-level reading assessment is the next step as it allows the clinicians to determine the student’s reading abilities on a deep vs. shallow level.

• Asking abstract verbal reasoning questions
• Asking to define literate vocabulary words
• Asking to state the main idea of the passage
• Asking to summarize the passage

The above methods will reveal a true understanding of passage content. In contrast, multiple-choice questions and factual open-ended questions will tap into the student’s shallow knowledge of the passage and may result in an illusion that the student understands the passage ,  but are not adequate enough to ascertain true comprehension of passage content .

There you have it! Now that you know the skills involved in reading comprehension you understand what a monumental role strong language abilities, play in it. This is exactly why speech-language pathologists should be integral members of every team involved in assessment and remediation of students with reading comprehension deficits! Reading comprehension involves mastering a highly complex set of skills that goes far beyond answering comprehension questions based on text. So now that you know that, go out there and create truly meaningful goals in order to serve the students on your caseloads in the most evidenced way possible!

For more  evidence-based information pertaining to assessment and treatment of reading cmprehesnion difficulties, visit the SLPs for Evidence-Based Practice  group on Facebook.

References :

• Arnold, E. M., Goldston, D. B., Walsh, A. K., et al. (2005). Severity of emotional and behavioral problems among poor and typical readers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 33(2):205-217.
• Baddeley AD, Hitch GJ. (1974). Working memory. In The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory, ed. GA Bower, pp. 47–89. New York: Academic
• Barth, A.E., & Elleman, A.M. (2017). Evaluating the Impact of a Multistrategy Inference Intervention for Middle-Grade Struggling Readers.  Language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 48 1 , 31-41 .
• Boyes, M.E., Leitao, S., Claessen, M., Badcock, N.A., & Nayton, M. (2016). Why are reading difficulties associated with mental health problems?  Dyslexia, 22 , 263–266.
• Brosnan MJ, Scott FJ, Fox S, Pye J (2004). Gestalt  processing in autism: Failure to process perceptual relationships and the implications for contextual understandi ng .  Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 45 (3):459–469.
• Cain, K., & Oakhill, J. V. (1999). Inference making ability and its relation to comprehension failure in young children.  Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 11 (5-6), 489–503.
• Catts, H.W., & Kamhi, A.G. (2014). Prologue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Ability.  Language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 48 2 , 73-76 .
• Catts, H.W. , Fey, M.E. , Tomblin, J.B. , & Zhang, X. (  2002 ).  A longitudinal investigation of reading outcomes in children with language impairments . Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 45,  1142 – 1157 .
• Clarke, P.J., Snowling, M.J., Truelove, E., & Hulme, C. (2010). Ameliorating children’s reading-comprehension difficulties: a randomized controlled trial.  Psychological science, 21 8 , 1106-16 .
• Dickinson, D. K., & McCabe, A. (2001). Bringing It All Together: The Multiple Origins, Skills, and Environmental Supports of Early Literacy. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 16, 186-202
• Duke, N. K., Pearson, P. D., Strachan, S. L., & Billman, A. K. (2011). Essential elements of fostering and teaching reading comprehension. In S. J. Samuels, & A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction (4th ed., pp. 51-93. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
• Edmonds, M. S., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Reutebach, C., Cable, A., Tackett, K. K., & Schnakenber, J. W. (2009). A synthesis of reading interventions and effects on reading comprehension outcomes for older struggling readers. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 262-300. doi:10.3102/0034654308325998
• Fitch, A., Fein, D., & Eigsti, I. (2015). Detail and Gestalt Focus in Individuals with Optimal Outcomes from Autism Spectrum Disorders.  Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45 , 1887-1896.
• Gajria, M., & Salvia, J. (1992). The effects of summarization instruction on text comprehension of students with learning disabilities. Exceptional Children, 58, 508-516.
• Gajria, M., Jitendra, A. K., Sood, S., & Sacks, G. (2007). Improving comprehension of expository text in students with LD: A research synthesis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40(3), 210-225.
• Garwood, J. D., Brunsting, N. C., & Fox, L. C. (2014). Improving reading comprehension and fluency outcomes for adolescents with emotional-behavioral disorders: Recent research synthesized. Remedial and Special Education, 35, 181- 194.
• Gersten, R., Fuchs, L. S., Williams, J. P., & Baker, S. (2001). Teaching reading comprehension strategies to students with learning disabilities: A review of research. Review of Educational Research, 71(2), 279-320. doi:10.3102/00346543071002279
• Gough Kenyon, S. M., Palikara, O., & Lucas, R. M. (2018). Explaining reading comprehension in children with developmental language disorder: The importance of elaborative inferencing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 2517–2531
• Gray, S. (2017). Introduction to the clinical forum: Reading comprehension is not a single ability.  Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools ,  48 (2), 71-72.
• Griffin T, Hemphill L, Camp L, Wolf D. (2004) Oral discourse in the preschool years and later literacy skills. First Language. 24 (2):123–147.
• Huc Chabrolle M, Barthez MA, Tripi G, Barthelemy C, Bonnet-Brilhault F (2010) Psychocognitive and psychiatric disorders associated with developmental dyslexia: A clinical and scientific issue. Encéphale.  36 (Suppl 2): 172-9.
• Kempe, C., Gustafson, S., & Samuelsson, S. (2011). A longitudinal study of early reading difficulties and subsequent problem behaviors.  Scandinavian journal of psychology, 52 3 , 242-50 .
• Keenan, J, Betjemann, R & Olson, R   (2008)   Reading Comprehension Tests Vary in the Skills They Assess: Differential Dependence on Decoding and Oral Comprehension,   Scientific Studies of Reading,   12:3,   281-300,
• Kendeou P. (2015).  A general inference skill . In O’Brien E., Cook A., & Lorch R. (Eds.),  Inferences during reading , (pp. 160–181). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Kintsch, W. (2004). The construction-integration model of text comprehension and its implications for instruction. In R. Ruddell, & N. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp. 1270-1324). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
• Kintsch, W. (2013). Revisiting the construction-integration model of text comprehension and its implications for instruction. In D. E. Alvermann, N. J. Unrau, & R. B. Ruddell (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (6th ed., pp. 807- 839). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
• Knivsberg, A. M. and Andreassen, A. B. (2008). Behaviour, attention and cognition in severe dyslexia. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry 62(1):59-65
• Landi, N., & Ryherd, K. (2017). Understanding specific reading comprehension deficit: A review.  Language and linguistics compass, 11 2 .
• Landerl, K., Freudenthaler, H.H., Heene, M., Jong, P.F., Desrochers, A., Manolitsis, G., Parrila, R., & Georgiou, G.K. (2019). Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming as Longitudinal Predictors of Reading in Five Alphabetic Orthographies with Varying Degrees of Consistency.
• Livingston, E, Siegel, L & Ribary, U   (2018)   Developmental dyslexia: emotional impact and consequences,   Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties,   23:2,   107-135
• McNamara D. S., & Magliano J. (2009).  Toward a comprehensive model of comprehension .  The Psychology of Learning and Motivation,  51 , 297–384. 
• Miller, A.C., Keenan, J.M., Betjemann, R.S., Willcutt, E.G., Pennington, B.F., & Olson, R.K. (2013). Reading Comprehension in Children with ADHD: Cognitive Underpinnings of the Centrality Deficit.  Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41 , 473-483.
• Nippold, M.A., Hegel, S.L., & Sohlberg, M.M. (1999). Defining abstract entities: development in pre-adolescents, adolescents, and young adults.  Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR, 42 2 , 473-81 .
• Nouwens, S., Groen, M.A., & Verhoeven, L. (2017). How working memory relates to children’s reading comprehension: the importance of domain-specificity in storage and processing.  Reading and writing .
• O’Brien, E. J., Cook, A. E., & Lorch, R. F., Jr. (Eds.). (2015). Inferences during reading. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
• O’Reilly, T., Wang, Z., & Sabatini, J. (2019). How Much Knowledge Is Too Little? When a Lack of Knowledge Becomes a Barrier to Comprehension.  Psychological Science ,  30 (9), 1344–1351.
• Ouellette GP, Shaw E. Oral vocabulary and reading comprehension: An  intricate  affair.  L’Année psychologique.  2014; 114 :623–645.
• Rabiner, D., J.D. (2000). Early attention problems and children’s reading achievement: a longitudinal investigation. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39(7),859- 867
• Recht D., & Leslie L. (1988). Effect of prior knowledge on good and poor readers’ memory of text . Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 16–20.
• Roehling, J. V., Hebert, M., Nelson, J. R., & Bohaty, J. J. (2017). Text Structure Strategies for Improving Expository Reading Comprehension.  Reading Teacher ,  71 (1), 71–82.
• Scammacca, N. Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Edmonds, M., Wexler, J., Reutebuch, C. K. & Torgesen, J. K. (2007). Interventions for adolescent struggling readers: A metaanalysis with implications for practice. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
• Smallwood, J., Mc Spadden, M., & Schooler, J. W. (2008). When attention matters: The curious incident of the wandering mind. Memory &Cognition, 36(6), 1144-1150.
• Snow, C., Burns, S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children. National Research Council. (2001). Preventing reading difficulties in young children (Sixth printing). Washington, DC: National Academy Press
• Solis, M., Ciullo, S., Vaughn, S., Pyle, N., Hassaram, B., & Leroux, A. (2012). Reading comprehension interventions for middle school students with learning disabilities: A synthesis of 30 years of research. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 45(4), 327- 340.
• Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy.  Reading Research Quarterly, 21,  360–407.
• Sun, L & Wallach G (2014) Language Disorders Are Learning Disabilities: Challenges on the Divergent and Diverse Paths to Language Learning Disability .   Topics in Language Disorders, Vol. 34; (1), pp 25–38.
•  Zipoli, R (2017) Unraveling Difficult Sentences: Strategies to Support Reading Comprehension. Intervention in School and Clinic, Vol. 52(4) 218–227

8 thoughts on “ Comprehending Reading Comprehension ”

Sadly, even when brought to their attention about the illusory recovery for many students, SLP’s often don’t have the skills or even a stepping point into remediating higher order language skills and this jams up SPED case loads. I know SLPs are busy and overtaxed, but for those students not remediated properly and early enough – it is no wonder the numbers on remediating students past 2nd grade are so dismal.

I absolutely agree with you! That’s why the Power Up Conference that I run with Adriana Lavi focuses only on how to provide the most functional assessment and remediation so these strategies are available to all SLPs to maximize client outcomes. https://laviinstitute.com/online-power-up-slp-conference-august-2022/

Amazing post! So much wonderful information!

As usual this article is right on target. I will be digesting it further. I would also like to point out that I have worked with hyper-lexic students who are very fluent but have no idea what they have just read. Also autistic students have great difficulty with referents while reading. They do not know who the various pronouns refer to in the story so they cannot get the gist of what is happening. I have had to backtrack and teach pronouns, then introduce in simple sentences with nouns. In fact I am working with a student now on this. I agree that we have so much to “bring to the table” and I am glad to say I am a member of the team as I collaborate with our reading specialists in my school. However, reading comprehension is complicated and I appreciate all your articles that are shedding more light on this.

This article came at the perfect time. I have a HS dyslexic student whose decoding and oral reading abilities are almost on grade level but his comprehension skills are still stuck several grade levels behind. I am rereading and digesting the information in your article so I can better help his reading elective teacher, case manager, and parents better understand his growth and how we move forward.

Question.. In the following paragraph, “Readers who lack this disability needed to be explicitly taught.” Should it read ability instead of disability?

“Good readers are also adept at following and grasping passage organization or text structure (e.g., descriptive, chronological, cause/effect, compare/contrast, primacy or the order of importance, problem/solution, sequencing or steps of a process, etc.). Readers who lack this disability needed to be explicitly taught. But the good news is that we have multiple studies with information on how to improve this ability (Roehling et al 2017).”

Thank you for poin8ng out the typo which was corrected.

This is spot-on. However, our district insists that language services, even as a related service for those students who do not have SLI eligibility, are not provided, unless they find an oral language deficiency via their language testing. (CELF-5 and CASL-2) They do not see their SLPs having a role in working with students with reading and writing difficulties. Info on ASHA website even seems to agree with this, although perhaps to a lesser degree.

