Happy January! ❄ ️A new year, a fresh start, amidst all of winter’s beauty: falling snow and frozen icicles, building snowmen, and sledding down hills, hot cocoa or your favorite soup by the fire. What fun things do these winter months bring to therapy, you ask? I can’t wait to share!
Do-A-Dot
What’s not to love about a child’s work of art? The ability to work on speech and language targets only adds to the masterpiece. First, let’s pick which ‘winter’ picture he/she wants to create, targeting vocabulary: hat, scarf, mitten, boots, penguin, polar bear, snowman, sled, snowflake, hot cocoa, etc. Next, we can target requesting and increasing Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) by requesting dot markers of varying colors using verbal language, picture exchange, or speech generating devices “I want ___(color)”. Additionally, we can target following directions