The problem with both CELF-5 and CASL-2 is they both possess psychometric limitations and are not necessarily the best tools to detect oral language deficits. Info on the ASHA website actually strongly supports the role of SLPs in reading and writing. I even created a document which actually outlines this information, which is available here https://www.smartspeechtherapy.com/shop/the-role-of-speech-language-pathologists-slps-in-assessment-and-management-of-dyslexia/

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• Adolescents (28)
• Ankyloglossia (1)
• APD Validity (7)
• App Review (18)
• Articulation (17)
• Assessment (118)
• Autism (19)
• behavior strategies (14)
• Bell Curve Charting (3)
• Bilingual (17)
• Blogging About Research (25)
• Book Companion (10)
• CEUs/CMHs (4)
• Checklist (23)
• Childhood Apraxia of Speech (6)
• Clinical Assessment (19)
• Clinical Fellows (1)
• CMH Quiz (1)
• Context Clues (3)
• Contextual Intervention (8)
• Controversial Practices in Health Care (7)
• Critical Thinking (22)
• Cues and Prompts (4)
• Development milestones (16)
• Developmental Disabilities (12)
• Differential Diagnosis (20)
• Down Syndrome (6)
• Dysgraphia (7)
• Dyslexia (35)
• Dyslexia Assessment (12)
• Dyslexia/Reading Disability (30)
• Early Intervention (18)
• Elementary (32)
• emotional and behavioral disturbances (34)
• Emotional Intelligence (5)
• Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) (50)
• Executive Function (15)
• Facebook (7)
• Fairy Tales (1)
• feeding (3)
• Following Directions (2)
• Fragile X Syndrome (3)
• Freebie (13)
• genetic syndromes (14)
• Giveaway (71)
• Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs) (13)
• Insight (15)
• insurance coverage (2)
• Intake forms (6)
• internationally adopted children (28)
• Kindergarten (11)
• language delay (74)
• Language Disorder (68)
• language stimulation (30)
• Learned Helplessness (1)
• Learning Disability (55)
• Life Skills (3)
• listening comprehension (29)
• Literacy (42)
• Metacognition (4)
• Metalinguistics (12)
• Middle School (24)
• Morphological Awareness (8)
• Motor Speech Disorders (5)
• multicultural (24)
• Multisensory Stimulation (9)
• Narratives (10)
• News Release (44)
• NJAC 6A:14-3.6 (1)
• Nonfiction Text (2)
• orofacial assessment (4)
• Parent Consultation (4)
• Parent Tips (2)
• Phonemic Awareness (24)
• Phonics (9)
• Phonological Awareness (16)
• Picture Books (11)
• preschoolers (52)
• Problem Solving and Verbal Reasoning (34)
• Processing Disorders (25)
• Professional Consultation (2)
• Professional Development (3)
• Psychiatric Impairments (3)
• Reading Comprehension (19)
• Reading Fluency (17)
• Report Writing Tips (12)
• resource websites (33)
• Review (37)
• Rewards (1)
• Russian (6)
• Science of Reading Literacy Certificate for SLPs (1)
• Screening (1)
• Search Tips (2)
• Sequencing (2)
• Severe Disabilities (12)
• SLP Efficiency Bundles (3)
• Smart Speech Therapy Article (77)
• Social Communication (25)
• social pragmatic language (70)
• Social Thinking® Products (2)
• Special Education Disputes (14)
• speech language pathology (208)
• Speech-Language Report Tutorials (12)
• SPELL-Links/Learning By Design (3)
• Spelling (12)
• stuttering (5)
• Summer Learning Loss (1)
• Test Review (16)
• Thematic Intervention (13)
• Toddlers (12)
• Tongue Tie (1)
• Translanguaging (5)
• Treatment Suggestions (112)
• Trivia Night (5)
• Video Modeling (1)
• Vocabulary (42)
• Wh- Questions (2)
• word-finding (12)
• Writing (16)

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience.

The Speech Stop

A one-stop resource for speech-language pathologists, educators & parents, recommended sites.

Sites are recommended for educational use only. I do not endorse any of these sites and am not responsible for their security or content. I share with you a few of my favorites, which contain free teaching materials that are well written and user-friendly. I’ve noted ones that require paid subscriptions or that need more explanation.

• This is a great free resource for obtaining reading passages by grade level as well as extension activities and comprehension questions for each passage.
• Contains several materials exchange sections where SLPs share therapy resources they have developed and are posted for free.
• Carl’s Corner - retired teacher who shares a wealth of teaching materials and resources.
• www.busyteacherscafe.com
• Various printable materials and interactive activities for teachers, parents and students.
• Reading comprehension materials.
• www.education-world.com
• www.speechtx.com/index.htm
• www.theteacherscorner.net
• Resource for teachers and students for reading and language arts.
• Subscription required for most things, customizable teaching materials.
• Subscription required, contains a variety of educational videos and clips, including short “wordless” videos, which are great for articulation and language therapy.
• Lots of free fonts available for download.
• This one might seem to be a given, but it's often overlooked! The ASHA website contains lots of useful information, charts, fact sheets, statistics, etc…just a wealth of information for SLPs and their everyday needs.
• A bilingual site for families and educators of English language learners, contains an overwhelming supply of resources for families, educators, librarians, and administrators.
• A site for families raising or educators working with multilingual children.
• A site that carries bilingual and multicultural children's books and products in more than 40 languages
• ESL/EFL resources for teachers of young learners, FREE flash cards, handouts to match, phonics cards, ESL games, worksheets, an international projects exchange library and activities all ready for printing.
• Contains lots of free resources and tools for SLPs
• LessonPix is an affordable online resource available for therapists, teachers, and parents. Users can easily create custom materials for their specific needs such as speech therapy, communication, behavior schedules, early literacy games, labeling, fine motor development, and more. There are over 10,000 clip art images available or you can upload your own images. Their unique search tools allow users to find pictures by sounds / sound combinations, rhymes, minimal pairs, or keywords. Check out how Lessonpix.com can help meet your individual needs in a low-cost and easy-to-use way!
• Contains lots of free materials and resources
• A treasure trove of articles and resources for parents raising bilingual children.
• Site packed with games, activities, and tools to help parents and educators prepare children for learning to read; includes FREE printable materials, how-to videos, and teaching tips.

• Testimonials
• Gift Subscription
• Digital SLP Log In

Reading Comprehension Strategies for the SLP

• January 30, 2018

It can be extra challenging to teach reading comprehension skills to our students.   Why is this?  Well, when we are teaching phonemic awareness and other micro skills, there are often specific rules that help guide us.  However, teaching to comprehend as whole, is a bit more abstract of a concept.  This, of course, makes it more difficult to teach. Below, I will very briefly outline some ideas, but you’ll want to make sure you listen to the podcast to get the details.

1) Identify and categorize information.

2) run a book club..

3) Use writing to facilitate reading performance. 

4) Use a collection of comprehension strategies, such as:

• Prediction.
• Summarizing.
• Questioning.

I hope that enjoyed listening to today’s episode and that you found these tips to be helpful. I did just want to remind you to that the Digital SLP rates are going up on February 1st, so you have today and tomorrow to lock in your rate before it goes up!

Links & Resources:

• Digital SLP Membership
• Written Language Disorders: Treatment. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2018, from http://www.asha.org/PRPSpecificTopic.aspx?folderid=8589942549§ion=Treatment
• Hebert, M. (2010).  Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading. A Report from Carnegie Corporation of New York . New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York.
• Reading Strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2018, from https://www.readinghorizons.com/reading-strategies/teaching/comprehension/building-reading-comprehension-through-questioning-techniques

Full Transcript of Podcast: Reading Comprehension Strategies for the SLP

Episode 27 - reading comprehension strategies for the slp.

You're listening to the Speech Space Podcast, a podcast full of tips and resources for SLPs. I'm your host, Jessica Cassity, and this is Episode 27.

Today, we're going to be talking about reading comprehension strategies for the SLP. So first, let's chat a little bit about why you can meet extra challenging to teach reading comprehension skills to our students. When we are teaching phonemic awareness and those other micro-skills, there's often specific rules that we can use to help us along. However, teaching to comprehend as a whole is a bit more abstract of a concept, and for this reason, it can be trickier to teach to our students. So let's dive in and talk about some recommendations that you can use in your speech therapy sessions.

So the first idea I have for you is to have your students identify and categorize information. Now, this can be done by story mapping, using a graphic organizer, and discussing story grammar elements like setting, characters, problem, solutions, and the story's conclusion. There's strong evidence for this method with narratives, but I did wanna mention that the evidence is limited for expository texts. And not to get off topic here, but if there are any Digital SLP members listening, I did wanna let you know that I have recently added a lot of graphic organizers to the previous section of the site, so you wanna make sure that you check that out. So if you're listening today, a lot of the different graphic organizers that I'm going to be mentioning are actually on the site. So you can, like I said, it's in the freebie section and you can check that out there.

The next idea I have is to run a book club. Now this can be a fun way to get students interacting about reading, and you can create trivia games around the text, you can use graphic organizers, have them make predictions together about the text, and discuss vocabulary words. There's really so many options for this one. You can also have students vote on their favorite part of the text or debate which character was right or wrong in a given situation. The idea here is to get them excited about reading while also using strategies to get them thinking about reading as well.

Now another strategy is to use writing to facilitate reading performance. Comprehension can be improved when students write about what they've read. Now I'd like to share some strategies that are recommended from the article called "Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading," a report from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Now there's a lot of great information in this article, so I will definitely make sure that I link to that for you guys in the show notes. According to the article, which was based on a meta-analysis, some specific writing tasks that have been shown to be effective in facilitating reading comprehension through writing that were discussed in the article were to have students write about the text that they've read. They can respond to a text in writing, and this can be through writing their opinion or their reaction about the text or by analyzing and interpreting the text. They can write summaries of the text, write notes about the text, and answer questions about a text in writing. You can also teach writing skills that are necessary for creating texts. You can teach the process of writing text structures for writing and paragraph or sentence construction skills as well. And you can also increase how much students write. We know that reading comprehension is improved by having them increase how often they create their own texts.

The next strategy is to use a collection of comprehension strategies. Now, there are many programs out there way more than I could ever begin to list here. But there are things like enhanced proactive reading, writing lab approach, self-regulated strategy development, and so on. All of those methods are beyond the scope of this podcast. But I did wanna touch on some basic comprehension strategies that you can use with your students. A couple of which have a little overlap with some of the suggestions that I've mentioned previously. When using these strategies, you want to make sure that you explain the concept to your students, that you model it, and really practice, practice, practice with your students until they understand.

So the first strategy under this umbrella here is to work on prediction. And for this, your drawing on their prior knowledge of a topic. You know, the preexisting background knowledge that they already have. So graphic organizers are really great for this, and you might start off by discussing a topic before you read a book or a passage. Now this is important because your students will not be able to comprehend a passage if they don't have the foundational background knowledge to do so. They certainly can't predict what will happen if they don't have a solid background knowledge. So for working on predictions, graphic organizers, like I mentioned, are really great and you can just have your students write down their predictions and then you can come back to it later and see if they were right after the passage was read.

Using imagery is another strategy and this is where your students are going to create mental images that help them keep track of what they have read. And I'd like to supplement this one with some drawing as well, where the students can draw out that mental image and discuss it, which increases the likelihood that they'll remember it.

Another strategy to use is summarizing, and again, graphic organizers are great for this, especially the ones that have a beginning, middle, end sections divided out. So this is just simply where your students are going to, you know, paraphrase or sum up what they've read.

And the last strategy here is questioning. And now this is where students are going to monitor their own comprehension. So they might ask questions about statements that they don't understand or what certain words mean. And I like to encourage my students to highlight or place little sticky notes on unfamiliar words, and I like to create a word list using those words, and then go back to those later and put them into a little glossary that that student can make and hold on to and refer back to later. You can also encourage your students to ask thick or thin questions. Now, thin questions are going to be those that can be answered by referring back to the text. And thick questions are those that are based on inferences and opinions of the reader that are going to be open to interpretation.

All right, you guys, I hope that you enjoyed listening today and I hope that you found these tips to be helpful. I know that was quite a lot of information that I covered in a short period of time, but as usual, I do like to keep these podcasts about five to 10 minutes long. But I also wanted to put out a reminder, The Digital SLP rates are going up on February 1st. So if you are listening the day this podcast is released, which will be on Tuesday, then you have until tomorrow to lock in your rate before it goes up. So you can do that by going to thedigitalslp.com/digitalslp. Also, if you found this episode to be helpful, please take a second to give a five-star review on iTunes to help your fellow SLPs find the show. All right, that is it for me, and have a great rest of the week!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ready to give the Digital SLP ®  a test drive?

Sign up for free today and join over 3,000 other SLPs.

Teletherapy platform-friendly activities and games for articulation, phonology, language, social skills, stuttering and more. 

Recent Posts

• SLPs and Situational Mutism
• Five Videos to Use in Speech Therapy in April
• Four Ways to Manage Mixed Groups
• Five Videos to Use in Speech Therapy in March
• How to Target Prepositions in Teletherapy

Recent Comments

• SockLeng on How to Cope with a Chronic Illness while Working as an SLP
• Mskispeech on How to Cope with a Chronic Illness while Working as an SLP
• SockLeng on My Beautiful Stutter with Ryan Gielan
• Marcia Getfield on My Beautiful Stutter with Ryan Gielan
• SockLeng on 8 Tips for Teaching the R Sound

Related Posts

Privacy Overview

Did you know email subscribers receive exclusive discounts, helpful tips, and free resources? When you sign up for our newsletter you'll gain instant access to a library of digital freebies!

We treat your personal information with respect and would never sell it to another party.

 Privacy Policy

Monthly Plans

Using book companions in speech therapy.

• Book Companions , Books , Literacy-Based Speech Therapy

Using Book Companions in Speech Therapy

After many, many requests, I have finally created book companions that address the deeper reading comprehension issues our kids have with narratives. Most of what is on the market for book companions are heavily-themed activities RELATED to the book topic. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for that. However, I set out to create an easy lesson planning template to use narratives in my speech room with more depth. You can see the seasonal book companion in my TPT store .

Early in my baby-SLP career, I’d read a book then ask recall questions. That was the extent of my “literacy-based speech.” yikes. Teachers would say, “Billy” can’t retell a story or sequence the events. So, I’d do more sequencing tasks. Hoping more practice would help it stick more. That’s not therapeutic intervention folks. However, once I started working on narrative structure, that’s when light bulbs started turning on. Over the last year, I’ve dug deep into the research of literacy-based speech issues. WHY are our kids still struggling to understand and retell the books we are reading. Answer- we need to go deeper , and you know what – the evidence shows we need to do it EARLY. Here are some effective strategies for narrative intervention in speech therapy.

Speech-language pathologists can effectively treat children with literacy disorders, (reading, spelling, and writing deficits including dyslexia) from preschool through adolescence. The impact of language disorders on literacy development and the components of effective reading instruction including narrative structure, phonological awareness, vocabulary awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic knowledge as well as reading fluency and comprehension.

Effective reading instruction can be cohesively integrated into speech-language therapy sessions in order to improve the literacy abilities of children with speech sound disorders, language disorders, and learning disabilities. Focusing on macrostructure (overall cohesion) and microstructure (sentence-level syntax) will improve narrative abilities in students.

But here’s some hard truth…ball poppers and sensory bins are fun, but they are NOT LITERACY ACTIVITIES. #sorrynotsorry

Literacy-Based Speech Therapy

What’s the big deal about Literacy-Based Speech Therapy?

The relationship between language deficits and reading disabilities has been examined extensively from several different perspectives and our role has been clearly defined by ASHA: “SLPs play a critical and direct role in literacy development, due to established connections between spoken and written language.”

“Evidence that children with language impairment (identified in preschool and kindergarten) are more likely than typically developing children to have subsequent reading disabilities in later grades indicates that language deficits precede and play a causal role in reading disabilities.” (Aram, et. al 1984)

“More than half of children with SSD experience difficulties with reading.” (Bishop & Adams, et. al 1990)

“52% of children with language impairments also have reading difficulties.”  (Tomblin, et al 2000.)

“Problems in oral language and speech sound development are primary signs of risk for reading disorders.” (Nathan et. al(2004).

SLPs ARE UNIQUELY QUALIFIED:

Skilled readers effortlessly combine word recognition with text comprehension. Proficient readers are able to make meaning from text by, among others, inferring, questioning, visualizing, and activating prior knowledge.

Our kids just don’t do that.

We, as SLPs, must teach them HOW with explicit narrative instruction.

Tell your students what they need to be doing. Even with your littles. Tell them, “Good readers make a movie while they read.” “Good readers question while they are reading.” “Good readers think about the character’s emotions and feelings.”

Why? Because they aren’t automatically doing it. This is where the breakdown of comprehension occurs.

WHAT WE NEED TO BE DOING:

Oral narrative interventions that explicitly teach macrostructure , and include repeated telling, retelling and generating of stories using visual scaffolds, such as icons and graphic organizers including storyboards and planners yield a statistically significant, large effect (d =.73 – 1.57) for macrostructure skills (Petersen, 2010 in Glisson, Leitão & Claessen, 2019).

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE : Depending on the book and your student’s life experiences, you may need to probe and review for their prior knowledge of concepts in the book. For example, if you’re reading “Brave Irene” and you live in Florida, your students may not have experience with a snowstorm.

VOCABULARY: What tier 2 words are important for understanding the story?

PLOT : Also referred to a story grammar, this is the organization of the narrative and the most basic form of comprehension. Readers need to know who is involved in the action and where the story is taking place. Understanding problems, conflicts, and resolutions. For early learners: beginning-middle-end. For older learners: somebody-wanted-but-so-the or character-setting-action-problem-attempts-resolution. Make sure students understand that there are different parts to every story – they need to be able to identify these parts.

Expository Text Features : sequence, description, listing, problem-solution, compare/contrast, cause-effect, and persuasion.

THEME : What is the “message” the author wants us to take away?

SETTING: The time and place in which the story takes place. Visualizing the setting is important to comprehension.

POINT OF VIEW: Point-of-view is essential to character development. It helps the reader think about different perspectives. Knowing who is talking can help the reader better understand the story.

WH AND RECALL QUESTIONS : Asking literal & inferential questions to monitor understanding of content, text structure, and themes. Research shows Why-questions and How-procedural questions elicit longer, multiword responses from students. Be cautious of inferential questions post-reading as they rely on memory skills.

INFERENCING:  When you infer, you are using your background knowledge along with the clues from the text and pictures to find out what is happening in the story. You are figuring out what the author didn’t tell you directly.

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL : How do the characters grow or change? How do they react to things? Try to imagine how the characters think or feel about a situation.

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES : How can you extend the book experience to activities that align with your learning objectives? This can be any activity post-reading (craft, written, etc).

How Do We Implement Intervention:

I created lesson plan templates and strategic activities to address all of these goals and to give more effective strategies for using book companions in Speech Therapy. If you’re familiar with my language bookmarks , these go a few steps forward and several steps deeper. I’ve done all the work for you, so you don’t have to pull a book off the shelf and wonder what to do. They also come with student activity pages, sticky notes, an analysis page for progress monitoring, and educator guides with standards addressed. These evidence-based strategies and activities will focus your narrative intervention in speech therapy.

You can check out these Speech Therapy Book Companions in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Make sure to follow my Instagram account: @literacybasedspeech where I share books and how you can use them in your sessions.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Thanksgiving themed books are fun in my Speech room. Here are some suggestions for my…

Arctic animals, snowmen, and hibernation are great winter themes to focus on in speech. I…

Fall books to use in Speech Therapy What books do you pull out for the…

Language Bookmarks for Summer Books in Speech Summer months are finally here and I'm excited…

You might also like

Creating Speech Therapy Lesson Plans for Themes

/J/ Book List for Articulation Therapy

Spring Book Companions For Speech Therapy

Winter Book Companions For Speech Therapy

Latest on Instagram

Ashleyrossislp.

🗣 Private Practice SLP 📚 Literacy-Based Speech Therapy 🖥 Blogger • Product Creator 🔻click for all my LINKS

Your cart is currently empty.

Total: $0.00

Free your time. Fresh, ready activities.

Speech therapy activities designed for therapists and kids to love.

Engaging Resources

Engaged therapy sessions, here you come! Speech & language activities that are guaranteed to catch the attention of any child. Perfect for digital learning and in-person fun.

BUNDLE Executive Function

✨ As seen on Boom Cards Featured Bundles!

This BUNDLE of executive function cards includes problem solving stories, social stories, predicting stories, sequencing stories, and flexible thinking stories.

Multiple types of wh- questions, why and how questions, labeling exercises, multiple choice, and drag and drop categorizations   are included throughout this bundle to encourage an in depth understanding of each executive functioning skill.

⭐️ 80 Problem Solving

• Multiple choice question
• 2 labeling exercises

⭐️   52 Social Stories

• Topics of social skills to choose from (feelings, manners, listening, sharing & turns, making friends, being kind)
• Sorting exercise
• 2 wh- questions

⭐️   50 Predicting (✨ as seen on Top Premium Boom Cards ✨)

• What questions
• How questions

⭐️   50 Sequencing

• 3 different what questions per story

⭐️   40 Flexible Thinking (✨ as seen on Top Premium Boom Cards ✨)

• Why questions
• Labeling exercise

Each deck includes a teaching slide and visual to help your students better understand executive function skills before practicing! 

CLICK HERE for Boom Cards Preview.

To use Boom Cards, you must be connected to the Internet. Boom Cards play on modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge). Apps are available for modern Android, iPads, iPhones, and Kindle Fires. For security and privacy, adults must have a Boom Learning account to use and assign Boom Cards. You will be able to assign the Boom Cards you are buying with "Fast Pins," (a form of play that gives instant feedback to students for self-grading Boom Cards). For assignment options that report student progress back to you, you will need to purchase a premium account.If you are new to Boom Learning, you will be offered a free trial of our premium account.Read here for details: http://bit.ly/BoomTrial .

Wh- Questions & Short Stories

15 short stories to target wh- questions, auditory comprehension, reading comprehension, recall, and more!

Multiple levels of difficulty, including both shorter and longer paragraphs for a variety of length and detail in the stories.

⭐ Wh- Questions in Short Stories

• 15 Paragraph Short Stories
• 6 Wh- Questions for every story
• Stories are 4-9 sentences in length
• What, where, who, when, why, and how questions for every story

*This product contains the same activities as the Boom Cards version. If you would like the Boom Cards version, view   Wh- Questions & Short Stories, Auditory Comprehension, Boom Cards.

Compare and Contrast

Compare and contrast a variety of topics with 5 different activities and over 400 prompts! Improve understanding and use of similarities and differences using this comprehensive activity. 

This resource includes   5 different ways to practice comparing and contrasting , including stories, Venn diagrams, wh questions, short answers, pictures, graphs, and more. Real photos are included in this resource.

⭐️ Compare and Contrast:

• 5 stories with Venn diagrams
• 10 picture pairs with wh questions and Venn diagrams
• 10 picture pairs with wh questions and short answer questions
• 10 word pairs with wh questions and short answers
• 10 word pairs with graphs and word banks
• 2 blank templates

⭐️   Targeted Skills:

• Improve use of compare and contrast
• Increase comprehension of similarities and differences
• Expand skills for answering questions

Topics & Questions

80 unique topics with 4 wh- questions and a story prompt to improve expressive and receptive language skills, with REAL pictures. Questions and story prompts improve story telling and sentence generation skills. What, where, who, when, why, and how questions are included, with 4 different questions for each picture.

✨ As featured on Boom Cards Top Premium Decks ✨

⭐ 80 Topics & Categories

• 5 activities for each topic
• Real picture for every topic
• 4 wh-/how questions for every topic
• 1 story prompt for every topic
• What, where, who, when, why, and how questions included

⭐  Targeted Skills

• Improve receptive & expressive language
• Enhance skills for   answering questions
• Boost   story telling skills
• Develop   noun labeling and describing

Practice describing topics and categories, by answering questions and discussing a story prompt for each topic!

To use Boom Cards, you   must   be connected to the Internet. Boom Cards play on modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge). Apps are available for modern Android, iPads, iPhones, and Kindle Fires. For security and privacy, adults must have a Boom Learning account to use and assign Boom Cards. You will be able to assign the Boom Cards you are buying with "Fast Pins," (a form of play that gives instant feedback to students for self-grading Boom Cards). For assignment options that report student progress back to you, you will need to purchase a premium account.   If you are new to Boom Learning, you will be offered a free trial of our premium account.   Read here for details:   http://bit.ly/BoomTrial .

Conversation Starters

Conversation starters to improve commenting, asking questions, and answering questions during conversations. Conversation prompts has variety of ways to practice conversations, including questions, open response, fill in the blank, and more.

This resource includes   multiple ways to practice conversations , including pictures, comments, questions, asking questions, and more.

⭐️   All About Me Conversation Starters:

• 2 what questions
• 1 how question
• Open response opportunity

⭐️   Conversation Topics:

• 20 unique topics
• 3 open response opportunities to practice
• Practice asking questions and making comments

⭐️   Conversation Photos:

• 20 unique photo prompts
• 2 open response opportunities to practice

⭐️   Boom Cards include:

• 20 conversation topics
• 20 conversation starters with real photos
• Open response opportunities to practice

⭐️   Targeted skills:

• Improve conversation abilities
• Increase ability to ask and answer questions in conversations
• Expand commenting skills during conversations

NOTE: This resource includes 1 printable PDF with a Boom Cards companion. The Boom Cards contains part of the PDF resource, but does not include the "All About Me" conversation starters. Boom Cards are digital resources. PDF pages can be used digitally with PDF applications or can be printed for in person use.

To use boom cards, you must be connected to the internet. boom cards play on modern browsers (chrome, safari, firefox, and edge). apps are available for modern android, ipads, iphones, and kindle fires. for security and privacy, adults must have a boom learning account to use and assign boom cards. you will be able to assign the boom cards you are buying with "fast pins," (a form of play that gives instant feedback to students for self-grading boom cards). for assignment options that report student progress back to you, you will need to purchase a premium account. if you are new to boom learning, you will be offered a free trial of our premium account. read here for details: http://bit.ly/boomtrial ..

Problems & Solutions with Problem Size

Problem solving stories, problem size, solutions, common problems   and more are included in this set.   There are 80 unique problem solving and solution scenarios   for critical thinking. Open response questions and multiple choice questions are included in every story! You will receive problem size and common problem teaching pages, as well as multiple examples.

⭐️   80 Problem Solving Stories

• 80 unique problem scenarios
• Multiple choice question for every story
• 2 open response exercises for every story

⭐️   Problem Size Slides & Questions

• 5 in-depth teaching pages
• Problem size (small, medium, big) definitions
• Emotions related to problem sizes
• Color coordinated problem size visual
• 2 small problem exercises
• 2 medium problem exercises
• 2 big problem exercises

⭐️   Common Problems & Questions

• Teaching slide with definitions & examples
• 6 scenarios of common problems
• 2 free response problem & solution questions per scenario 

With 80 unique stories, 12 common problem scenarios, 6 problem size questions and multiple teaching pages, you will be able to use this resource for   many   teaching sessions. You won't need anything else!

Story Builders & Create A Story

Improve creative writing with these narrative and short story prompts! This set of   70 short story builders   comes with character, location, event and time learning targets.

Help your students improve their stories and increase their creative narrative skills. There is space for students to type or write their stories, as well as an organizing task for story parts. 

Your students will have all the tools they need to create unique and imaginative stories!

⭐️ Includes:

• 70 story builders
• 3 practice levels
• A combination of who (character), where (location), what (event) and when (time) story part targets
• 36 story builders that include 2 story parts
• 20 story builders that include 3 story parts
• 14 story builders that include 4 story parts
• Story parts organizing task with pictures
• Space for creative writing and narrative generation
• Instructions on each page 

⭐️ Teaching slides:

• In depth information about the 4 included story parts
• Descriptions
• Picture matching activities 

Save your time and energy, this set is NO PREP! Includes everything you need to elicit creative, engaging stories from your students.

Perfect for SLPs, teachers, or parents looking to expand language or writing in a fun and creative way!

Social Skills & Pragmatics

Social skills and pragmatic language set to improve executive functioning skills.   52 unique stories with sorting and wh- questions!

Social skills topic can be organized by category or practiced in random order, depending on your goals! Your students will sort each card into "appropriate" or "inappropriate" categories. They also will have an opportunity to explain how to improve social skills. Keep students engaged with interactive drag and drop!

⭐️   52 Social Skills short stories

• 2 scenarios per slide
• Drag and drop sorting for "appropriate" or "inappropriate" behavior
• What question to target improving behaviors
• Why question to target critical thinking

⭐️   Skills are able to be sorted by topic:

• Sharing & Turns
• Making Friends

BUNDLE for Executive Function Skills also available in Shine Speech Activities shop , which includes problem solving, predicting, flexible thinking, social skills, and sequencing/planning, too!

Use this deck to help teach and practice pragmatic skills - you won't need anything else!

Sentence Comprehension & Language Comprehension

Improve sentence comprehension, language and reading comprehension, and picture comprehension with 4 activities and over 125 prompts for speech therapy or classrooms! Target comprehending, receptive language, and more.

This resource includes   4 different ways to practice sentence comprehension , including wh questions, pictures, fill in the blanks, and more. Real photos are included in this resource.

⭐️ Sentence Comprehension:

• 40 sentence comprehension task cards with 3 questions each
• 30 real photo sentence comprehension prompts
• 30 multiple choice reading comprehension activities
• 30 fill in the blank language comprehension prompts
• Improve sentence comprehension skills
• Increase receptive and expressive language abilities
• Expand skills for understanding sentences and pictures

Categories with divergent naming, convergent naming, group, similarities, differences, and more! Words, cartoons, and real pictures included for a variety of ways to practice.

This resource includes   6 different ways to practice categories , including describing, naming, grouping, similarities, differences, and topics. Category cards include words, cartoon pictures to color, and real photos!

⭐️ Categories:

• 40 Describe the category
• 40 Name the category
• 40 Categories Grouping
• 24 Categories similarities
• 24 Categories differences
• 6 Categories Topics
• 10 Describe the category
• 15 Name the category
• 15 Categories Grouping
• 15 Categories similarities
• 15 Categories differences
• 5 Categories Topics
• Improve understanding categories
• Expand ability to describe categories
• Practice language with categories 

NOTE: This resource includes 1 printable PDF with a Boom Cards companion. The Boom Cards contains part of the PDF resource. Boom Cards are digital resources. PDF pages can be used digitally with PDF applications or can be printed for in person use.

Picture & Word Describing Webs

This set of 70 picture description webs targets describing pictures and words by color, shape, size, location, material, function, category and more. Includes 8 wh- questions for each word!

Teaching slides are also included to teach your students how to describe pictures.

⭐️ Picture Description Webs:

• 8 fill in the blank questions to target descriptions
• Color description targets
• Size description targets
• Shape description targets
• Location description targets
• Material description targets
• Function description targets
• Category description targets
• Who (who uses it?) description targets
• Color coded targets to improve memory of ways to describe

⭐️ Teaching Slides:

• Question example for each description target
• Concrete examples of each description type 

⭐️ Bonus Pages on PDF:

• Colored blank picture web template with 8 questions
• Black and white picture web template with 8 questions

BONUS! A blank PDF template for a color web and a black and white web are also included.   Your students have the opportunity to draw their own unique pictures and create webs.

70 trials, plus blank webs, allows for unlimited practice of picture and word describing. 

Help your students learn how to describe with this activity! PDF and Boom Cards versions are included.

Predicting in Short Stories

This activity includes   50 predicting stories . Unique and original scenarios for predicting practice!

✨ As seen on Boom Cards Top Premium Decks ✨

Each scenario   includes a "what" question and a "how" question   for further discussion and analysis for your students.

50 stories means you won't need any other activity for predicting! Use these randomized trials track data over multiple sessions.

⭐️   50 Predicting story slides

• Unique predicting scenarios
• What question for predicting
• How question for analyzing prediction

BUNDLE Figurative Language

This BUNDLE of figurative language cards includes idioms, metaphors, hyperboles, personification and similes. Over 255 practice targets with figurative language!

The set targets multiple skills so your students will have an in depth understanding of each type of figurative language! This set is a truly comprehensive approach to understanding and using figurative language.

⭐️ 60 Idioms

• Yes/no questions for every trial
• What questions for every trial
• Free response (students have an opportunity to create their own idioms) for every trial

⭐️ 40 Metaphors

• Free response (students have an opportunity to create their own metaphors) for every trial

⭐️ 40 Similes

• Free response (students have an opportunity to create their own similes) for every trial

⭐️ 45 Hyperboles

• Free response (students have an opportunity to create their own hyperboles) for every trial

⭐️ 40 Personification

• Free response to give students opportunity to create short stories with personification

⭐️ 35 Allusions

• 2 what questions for every trial
• Free response to encourage building allusions in sentences
• Allusions to Historical figures, literature, famous fictional characters, locations/landmarks, Greek mythology, movies and more

⭐️ Each deck includes a teaching slide

• Definitions
• Help your students understand and identify figurative language before practicing

Preview Boom Cards HERE.

Prepositions & Spatial Concepts

This set of   prepositions targets spatial and location concepts with 60 trials ! Teach your students prepositions and location with this robust, comprehensive deck.

You can pick which preposition to target, or practice with randomized slides. The teaching module will   teach your students everything they need to know about each preposition   before practicing! 

⭐️   Prepositions include:

⭐️   learning module includes:.

Use the practice slides to practice prepositions with multiple choice. Navigate between the learning module and practice cards using the buttons at the bottom of each slide.

CLICK HERE for Boom Card Preview.

To use Boom Cards, you  must  be connected to the Internet. Boom Cards play on modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge). Apps are available for modern Android, iPads, iPhones, and Kindle Fires. For security and privacy, adults must have a Boom Learning account to use and assign Boom Cards. You will be able to assign the Boom Cards you are buying with "Fast Pins," (a form of play that gives instant feedback to students for self-grading Boom Cards). For assignment options that report student progress back to you, you will need to purchase a premium account. If you are new to Boom Learning, you will be offered a free trial of our premium account. Read here for details: http://bit.ly/BoomTrial .

Main Idea & Supporting Details

Main idea and supporting details with 5 different ways to practice and 50 unique prompts! Improve reading comprehension and writing skills using this main ideas and detail resource.

This product contains a PDF version and a Boom Cards companion.

This resource includes   5 different ways to practice main idea and supporting details , including stories with questions, main ideas vs. details, create-a-story, grouping, and pictures with questions. Real photos are also included in this resource.

⭐️ Main Idea & Details:

• 10 Stories & Questions
• 10 Main Ideas vs. Details
• 10 Create-A-Story
• 10 Grouping
• 10 Pictures & Questions
• Improve understanding main ideas and details
• Increase reading comprehension abilities
• Expand skills for creating stories

To use Boom Cards, you must be connected to the Internet. Boom Cards play on modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge). Apps are available for modern Android, iPads, iPhones, and Kindle Fires. For security and privacy, adults must have a Boom Learning account to use and assign Boom Cards. You will be able to assign the Boom Cards you are buying with "Fast Pins," (a form of play that gives instant feedback to students for self-grading Boom Cards). For assignment options that report student progress back to you, you will need to purchase a premium account.  If you are new to Boom Learning, you will be offered a free trial of our premium account.  Read here for details: http://bit.ly/BoomTrial .

Expanding Language with Wh Questions and Real Pictures

Expand expressive language using wh- questions and sentence generation prompts with real pictures.   Improve expressive language, answering questions, labeling verbs, and story generation!   What, where, and who questions are included for every picture!

⭐ Expanding Language with Real Pictures

• 80 real life pictures
• 3 wh- questions   for every story
• Free response prompt   for every story
• Large variety of actions and topics within pictures
• What, where, and who questions for every story
• Printable pages

⭐ Targeted Skills

• Improve expressive language
• Enhance skills for answering questions
• Boost sentence and story generation skills
• Develop verb describing and labeling

Sequencing and Planning

This set of 50 sequencing and planning activity deck will help your students improve their planning skills! The deck includes a variety of sequencing and planning scenarios and trials for your students.

Each open-ended short story includes 3 color-coded wh- questions to guide sequencing.

⭐️   50 Sequencing short stories

• Unique sequencing stories
• 3 wh- questions per story
• Color-coded questions, to match teaching slide

⭐️   Teaching slide

• 6 unique teaching  slides with visuals
• Color-coded information to match questions in trials
• Drag & drop activity
• Synonyms for key words
• Example of a story sequence

CLICK HERE for Boom Cards Preview

Flexible Thinking & Reframing

This set of 40 flexible thinking and reframing thoughts cards   teaches your students how to improve flexible thinking   in difficult situations.

Each unique scenario includes   multiple questions as well as a labeling exercise   to encourage flexible thinking and increasing creative problem solving.

⭐️   Each Flexible Thinking trial includes:

• Why question
• How question

⭐️   Teaching slides include:

• Flexible v. rigid thinking comparison
• Flexible thinking examples
• Strategies for use of flexible thinking in difficult moments

INCLUDES: Both a PDF version and a Boom Cards version!

BUNDLE for Wh- Questions also available in Shine Speech Activities shop , which includes short stories and sentences!

CLICK HERE for Boom Cards Preview .

*This product contains the same activities as the PDF version. If you would like the PDF version, view   Wh- Questions & Short Stories, Auditory Comprehension .

Inferencing & Context Clues

70 inferencing and context clues trials to improve critical thinking skills! Each trial comes with 4 unique clues to help your students make an inference. They can then provide their answer, and drag the cover away to see the correct answer and a picture.

⭐️   As featured on Boom Cards Top Premium Decks   ⭐️

⭐ 70 Inferencing & Context Clues Slides:

• 4 clues for every word
• Space to type an answer
• Drag to uncover the correct answer
• Pictures of the correct answer

⭐ Skills targeted:

• Improve inferencing
• Enhance ability to understand clues
• Increase critical thinking and executive function abilities
• Boost deductive reasoning skills
• Improve ability to draw conclusions

Shop Best Sellers

Thoughtfully designed, for you.

Aliceann R.

Free Resources

From our speech room to yours.

Get the latest & greatest activities right in your inbox.

Made with love in Austin, Texas

© 2020 Shine Speech Activities

Product Added To Your Cart

There are 0 Items In Your Cart

Total Price: $0.00

Compare Product

How Speech Therapy can Help Remediate Reading

Amy Yacoub, MS, CCC-SLP

• August 26, 2022

Reading is one of the most important skills for children to learn. It’s correlated with academic success , self-esteem, concentration, vocabulary, memory, and critical thinking skills.

It’s never too early to start exposing children to literacy. According to the American Pediatrics Association, even reading to infants has been shown to improve their later academic success.

It’s also important to seek the right services for your child from a young age if you are concerned that he or she may be struggling with reading. Studies show that it is more difficult for children to catch up later if they start off with reading difficulties and don’t receive the proper interventions.

One service that can help is Speech Therapy.

Speech and language impairments in children are linked to reading difficulties. So many Speech Therapists (also known as Speech-Language Pathologists) are trained to be able to assess and provide treatment for children with literacy disorders.

Let’s talk more about some ways that Speech Therapy can help children with reading skills.

Improving Phonological Awareness Skills

A critical early skill children must develop for learning to read is phonological awareness.

If your child is already receiving Speech Therapy, it’s important to keep an eye on their phonological awareness skills. Children with speech sound disorders have been found to have more trouble with phonological awareness tasks.

If your child is Pre-Kindergarten age (around 4 to 5 years old), and is showing difficulty with phonological awareness tasks, a Speech Therapist may be able to help.

In Speech Therapy, your child’s therapist can work with him or her on tasks like syllable awareness. Your child might be asked to clap or tap out each syllable in multisyllabic words, like butterfly .

Another sound awareness activity might involve the Speech Therapist saying individual sounds and asking your child to blend those sounds into a word. For example, being able to blend the sounds c-a-t into the word cat .

Even though your child may not be starting to read yet, seeking extra help to work on these pre-literacy skills through Speech Therapy can help prevent your child from falling behind later as they start to learn to read.

Assessment of Reading Skills

A Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) who specializes in literacy can complete a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation if you have concerns with your child’s reading skills.

Based on your child’s age, the therapist’s observations, and specific areas of concern reported by you or your child’s teacher, the SLP may test your child’s skills in several areas of literacy . For example, sound-letter correspondence, decoding, reading fluency (speed, accuracy), word recognition, and reading comprehension.

A literacy evaluation completed by a Speech Therapist can be helpful in determining whether a child has signs of a reading disorder. The assessment can also help the therapist make appropriate recommendations for interventions that can help improve your child’s skills in specific areas of literacy. That might include weekly Speech Therapy.

Phonics-Based Reading Programs

A Speech Therapist can help remediate your child’s reading skills by using specific approaches to improve his or her skills.

Orton-Gillingham is an approach to teaching reading that some Speech Therapists are specifically trained in using. This approach is language-based, multi-sensory, and uses a structured method to teach children to read at the word level.

In the Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching reading, children learn letter-sound correlation through multi-sensory activities, like tracing a letter in sand.

Children also learn certain rules and patterns behind reading. Then, they build on these skills over time. The Orton-Gillingham approach is often used to remediate reading skills in children with Dyslexia.

Reading Comprehension

Of course, not only is it important for kids to learn to read, but it’s also critical for them to learn to understand and remember what they read.

As children grow, reading comprehension is essential for them to continue developing academic skills by reading everything from textbooks to word problems in math. Not to mention, children can get more enjoyment out of reading when they understand what they’ve read!

Your child’s Speech Therapist will likely teach him or her strategies to facilitate comprehension, like re-reading passages or taking notes. Your child may be asked to use these strategies while reading grade-level passages and then answering questions about the information they read.

How to Start Speech Therapy

TherapyWorks offers Speech Therapy with Speech-Language Pathologists experienced in literacy and trained in specific reading treatment approaches, such as Orton-Gilingham.

We offer Speech Therapy, Occupational and Physical Therapy both in person and through teletherapy (nationwide). If you would like to learn more, or discuss your child’s specific needs, please don’t hesitate to reach out to TherapyWorks!

Related posts

Your Child Received an Autism Diagnosis. What’s Next?

Insurance Coverage for ABA Services

The Importance of Assent in ABA Therapy

Therapyworks.

p: (312) 780-0820 f: (877) 716-4799 [email protected]

• Our therapists
• Join our team
• Get Started

Enter your email below to receive our monthly newsletter.

Sorry. This form is no longer accepting new submissions.

Reading Comprehension: Targeting Both Cognitive and Language Skills

These text-level reading exercises help more than just reading goals. Learn about these tasks and how they target areas like attention, memory, and inferencing.

How many words did you read this week?  Chances are, that number is in the thousands.  Reading is a fundamental part of our lives, and it’s easy to take for granted how many activities require it. Thinking about your own week, it’s likely that you’ve read many of these materials without much of an afterthought:

• Traffic signs
• Hallway and building signs
• Menu at a restaurant
• Text messages or emails
• Newspaper or online news articles
• Work-related content (articles, projections, reports, etc.)

Because of its prevalence in almost everything that we do, when this skill is affected, it can significantly and negatively impact one’s daily life.

Reading comprehension difficulties can affect people of all ages.  Children can struggle with acquiring this skill, and many who had reading problems in school continue to have trouble with reading in adulthood. Additionally, acquired injuries such as stroke, aphasia, or other types of brain injury can impact reading comprehension for adults and school-aged children.

Reading is Not Just a Language Skill

Language impairments are not the only root cause of reading problems. There are many cognitive processes that are at work when reading.  For example, attention and working memory are significantly involved in reading comprehension. In fact, research found that in people with traumatic brain injury, discourse comprehension was highly predicted by working memory capacity (Meteyard et al., 2014).  Another cognitive process that is essential for reading comprehension is inferencing. To draw an inference, individuals must use prior knowledge to connect gaps in the text. Problems with inferencing can significantly impact comprehension and memory of the text.

How to improve reading comprehension? In speech-language therapy, there are many evidence-based reading comprehension strategies such as SQ3R, ARCS, PICS, and ORLA that have been shown to help address reading comprehension impairments at the paragraph and multi-paragraph level.

Using Constant Therapy to Target Reading in the Clinic

One challenge when incorporating these strategies into therapy is finding materials that are at the appropriate reading level, topic, and length.  Particularly for adult and older school-aged clients, there are limited reading comprehension worksheets available for clinicians to use, and they quickly become outdated.  Often the burden falls on the clinician to find appropriate reading comprehension passages to use with a client.

We interviewed one clinician who reported that it takes her about a half hour to find an appropriate article for a client, read it, and create comprehension questions.  Because this is a time-consuming task, it is challenging for her to find a large number of passages. As a result, the client’s homework is often limited to one or two passages per week.  

When in search for speech therapy materials , Constant Therapy is a huge time saver for clinicians. At your fingertips are hundreds of passages.  They are organized by length and difficulty level, and there are already comprehension questions created.  

Instead of recreating the wheel, use the passages in your therapy sessions to train comprehension strategies with your client.

Using Constant Therapy to Target Reading Goals At Home

Chapey (2008) talks about the advantages of using technology at home to address reading comprehension. Because reading is generally a solitary task, using a device to carryover reading goals outside of SLP sessions can be quite functional.  One study that looked at using technology for a home reading program is Katz & Wertz (1997). They found that this digital reading treatment is efficacious and can be administered with minimal assistance from a clinician.

Using technology like Constant Therapy to help supplement your therapy can be an incredibly powerful tool for you and your patients. Additionally, your clients can use the program for however long they want, so they can do as many reading comprehension exercises as they wish, and it takes the burden off of the clinician from having to locate or create the content. It’s all right there on the Constant Therapy app!

Paragraph and Multi-Paragraph Reading Passages for You and Your Patients

Let’s take a look at 3 Constant Therapy tasks that are available to you and your patients: Read a paragraph, Read multiple paragraphs, and Infer from multiple paragraphs.

Featured Task: Read a paragraph

What is Read a paragraph?

This task contains single paragraph (~4 sentence length) passages.  You will answer a series of questions based on the information read.  The text is available to refer to while answering the questions.

The questions ask about information explicitly stated in the passage. The questions are multiple choice with 2 distractors.

Need to enlarge the text? No problem! You can either increase the font size or enlarge the text to a full screen.

How is “Read a paragraph” leveled?

This task is leveled based on the difficulty of the reading passage. Lexile scores, which measure semantic and syntactic complexity, are utilized to divide the reading passages into three different levels. They are:

• Level 1: Lexile Level <1100
• Level 2: Lexile Level 1100-1299
• Level 3: Lexile Level >1300

How is “Read a paragraph” scored?

Scoring is binary (response is either correct or incorrect). The client has the opportunity to review response before moving on to the next item. Overall score is based on the % correct items given.

Featured Task: Read multiple paragraphs

What is Read multiple paragraphs?

This task contains multi-paragraph passages.  You will answer a series of questions based on the information read.  The text is available to refer to while answering the questions.

If you need the text to be enlarged, you can either increase the font size or enlarge the text to a full screen.

How is “Read multiple paragraphs” leveled?

This task is also leveled based on the difficulty of the reading passage. There are 3 levels based on Lexile scores, which again measure semantic and syntactic complexity. They are as follows:

• Level 2: Lexile Level 1100-1199
• Level 3: Lexile Level >1200

How is “Read multiple paragraphs” scored?

Featured Task: Infer from multiple paragraphs

What is Infer from multiple paragraphs?

Looking for an advanced reading therapy app ? This task contains multi-paragraph passages, and you will answer a series of more challenging, inference-based questions based on the information read.  The text is available to refer to while answering the questions.

To answer these questions accurately, you must “read between the lines” and draw conclusions based on what is read.

The questions ask about information that is not explicitly stated in the passage. You must use inferencing skills to select the correct answer. The questions are multiple choice with 2 distractors.

If you need to view larger sized text, you can either increase the font size or enlarge the passage to a full screen.

How is “Infer from multiple paragraphs” leveled?

There are 3 levels based on Lexile scores that reflect the difficulty of the reading passage. They are:

How is “Infer from multiple paragraphs” s cored?

Applying Reading Tasks to Therapy Goals

How can Read a paragraph, Read multiple paragraphs, and Infer from multiple paragraphs be used in therapy?

These tasks do not only target reading comprehension skills.  Here’s some examples on how to use these tasks to target other cognitive and language domains:

• Verbal Expression : Generate a verbal summary to demonstrate understanding or even take a stance with supporting arguments based on the content
• Written Expression : Take written notes while reading, write a summary or persuasive essay based on the content to demonstrate comprehension
• Attention : Reading the passage requires the client to hold attention for a period of time (sustained attention).  You can increase the demands on attention by creating background noise (selective attention), interrupting the client in the middle of the reading task (alternating attention), or presenting another activity simultaneously (divided attention)  
• Memory : Both reading and drawing inferences absolutely exercise working memory skills. You can also target retrieval of new information by prompting the patient to answer comprehension questions without referencing the text.  
• Problem Solving : Your search for inference-based therapy tasks is over! With Infer from multiple paragraphs, you can target inferencing skills with these multiple-choice questions.  
• Processing Speed : Constant Therapy automatically tracks latency times, so you and your client can monitor reading fluency and processing speed.
• Unilateral Left Neglect or Left Inattention : The client must use scanning and left anchor strategies to read the entire text.

Looking for More Tasks to Help with Reading Comprehension?

The research indicates that cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and reasoning skills contribute to discourse comprehension.  Looking for more speech therapy exercises to target these cognitive skills? Visit our Tasks webpage to learn about cognitive tasks like Repeat a pattern , Infer from voicemail , Remember pictures in order (N-back) , Find alternating words , and more!

For more information about the tasks in this blog or to watch our tutorial videos, please visit our Read a paragraph , Read multiple paragraphs , or Infer from multiple paragraphs  pages.

References:

• Baretta, L., Tomitch, L., MacNair, N., Lim, V., & Waldie, K. (2009). Inference making while reading narrative and expository texts: An ERP study. Psychology & Neuroscience, 137-45.
• Chapey, R. (2008). Language intervention strategies in aphasia and related neurogenic disorders. Brooklyn: Wolters Kluwer.
• Elbro, C., & Buch-Iverson, I. (2013). Activation of background knowledge for inference making: Effects on reading comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 435-52.
• Katz, R., & Wertz, R. (1997). The efficacy of computer-provided reading treatment for chronic aphasic adults. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research , 493-507.
• Kiran, S., Sandberg, C., & Abbott, K. (2009). Treatment for lexical retrieval using abstract and concrete words in persons with aphasia: Effect of complexity. Aphasiology , 23(7), 835-53.
• Meteyard, L., Bruce, C., Edmundson, A., & Oakhill, J. (2014). Profiling text comprehension impairments in aphasia. Aphasiology, 1-28.
• Sandberg, C. and S. Kiran, How justice can affect jury: Training abstract words promotes generalisation to concrete words in patients with aphasia. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation , 2014: p. 1-32.
• Webster, J., Morris, J., Connor, C., Horner, R., McCormac, C., & Potts, A. (2013). Text level reading comprehension in aphasia: What do we know about therapy and what do we need to know? Aphasiology, 1362-80.

Tackle your speech therapy goals, get top-notch support

Related articles, submit a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Constant Therapy Health

• Partner with us
• Constant Therapy
• Try for free
• Request a Demo
• Conditions we support
• For clinicians
• For patients
• For veterans

Support + Resources

• Downloadable Resources
• Testimonials

Join the Conversation

Speech Therapy Reading Activities - Advice for Parents

April 13, 2015 4 min read

As a Speech Therapist you know how important reading is to develop literacy and communication skills. This guide for speech therapy reading activities will help you come up with games and challenges your children can do at home, to get them reading more – which in turn, will help develop their language skills.

Speech Therapy Reading Activities Guide

• Be flexible about the type of book – Not all children love story books. Maybe they love joke books or fun facts? Or perhaps they’d prefer a factual book about something they’re passionate about, like space, animals or insects. It really does not matter what they read as long as they read as much as possible.

• Story characters – Have the child dress up as their favourite character from a book,, and read the book to you. You do not need to spend money on fancy costumes. Get creative with old clothes and make masks from paper plates. After using the story to get themselves into the role, the child can spend the rest of the day as that character.
• Read TO your child – Reading to your child is one of the best language development activities you can engage in. Don’t be afraid of multi-syllable “big” words, even for toddlers. Children love long and intricate words. Hippopotamus, dinosaur, octagon and so many others are enriching for language development as well as creating a magical world of books for your youngster. You’ll be amazed at how much your child will absorb simply by having you read to them.

Tips For Speech Therapy Reading Activities with Younger Children

There is never a time when your child is too young for books. Help parents settle into a regular reading routine with these top tips:

• Simple words books with bright pictures are great for young ones. As they grow into toddlers, move up to simple story books.
• Don’t be discouraged if your child wants to look at a different book than the one you are reading. This is normal as you child is actually mimicking your actions. Let your child hold onto their own book while you read the other. Take time to look at the pictures, point out colours and ask questions.
• If your preschooler wants to read the same book over and over and over, just go with it. Pretty soon, they’ll be reciting it back to you.
• Silly books packed full of rhymes are fantastic for preschoolers. Dr, Seuss and similar silly stories encourage your child’s imagination, as well as help developing a sense of speech rhythm and melody.

Speech Therapy Reading Activities – Fluency For Early Readers

Reading fluency games are for children who are able to break down words and make sense of them when reading but are slow to do so.

Some children are slow to break down words when they are reading and read with lots of hesitations and pauses. They may try to read a word several times, then give up and move onto the next word. Listening to these kids read can be hard for parents as they see the effort their child has to give.

If a parent comes to you asking for help with reading fluency, give them these tips:

• Confidence is key when it comes to fluent reading. When a child can make a good guess at a tricky word and then move on, reading becomes more fluent and less of a labored effort. If they are fearful of criticism for getting a word wrong, they may become a hesitant reader.

Speech Therapy Reading Activities – Comprehension Games

Children who will benefit from reading comprehension games are those who need help in understanding what they just read. I give more information and suggestions for reading comprehension games here.

Comprehension Question Guide: Idea for Speech Therapy!

Do you often search to find strategies to use with your older students?  Are you struggling to incorporate curriculum-related activities in a therapy-type way!? One strategy I use in my therapy room is a “Comprehension Question Guide.”

Once I find my students are starting to comprehend the different question types, I try to help them recognize them in an assortment of questions provided.  There are many ways to get access to perfect reading comprehension activities that target the various question types.  My two favorite resources are Readworks.org and the book, Building Comprehension: Reading Passages with High-Interest Practice Activities.  Here is a similar version of the book:

Related Posts

• Privacy Policy
• Book A Live Event
• SLP Elevate
• Speech Retreat
• Ella Bella Book

Inference Activities for Speech Therapy (Freebie Included)

FREE making inferences worksheet included in this post! Read for more information about strategies for teaching and targeting inferences in speech therapy sessions or the classroom.

Learning to make inferences is one of the most important tasks I target in my speech therapy sessions. It plays an essential role in communication, comprehension, and daily functioning. Developing skills to make inferences has widespread applicability across contexts and settings, making it one of my favorite skills to work for a variety of individuals and ages! 

Every individual has a different way of learning and interpreting information around them; therefore, inferencing instruction can be adaptable for various skill levels. For example, one individual may work on an activity where they make an inference by examining a picture scene or a situation within their immediate environment. A different inferencing task may require the individual to read a complex passage and answer corresponding questions by inferring from the text.

This blog post delves into evidence-based strategies for teaching and enhancing inferencing skills and highlights the significance of inferencing in various contexts.

Why is Learning to Make Inferences Important?

One of the most significant takeaways from making inferences is how it can impact individuals’ safety and environmental awareness . 

For example, walking on a wet floor might make you infer it’s slippery, prompting caution and refraining from running or moving quickly over the slick surface. Hearing a siren while walking/driving triggers an inference that an emergency vehicle is nearby, signaling the need to make way for the emergency vehicle. 

Appropriately making an inference can essentially ‘make or break’ responding in moments when safety is in question. Speaking as a therapist, if there is anything that I can do to enhance safety awareness with my clients, especially for an individual who requires more explicit teaching in this area - that is an intervention task I will gladly partake in! Additionally, making inferences is a solid technique for enhancing the following functional areas:

• Reading Comprehension : Grasping the hidden meanings or messages within a story, not just the obvious statements.
• Social-Emotional Understanding : Appropriately interpreting gestures/facial expressions, detecting sarcasm, or grasping the emotional undertone of a statement are all rooted in inferencing.
• Problem-solving : Decoding the unseen aspects of a situation can lead to improvement in navigating difficult situations and finding functional solutions.
• Language Development : Especially for our younger clients, inferencing propels vocabulary growth and comprehension of intricate narratives.

It is also important to note that you can most certainly target inferencing skills with individuals who are non-readers! Often, I see ‘teaching inferences’ limited to reading passages, which simply isn’t the case. Inferencing can be taught in many different ways. We will discuss below:

How to Teach Making Inferences in Speech Therapy

Initially, when I began to work on inference skills in therapy, I would introduce this concept by saying: we make inferences by taking the information we already know PLUS the clues that we can see. While this is a great beginning technique if you are introducing making inferences within picture scenes/text; I realized that I was leaving out SO many other natural ways that we make inferences across environments. Consider the examples above: feeling a wet, slippery floor and deciding to walk with caution or hearing a siren and clearing the path for emergency personnel. By limiting ‘clues’ to only what we can see , we are limiting our clients from the full scope of ways to make an inference.

Teaching How to Make Inferences: Incorporating Senses

Ah, I LOVE using senses as a way to introduce making inferences! Blending evidence-based strategies with sensory experiences can offer a holistic approach to enhancing inferencing skills and keep individuals engaged during therapy tasks. Check out some examples below:

1. Sight (Visual):

Information we know + the clues we can see

Material : Picture Scene

Example : Show an image of a tree with fallen orange and red leaves around it. Ask, "What season might it be?" The visual cue of fallen leaves can help individuals infer that it's autumn.

2. Hearing (Auditory):

Information we know + the clues we can hear

Material : Audio recording

Example : Play the sound of distant thunder. Ask, "What might you need to do if you're outside?" The sound of thunder can lead individuals to infer they should go to a safe, indoor location.

3. Touch (Tactile):

Information we know + the clues we can feel

Material : Physical object for examination

Example : Let individuals feel a cool, metal object without seeing it. Ask, "What could this object be?" The cold and solid texture might lead them to infer it's a metal spoon or fork.

4. Smell (Olfactory):

Information we know + clues we can smell

Material : Object with a distinct scent 

Example : Introduce the smell of a fresh flower/floral object. Ask, "Where might this smell commonly be found?" The scent can help individuals infer they might be in a garden or bouquet.

5. Taste (Gustatory):

Information we know + clues we can taste

Material : Various food items*

Example : Offer a taste of something salty without revealing the food. Ask, "What could this be based on its taste?" The specific salty flavor and texture might help individuals infer whether it's a chip or a pretzel.

*Note: ensure that you have received permission from parents/caregivers and are aware of any potential food sensitivities or allergies before beginning this activity.

By tapping into the five senses, we can provide rich, immersive experiences that naturally guide individuals toward making informed inferences. These sensory clues serve as a foundation upon which our inferential skills can be built and refined.

Teaching How to Make Inferences: General Tips

• Explicit Teaching : Start with the basics. Teach: What is inferencing? Use everyday examples to make it tangible.
• Think-Alouds : Model the process when applicable. "The sky is dark and cloudy. I think (or infer) it might rain."
• Question Prompts : Shift from "What happened?" to "Why do you think it happened?" or “What clues helped you problem solve?”
• Visual Supports : If your client is examining something like a picture scene, use a two-column chart - one column titled information I already know and the other column titled, clues that I can see (i.e., specifically write/state what ‘clues’ in the picture that support that inference).

Below, check out our making inferences FREEBIE complete with the chart mentioned above and a sample worksheet from our larger inferencing packets. 

Click here to download this freebie via our TPT store.

If you liked this inferencing freebie, you may want to check out our much larger Inferencing Packets With REAL Pictures - for 3 Different Skill Levels!

• Receptive (fill-in sentences with multiple choice options)
• Receptive (questions with multiple choice options)
• Expressive (open-ended)

This resource (and hundreds of pages of others) is included for one affordable price with our NEW Premium Community Membership ! That’s right - UNLIMITED downloads of all of our paid products (think: all of our goal banks 🤩…)!

Click here to join our membership!

You might also like.

WH Questions for Speech Therapy: How to Target

AAC Core Word of the Week Resource: Lesson Slides AND Companion Packet

How to Write Stuttering Goals [with goal bank]

10 Easy Spring-Themed Activities for Speech Therapy

Spring Short Stories with WH Comprehension Questions

Subscribe to new posts., subscribe to be notified of new content and support communication community, help keep this site independent..

Video Games Reading Comprehension Passage & Questions Speech Therapy Activities

• Google Apps™
• Internet Activities

What educators are saying

Also included in.

Description

This resource is FULL OF LANGUAGE activities for your OLDER students! After reading the included high-interest passage about VIDEO GAMES, you and your students can work through any number of coordinating language activities to target a variety of speech therapy goals.

The 6-paragraph passage gives tons of interesting facts about the history of video game development. Then, you'll USE the passage as context for targeting language, with 4-6 prompts for each of these goals:

✅ Identifying the main idea of and summarizing paragraphs

✅ Answering comprehension questions

✅ Making inferences from the text

✅ Identifying synonyms and antonyms

✅ Determining the meaning of unknown words

✅ Using conjunctions to complete sentences

This language unit comes with 3 FORMATS , so you can use what works best for your setting and students. You'll get...

• A PRINTABLE PDF with the passage and each activity that you can use for face-to-face therapy or send for homework
• A BOOM CARDS DECK to add to your library using a clickable link in the PDF above
• A GOOGLE SLIDES presentation that you can add to your own Google Drive using the clickable link in the PDF

These activities are perfect for MIXED GROUPS since you'll be using the same context (passage) to address a variety of language skills. The activities are tailored to older students, with the use of...

✅ Real PHOTOS

✅ Interesting information about a FAMILIAR, PREFERRED TOPIC

✅ A variety of PRINT and DIGITAL INTERACTION types, such as clickable buttons and fillable text boxes.

Using the Boom Card deck, you can differentiate the activities by allowing students to verbally RECORD their answers and/or using the optional COVERS to hide answer choices. Play a FREE PREVIEW of the Boom Card deck here.

This one activity has tons of language opportunities BUILT-IN , giving you a COHESIVE activity for most or all of your older speech therapy students to benefit from. An ANSWER KEY is included!

⭐BUNDLE & SAVE on MORE LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES for older students!

New to Boom Cards?

Check out this ✍️ BLOG POST and this ▶️ FREE VIDEO to learn more about them.

To use Boom Cards, you must be connected to the Internet. Boom Cards play on modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge). Apps are available for modern Android, iPads, iPhones, and Kindle Fires. For security and privacy, adults must have a Boom Learning account to use and assign Boom Cards. You will be able to assign the Boom Cards you are buying with "Fast Pins," (a form of play that gives instant feedback to students for self-grading Boom Cards). For assignment options that report student progress back to you, you will need to purchase a premium account. If you are new to Boom Learning, you will be offered a free trial of our premium account. Read here for details: http://bit.ly/BoomTrial

Questions & Answers

Stacy crouse.

• We're hiring
• Help & FAQ
• Privacy policy
• Student privacy
• Terms of service
• Tell us what you think

• $ 0.00 0 items

Selecting Functional Reading Materials for Adult Speech Therapy

This post discusses how to select relevant functional reading materials for your clients in 3 easy steps.

What type of goals can functional reading address?

• Everyday reading skills
• Reading comprehension
• Language skills
• Delayed and immediate recall
• Sustained and divided attention
• Problem solving
• Reasoning skills
• + many more!

How can I use functional reading materials in speech therapy?

Follow these 3 steps:.

• Use client intake form to identify prior level of function and cognitive-linguistic demands.
• Select reading materials based on client’s prior level of function and cognitive-linguistic demands.
• Write individualized achievable goals based on client’s strengths and weaknesses.

Step 1. Use client intake form to identify prior level of function and cognitive-linguistic demands .

Step 2. Select reading materials based on client’s prior level of function and cognitive-linguistic demands .

Step 3. Write individualized and achievable goals based on client’s strengths and weaknesses.

Above all, using individualized therapy materials and selecting achievable goals can help improve generalization and therapy outcomes.

For printable practice activities and worksheets purchase the functional reading bundle on sale now!

Https://medicalslps.com/speech-therapy-materials/worksheets/functional-reading-bundle/.

Functional Reading Bundle

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Privacy Overview

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

10 Simple Narrative Goals for Speech Therapy (IEP Bank)

As Speech-Language Pathologists we know that narrative goals are a crucial aspect of speech therapy, as they help individuals develop their language skills and improve their ability to communicate effectively. 

Narrative goals can include a range of skills, such as:

• Understanding story structure
• Identifying main ideas
• Identifying key details
• Retelling stories in a logical and sequential way

Narrative development skills are essential for academic and social success, as they form the foundation for other language skills such as semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. Children who struggle with narrative skills may have difficulty understanding and expressing themselves, which can impact their ability to communicate effectively with peers and adults. By focusing on narrative goals in speech therapy, we can help individuals develop their language skills and improve their ability to communicate in a variety of settings.

In this article, we will discuss the importance of narrative skills in speech therapy, strategies for developing narrative skills, and how to implement narrative goals in individualized education plans (IEPs).

Key Takeaways

• Narrative skills are essential for academic and social success, and form the foundation for other language skills.
• A Speech Language Pathologist can use a range of strategies, such as visual and verbal cues, story elements, and language tasks, to develop narrative skills. 
• By incorporating narrative goals into individualized education plans (IEPs) and speech therapy activities, we can help individuals achieve their language goals and improve their ability to communicate effectively.

Understanding Narrative Goals in Speech Therapy

As speech therapists, we understand that narrative skills are essential for effective communication. Narrative skills include a client’s ability to understand and tell stories, which involves several language components such as vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics. 

These goals may include improving a client’s ability to:

• Understand story grammar (character, setting, problem, resolution)
• Sequence events in a short story
• Retell a story in their own words
• Use appropriate vocabulary and syntax when telling a story

To effectively address narrative goals, speech therapists should first assess a client’s current level of narrative skills. This assessment may involve analyzing a client’s ability to retell a story, identify story elements, and use appropriate vocabulary and syntax.

Once a client’s narrative skills have been assessed, speech therapists can develop specific narrative goals that are measurable and achievable. These sample goals should be tailored to a client’s individual needs and abilities.

The Importance of Narrative Skills

Developing narrative skills can improve language skills, including grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension. Additionally, narrative language can help promote better comprehension and the use of complex language.

The ability to tell a story is a key aspect of communication, and narrative skills can support social skills development. For example, telling stories can help children learn how to take turns in conversation, understand the perspectives of others, and engage in appropriate social interactions.

It is important to note that narrative skills develop over time and with practice. As speech therapists, we can support our clients in developing narrative skills by providing opportunities to work on storytelling skills, modeling appropriate story grammar elements, and providing feedback and support.

Narrative Goals for Speech Therapy

Given visual cues (e.g., sequencing cards) and a story, STUDENT will sequence the story including problem and solution with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story or activity, STUDENT will use sequence words to verbally order a story or activity (e.g., first, next, then, after, last) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Story Grammer

Given a story or activity, STUDENT will sequence the story or activity that includes story elements (e.g., character, setting, problem, goal, action, solution, ending) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story or activity, STUDENT will retell the story using 2-3 conjunctions (e.g., coordinating, subordinating, causal, and/or temporal) with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story to retell, STUDENT will use descriptive language to retell the story with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story to retell, STUDENT will use 2-3 targeted tier 2 vocabulary to retell the story with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Comprehension

Given a story or activity, STUDENT will identify the main idea and supporting details with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story or activity, STUDENT will answer yes or no questions with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Given a story or activity, STUDENT will answer wh-questions with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Personal Narrative

Given an opportunity to tell a story from their past, STUDENT will tell their story including 2-4 story elements and in a logical order with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

SEE ALSO: IEP Goal Bank Posts

Strategies for Developing Narrative Skills

Developing narrative skills is an essential part of speech-language therapy. It helps to improve a child’s ability to understand and communicate stories in a logical and sequential way. 

We use a variety of speech therapy activities and techniques to help our clients improve their narrative skills. These activities are designed to be engaging and fun, while also providing structured language activities that help build important language skills.

Here are 13 different strategies that we can use to develop narrative skills in children:

1. Verbal Prompts and Verbal Cues

Verbal prompts can be used to help children understand the structure of a story. 

We can use prompts such as “Who was in the story?” or “What happened first?” to guide the child’s understanding of the story. 

Verbal prompts or a verbal cue can also be used to encourage children to use appropriate vocabulary and sentence structures when retelling a story.

2. Visual Prompts and Visual Cues

Visual prompts such as a picture cue card or videos can be used to help children understand the sequence of events in a story. 

We can use visual prompts to help children identify the characters, setting, and problem in a story. 

Visual prompts can also be used to help children understand the emotions and motivations of the characters in the story.

3. Visual Support

Visual support such as storyboards or picture books can be used to help children understand the structure of a story. 

We can use visual support to help children identify the characters, setting, problem, and solution in a story. 

Visual support can also be used to help children understand the emotions and motivations of the characters in the story.

4. Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers such as story maps or flowcharts can be used to help children organize the information in a story. 

We can use graphic organizers to help children identify the main events in a story and how they are related. 

Graphic organizers can also be used to help children understand the cause-and-effect relationships in a story.

5. Identifying Story Elements

Story elements help us understand the main idea, main character, setting, problem, and solution of a story. By understanding these elements, we can better comprehend the main events and action sequences of a story.

A few ways to incorporate story elements is to use graphic organizers, picture books, or story maps.

• Graphic organizers – can help students organize their thoughts and understand the different story elements. For example, a graphic organizer can have sections for the main character, setting, problem, and solution. 
• Picture books – are a great way to introduce story elements to students. As we read the book, we can point out the different story elements and ask questions to help students understand them. For example, we can ask, “Who is the main character?” or “What is the problem in the story?”
• Story maps – help students understand the sequence of events in a story and the cause and effect relationships between them. Story mapping involves breaking down a story into its key components, such as characters, setting, problem, and solution. This helps our clients understand the structure of a story and identify the main ideas and supporting details.

6. Story Comprehension

This involves asking the client to answer questions about a story they have heard or read, to ensure they have understood the key story elements and can recall important details.

7. Structured Activities

A structured activity such as games or worksheets can be used to help children practice their narrative skills. 

We can use structured activities to help children identify story elements, retell stories, and create their own stories. 

Structured activities can also be used to help children practice their vocabulary and sentence structure.

8. Play Session

Play sessions can be used to help children practice their narrative skills in a fun and interactive way. 

We can use play sessions to help children act out stories, create their own stories, and practice their social skills. 

Play sessions can also be used to help children practice their vocabulary and sentence structure.

9. Story Retell

Story retell is a technique that we can use to help children practice their narrative skills. 

This involves asking the client to retell a story they have heard or read, focusing on the key story elements and relevant information. We may use visual aids or graphic organizers to help them organize their thoughts and remember the important details.

Story retell can also be used to help children practice their vocabulary and sentence structure.

10. Role Playing

Another technique that we can use is role-playing. Role-playing allows our clients to practice their narrative skills in a safe and supportive environment. 

For example, we might ask our clients to act out a scene from a story, using their own words to describe what is happening.

11. Fun Activities

We also use a variety of games and activities to keep therapy sessions engaging and fun. 

For example, we might play a game of “Story Starters,” where we take turns adding to a story one sentence at a time. 

This helps our clients practice their narrative skills in a playful and interactive way.

12. Story Generation Activities

This involves asking the client to create their own story, either in oral language or in written form (to also work on writing skills). 

We may provide prompts or visual cues to help them get started and stay on track.

13. Personal Narratives

In speech therapy, personal narratives play a crucial role in helping students improve their language and communication skills. Personal narratives are stories that are based on a student’s personal experience, and they provide a great opportunity to work on story retell and story grammar marker skills.

One of the main benefits of using personal narratives in speech therapy is that they are highly engaging and relevant to the student. By using personal experiences, we can help students connect with the story and become more invested in the therapy process. This can lead to increased motivation and better outcomes.

In addition, we can also use personal narratives to help students develop their storytelling and conversation skills, which can be essential for success in both academic and social settings.

SEE ALSO: 179+ Wh Questions Free Printable

Measuring Progress Towards Narrative Goals

Data collections.

In order to know if your student is making progress it is essential that you as the therapist are measuring your student’s progress through data collection . 

It is by consistently tracking your child or student’s progress that you can make informed decisions about therapy and more effectively communicate with other professionals or parents. 

To ensure that you have the right measurable goals , focus on creating goals that are objectively measurable and specific to the individual’s needs. (see goals above)

Need Other Speech Therapy IEP Goals?

Expressive and receptive language goals.

Expressive and receptive language goals focus on improving an individual’s ability to understand and use language effectively in oral communication.

Receptive Language Goals

Receptive language goals aim to improve an individual’s ability to understand spoken language. This includes the ability to comprehend vocabulary, follow directions, and understand basic concepts. Some examples of receptive language goals include:

• Identifying objects or pictures based on verbal descriptions
• Following simple and complex directions
• Answering “wh” questions (who, what, where, when, why)
• Identifying synonyms and antonyms
• Understanding figurative language, such as idioms and metaphors

Expressive Language Goals

Expressive language goals focus on improving an individual’s ability to use language effectively in oral communication. This includes the ability to use appropriate grammar and syntax, express thoughts and ideas clearly, and use appropriate vocabulary. Some examples of expressive language goals include:

• Using complete sentences with appropriate grammar and syntax
• Describing objects or pictures using appropriate vocabulary
• Telling stories with a clear beginning, middle, and end
• Using figurative language appropriately, such as idioms and metaphors

Articulation Goals

Articulation goals are to improve communication skills for individuals who face challenges in pronouncing words or sounds. These goals are what help guide your students’ speech therapy sessions to ensure the student or client actually makes progress toward their articulation skills.

When creating an articulation goal, speech therapists should consider various aspects, such as the phonemes involved, the position of the sounds within words (initial, medial, or final), and the student’s age-appropriateness to be working on those particular goals.

SEE ALSO: 21 Best Reinforcement Games for Speech Therapy

Narrative Therapy Ideas

I’ve gone ahead and gathered a few activities that you can use in your therapy room for working on your child or student’s narrative speech therapy goals.

Older Children

Here are a few narrative intervention lessons for older students in the school setting.

• Intro to Storytelling Personal Narrative Humans of NY FULL LESSON High School by Equitable ELA is a great introduction to narrative storytelling and photojournalism. High School students love this engaging lesson plan.
• Narrative Writing Lesson Plan | Youth Climate Stories | Free by SubjecttoClimate is a detailed lesson plan that prompts students to write narratives about climate change. This is great for middle school students!
• Narrative Writing (Inspired by a Picture) Lesson PowerPoint by Miss Hill Creates is a freebie that prompts students to write a narrative based on a picture. This freebie was created for 4th-8th graders.

Young Children

If you’re working with younger students and need a small group lesson plan here are a few resources you might find helpful.

• Narrative Writing Lesson and Anchor Chart by Rebecca McNamara is a set of great visuals about narrative writing and the components involved with it.
• K-5 Writing How to Catch an Elf Lesson Plan+ Video Resource+ Student Rubric by Ms. Ocasio is a 5 day lesson plan that is great for winter time. Students practice opinions, narratives and explanatory writing in this freebie.
• Free Writing Activity- Kindergarten Narrative Writing Lesson by Jessica Tobin – Elementary Nest is a great set of mini lessons to begin introducing narrative writing to younger students.

Simple Story

Here are a couple of simple stories that you could use to work on your student’s narrative skills.

• Free Story Element Story Telling Cards and Frames for Narrative Production by Susan Berkowitz is an engaging way to expand student’s narratives into simple stories.
• The Ant and the Grasshopper Text + Narrative Analysis Questions and Frames by Professor Todd is a simple story and accompanying worksheet that walks students through analyzing the story.
• Kayaking Chaos – Visual Prompt Short Story Worksheet with Modelled Sample by Luke Daly prompts students to write short stories with visual prompts. This is a great print and go activity.

Printable PDF

• A Simple Hero’s Journey Organizer. Summarize. Story. Review. Plot. ELA. ESL by ELT Buzz Teaching Resources is a great organizing tool for this simple text that outlines a heroes journey to help students deconstruct narratives.
• Reading Comprehension Story – simple sequencing, inferencing, attributes by SLP Materials is a great simple story to get students thinking about attributes of a simple story.
• Free Simple Social Stories, How to be a good friend, Playing with my Sister by Elementary and Special Education Destination is an engaging set of simple stories for with symbol writing!

Classroom Teachers

If you need grade level short stories to practice narrative skills asking your child or students classroom teachers might be very helpful.

In conclusion, narrative language acquisition is a critical aspect of speech therapy for individuals of all ages. It is a fantastic way to promote better comprehension, use of complex language, and social skills. We have discussed some great ideas for narrative goals, including story retell, story generation, and character analysis. These goals can be tailored to meet the individual needs of each client and can be adjusted as progress is made.

One of the best ways to work on narrative goals is through the use of visual prompts, such as picture card cues and graphic organizers. These tools can help guide the client through the story elements and promote a deeper understanding of the narrative. Additionally, incorporating technology, such as digital storybooks or interactive apps, can make therapy sessions more engaging and exciting for clients.

It is important to remember that narrative goals should be measurable and specific, with clear benchmarks for progress. Regular assessments and data tracking can help ensure that therapy is effective and that the client is making progress toward their goals. By incorporating narrative speech therapy goals into our speech therapy sessions, we can help our clients develop critical language skills that will benefit them in all aspects of their lives.

Grab Your Free Story Retelling Maps and a Fun Roll & Retell Dice Game Here!

Simply enter your name and email to have this Narrative Goals Freebie emailed directly to your inbox!

Grab our Narrative Goal Freebies!

Frequently asked questions, what are some effective activities for improving narrative skills in speech therapy.

There are many effective activities for improving narrative skills in speech therapy. Some examples include story retells, story generation, graphic organizers, and visual aids. When working on narrative skills, it is important to target all aspects of the narrative structure, including characters, setting, problem, and resolution.

What are some common goals for expressive vocabulary in speech therapy?

Common goals for expressive vocabulary in speech therapy include increasing the number of words a client can use, improving their ability to use descriptive language, and increasing their ability to use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. It is important to target vocabulary that is relevant to the client’s daily life and interests.

What are some ways to work on describing skills in speech therapy?

There are many ways to work on describing skills in speech therapy. Some examples include using graphic organizers, describing pictures, and using sensory details. It is important to target a variety of descriptors, including size, shape, color, texture, and function.

What are some appropriate vocabulary goals for preschool-aged children in speech therapy?

Appropriate vocabulary goals for preschool-aged children in speech therapy include increasing the number of words they can use, improving their ability to use descriptive language, and increasing their ability to understand and use basic concepts. It is important to target vocabulary that is relevant to the child’s daily life and interests.

How can speech therapists teach and improve narrative skills in their clients?

Speech therapists can teach and improve narrative skills in their clients by using a variety of evidence-based interventions, including graphic organizers, visual aids, and story retells. It is important to target all aspects of the narrative structure, including characters, setting, problem, and resolution. It is also important to target vocabulary and descriptive language that is relevant to the client’s daily life and interests.

Want More Language Lesson Plans for Speech Therapy?

• 917+ Best Free Boom Cards for Speech Therapy
• 31 Best Wordless Videos to Teach Problem Solving
• 3 Most Common Irregular Plurals Flashcards
• 253+ Yes or No Questions for Speech Therapy
• 179+ Wh Questions Free Printable

Want the Best of the Bests?

Be sure to check out our most popular posts below!

• 21 Best Reinforcement Games for Speech Therapy / Teletherapy
• Best IEP Resources
• 71+ Free Social Problem-Solving Scenarios
• 430+ Free Multisyllabic Words List Activity Bundle
• 432+ Free Measurable IEP Goals and Objectives Bank
• 279+ Free Speech Therapy Digital Materials
• 179+ Free Speech Therapy Wh-Questions Printable

What to Do Before You Start Reading Books in Literacy-Based Speech Therapy

Apr 10, 2024 | 0 comments

When you are pulling out a book in your literacy-based speech therapy sessions, it’s natural to want to jump into reading the story with the group. But, there are some easy strategies that you can do before you begin reading the book to your speech therapy students. In fact, doing these strategies will help your students with understanding the content in the story better. Plus, they will have more engagements with vocabulary in the book. And, you can use a book for at least 2 sessions (often you can use it for 2 weeks or more).

Need Actionable Professional Development Hours?

If you work in the school setting as an SLP, you need professional development training that will help you serve your students well. We want to help support you with building your clinical skills! Get those PD hours done with practical strategies you can implement with your caseload tomorrow. Sign up today !

Free Flower Themed Speech Therapy Guide

Wanting to plan a fun spring theme for your speech therapy caseload? Use this free flower themed guide to get ideas for flower books, toys, games, sensory bins, and step-by-step visual craft and cooking activity. 

What to do Before You Read the Book In Your Literacy-Based Speech Therapy Sessions

Here are some strategies that you can do before you begin reading a story to your groups:

• Teach any concepts that would help their background knowledge on the topic or theme of the book
• Have them start making inferences by asking students about the cover of the book and what they might think the book could be about
• Pre-teach key vocabulary by showing them a photo of the word, giving a kid friendly definitions, and ask thme to share a time when that is important to them (we provide focused vocabulary task cards for all the books in the Themed Therapy SLP membership ).

Before reading the book, you can use graphic organizers to discus what they know about the topic and what they want to know after reading the book. 

Or, making I wonder statements to see if some of those “wonders” are answered during the story or if you need to plan an extension activity to find out the answer.

Literacy-Based Speech Therapy Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Episode

In this episode of the Real Talk SLP podcast we talked about what to do before you start reading a book. The book example in the episode was using Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson. To help activate background knowledge, you can do the following:

-show a video of a bear waking up

– sing a wake up song to talk about a bear waking up

-watch a video about bears .

A book companion and cheat sheet is included in the Themed Therapy SLP membership for Bear Wants More as well as all the books in the membership.

What do DO Before You Start Reading a Book in Your Literacy Based Speech Therapy Sessions

by The Dabbling Speechie

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• AAC Communication
• Apps for Therapy
• articulation
• Basic Concepts
• Behavior Management
• Books for Speech Therapy
• Boom Cards Speech Therapy
• Caseload Management
• Clinical Fellowship Year
• Collaborative Services
• Conversation Scripts
• craftivities
• Digital Speech Therapy Materials
• DIY materials
• Featured #1
• Featured #2
• Featured #3
• Featured #4
• Featured #5
• Featured #6
• Games For Speech Therapy
• Middle School Therapy
• organizational tips
• Play-Based Therapy
• Progress Monitoring Speech Goals
• Real Talk SLP
• sensory bins
• SLP Accessories
• social skills
• Speech Assessments
• Speech Life
• Speech Room Decor
• Speech Sound Disorders
• Themed Speech Therapy
• Therapy Materials
• Therapy Plans
• Toys for Speech
• Uncategorized
• Subscriber Freebies
• Shop Products

• Like and Follow UPMC on Facebook
• Follow UPMC on X (formerly Twitter)
• Follow UPMC on Pinterest
• Follow UPMC on Instagram
• Follow UPMC on LinkedIn
• Follow UPMC HealthBeat on TikTok

Rehabilitation

How a speech therapist works with aphasia patients.

3 Minute Read

Kirra A. Mediate, SLP , Speech-Language Pathology

UPMC Rehabilitation Institute

April 10, 2024

Aphasia is a language disorder that can make communication difficult.

Someone with aphasia may have trouble speaking, reading, or writing. This occurs when the language centers of the brain have become damaged.

Stroke, brain injury, and some brain diseases can cause aphasia.

Skilled speech-language pathologists help those with aphasia learn skills for improving their communication. They also help them reach their goals. These can include expressing themselves and understanding others.

“Therapy is very individualized,” says Kirra Mediate, SLP , a speech-language pathologist at the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute . “Treatment depends on the person’s personal goals, whether it’s returning to work or just communicating with family.”

Here’s what to know about aphasia and how speech therapists improve communication.

Never Miss a Beat!

Subscribe to our healthbeat newsletter.

Thank you for subscribing!

You can now select the specific newsletters you'd like to receive .

You are already subscribed.

Subscribe to more newsletters in our email preference center .

Sorry, an error occurred. Please try again later.

Or try our email preference center instead .

Get Healthy Tips Sent to Your Phone!

What’s aphasia.

Aphasia is a language disorder. It impairs speaking, reading, writing, and/or understanding written or spoken language.

There are many types of aphasia, including fluent and non-fluent aphasia.

Some people struggle to access their words. Others may speak in sentences that are confusing or hard to decipher.

Aphasia is most often the result of a stroke or another traumatic brain injury.

Other potential causes include brain infections, tumors, and some progressive neurological diseases. These can include primary progressive aphasia.

Aphasia can affect people of all ages and in a variety of ways. Recovery will look different for everyone.

Signs of Aphasia

The symptoms of aphasia depend on what type of aphasia a person has. Some signs may include:

• Challenges reading and writing.
• Difficulty finding certain words.
• Difficulty understanding conversations.
• Speaking in short sentences.
• Speaking in unrecognizable words.
• Saying one word or sound when they mean another (like substituting “bench” for “couch”, or “sand” for “hand”).

How Speech Therapists Diagnose and Treat Aphasia

Speech therapy can improve fluency, articulation, cognitive communication, and more.

UPMC Rehabilitation Institute speech-language pathologists first test your language and comprehension skills. This helps them learn your areas of difficulty and pinpoint the focus of your therapy.

They’ll then ask you about your goals.

“When an individual comes in to see us, the first step is an evaluation consisting of a battery of tests that look at a person’s language and cognitive abilities to figure out what difficulties they’re having because of their aphasia,” Kirra says.

“We really take the time to evaluate what is going on, how aphasia is impacting their life, and what we need to do to improve their quality of life.”

Speech therapy for aphasia involves a variety of exercises and activities. It also gives you tools for meeting your goals.

Some activities help you improve language skills.

Others help you figure out ways to handle your communication issues. These can include talking around words you can’t find. They can also include gestures, writing, drawing, and a communication board or device.

“Therapy might include simple things like flash cards, worksheet activities, or doing tasks on a tablet,” Kirra says. “Tasks could include repeating words, relearning language, matching objects to written words, reading or trying to complete sentences, or carrying on a simple conversation.”

“We develop what I call a bag of tricks for the person,” she adds. “These are tools that help the individual communicate more effectively. ”

These tools may include gestures, word descriptions, or cues from family members. These can make understanding or expressing language easier.

“Therapy sessions and increasing the difficulty of the tasks we do improves their language abilities and helps them reach their goals,” Kirra says.

Depending on your needs, speech therapy for aphasia may aim to:

• Give you and your loved ones information about aphasia.
• Help you find new and different ways of communicating.
• Improve your quality of life.
• Restore your ability to communicate with others and understand them as well as you can.

UPMC Rehabilitation Institute makes thorough, personal treatment plans for those struggling with aphasia.

UPMC’s programs treat a long list of issues and conditions. Aphasia is one of them.

For more information about speech therapy , call 1-888-723-4277.

Connect with UPMC

About upmc rehabilitation institute.

The UPMC Rehabilitation Institute offers inpatient, outpatient, and transitional rehabilitation, as well as outpatient physician services so that care is available to meet the needs of our patients at each phase of the recovery process. Renowned physiatrists from the University of Pittsburgh Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, as well as highly trained physical, occupational, and speech therapists, provide individualized care in 12 inpatient units within acute care hospitals and over 80 outpatient locations close to home and work.

Become a Member of Our Health and Wellness Email List

What Is Speech Therapy?

Speech therapy is a form of healthcare that helps improve communication and speech. It can also help improve swallowing function and other behaviors related to feeding.

About one in 12 children in the United States has a speech or swallowing disorder. Disorders are most common in young children, but many adults have a related condition. For example, about one million adults in the United States have aphasia (difficulty expressing or comprehending written and verbal language).

Speech therapists (STs) or speech-language pathologists (SLPs) assess and treat people of all ages. They use various techniques to help people with challenges related to speech production, language comprehension, hearing, voice quality, fluency, and swallowing. 

What Does Speech Therapy Treat?

Speech therapy treats various disorders involving hearing, speech, language, literacy, social communication, voice quality, executive functioning (for example, memory and problem-solving), feeding, and swallowing.

Specific speech disorders include:

• Articulation disorders: Difficulty pronouncing words or sounds such as the “s” sound (for example, saying “thun” rather than “sun”). This can occur during childhood language development or with structural problems like tongue-tie. A tongue tie is when a small band of skin connects the tip of the tongue to the bottom of the mouth. It is congenital, meaning it's present at birth.
• Dysarthria: Slow, slurred, or unclear speech. This occurs with oral (mouth) muscle control decline due to neurological conditions (related to the brain or nervous system), such as multiple sclerosis (MS) —a condition that occurs when the immune system attacks myelin, the covering wrapped around nerve cells.
• Apraxia: Knowing what you want to say but having difficulty producing the correct sounds or words. Apraxia can cause slow, error-prone speech or the need to intentionally move your tongue and lips in order to produce sounds and words. Apraxia can be present at birth, but it can also occur as a result of brain injuries, brain tumors , or a stroke .
• Fluency disorders: Speech flow disruptions like stuttering. Stuttering is experiencing interruptions in speech and repeating sounds, syllables, or words. Researchers are still exploring possible causes of dysfluency, but they seem to include genetics, developmental components, neurological factors (how the brain processes), and brain injury. Many children outgrow fluency disorders, but they can persist into adulthood.
• Voice disorders: Vocal cord spasming (choppy voice), hoarseness, pitch problems, or voice fatigue are examples of voice disorders. This can result from infection, overusing the vocal cords, or neurological disorders. 

Language or communication disorders include:

• Aphasia : Aphasia is a language disorder in which you have difficulty expressing or comprehending written and verbal language. Receptive aphasia is difficulty understanding written or verbal words. Expressive aphasia is difficulty communicating thoughts and ideas with language components like vocabulary, grammar, and sentence formation. Aphasia can occur with childhood development, language impairment, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), brain injury, or neurological disorders.
• Pragmatic language disorder: This relates to social communication. Signs include misunderstanding social cues like eye contact, body language, and personal space. It can occur during childhood development or with underlying neurodivergence (brain variation), such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) , a brain development condition that affects how a person perceives and socializes with other people.
• Accent or tone: While this is not a disorder, speech therapists can also work with people who wish to modify their accent or an unusual speech rhythm, pitch, or tone. For example, a high-pitched, sing-song, or robotic tone can occur with ASD.
• Executive functioning: Executive functioning challenges include difficulty with memory, planning, organization, problem-solving, and attention. This can occur due to brain injuries or conditions like ASD and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) , a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention (being distracted), hyperactivity (feeling restless), and impulsivity (making hasty decisions).
• Auditory processing disorder: This is a neurological condition that makes it difficult to make sense of sounds. 

Feeding and swallowing disorders affect how you suck, chew, and swallow food and drinks. Difficulty swallowing is also known as dysphagia , which can result in choking during meals—and lung infections if food or liquid enters the airways. It can occur with structural abnormalities, muscular weakness, or neurological conditions like a stroke. 

Related: Rediscover Sound: The Best Hearing Aids for Improved Quality of Life

How Does Speech Therapy Work?

Speech therapy involves techniques like language practice, pronunciation exercises, voice therapy, and swallowing exercises. It begins with a thorough assessment, including observation of communication strategies, challenges, and frustrations.

Speech therapy for infants, toddlers, and children involves fun and engaging activities like play, language exercises, reading, picture cards, and modeling correct sounds. This helps make learning more enjoyable. 

Parents or caregivers often attend sessions and learn ways to support children at home. The ST or SLP will tailor the treatment plan to the child’s developmental stage. Early recognition and intervention (treatment) can help improve outcomes.

With adults, the ST or SLP will begin with an assessment to identify specific challenges. They will then create a specific care plan that addresses underlying concerns such as:

• Medical conditions
• Accent modification
• Voice challenges
• Pronunciation
• Conversational language
• Problem-solving
• Memory exercises

What To Expect During Speech Therapy

Speech therapy can occur in a class, small group, online, or one-on-one. Speech therapists typically assign exercises to practice at home in order to reinforce what you learn. Activities might include:

• Vocal warm-ups like humming 
• Tongue twisters to improve articulation
• Breaking words into syllables to improve clarity
• Contrasting word exercises—for example, "ship" versus "sheep"
• “Pausing” practice (for stuttering)
• Repetition after listening to a native speaker 
• Repetition exercises for sounds like “s” 
• Speech rate control—for example, by tapping hands to a beat
• Pitch exercises
• Breathing and posture exercises

Receptive language exercises include:

• Memory or problem-solving exercises
• Reading comprehension (similar to a book report)
• Speech supplementation (written, gestural, voice amplifier, speech-generating devices)
• Word association
• Communication partner exercises, such as practicing eye contact and active listening

Exercises for swallowing and feeding include:

• Diet modification (pureed to solid foods)
• Oral muscle strengthening (like tongue “push-ups”)
• Swallowing exercises

Benefits of Speech Therapy

One of the main goals of speech therapy is to enhance a person’s ability to express thoughts, ideas, and emotions effectively. This can lead to a greater sense of self-expression, meaningful interactions with others, and less frustration. Other benefits include:

• Greater self-confidence: Gaining more control over language and communication can increase confidence and boost self-esteem. As a result, you might be more willing and excited to engage in social activities. 
• Improved academic or professional performance: Clear speech and language can lead to enhanced skills in comprehension, reading, and writing. This can support academic success. Better articulation, language, and presentation abilities can help with career development.
• Greater independence: Speech therapy can lead to greater self-reliance, especially if you have severe communication challenges. For example, augmented and alternative communication (AAC) methods , such as speech-generating devices (SGDs), can allow you to express yourself more independently.

How Successful Is Speech Therapy?

Speech therapy's “success” depends on your goals. The meaning of success can vary based on your underlying communication or medical condition and its severity, as well as your motivation and commitment to therapy, the therapist's expertise, and your support systems. The time it takes to reach your goals also varies based on underlying factors like these.

For example, you may define success as improved pronunciation, or you may work towards more effective communication, more skilled accent modification, or swallowing without choking. If you stutter, your goal might be improved fluency or feeling more comfortable communicating openly with a stutter. For most people, what’s most important is to set realistic expectations and recognize that any improvement in communication is a success.

How To Find a Speech Therapist

A qualified speech therapist or speech-language pathologist holds a master's degree in speech-language pathology and state licensure to practice in your area. You can find speech therapists in settings like:

• Home health agencies
• Rehabilitation centers
• Private practice
• Telehealth (online)

You can also ask for recommendations from healthcare providers or school personnel who may know local speech therapists. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) also offers an online directory of certified speech therapies to help you locate someone in your area.

Check with your health insurance provider to see if they cover speech therapy. They can provide you with information about your co-payments and deductibles. If your insurance doesn't cover the cost, the clinic or speech therapist may offer payment plans. Some children may also qualify for:

• Individualized education programs (IEPs) that cover speech therapy costs as a service from the school district
• Early intervention (EI) or Preschool on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) programs for infants and toddlers for little or no cost to families
• State and federal programs, like Medicaid
• Financial assistance programs from non-profit and advocate organizations

A Quick Review

Speech therapy is a specialized healthcare field in which trained professionals help improve speech, language, hearing, swallowing, and feeding for people of all ages. Speech therapists (STs) and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) thoroughly assess and develop specific treatment plans for a wide range of conditions including difficulty communicating or processing language, stuttering, and voice disorders.

Speech therapy takes place in locations like schools, hospitals, and private practice. It can be one-on-one or in a group setting. Success depends on underlying factors such as the severity of the condition. It also depends on personal goals and your definition of success—which can vary widely from person to person.

Many people who have speech therapy experience powerful benefits that affect them in nearly every aspect of life, including greater self-confidence and self-reliance.

For more Health.com news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Health.com .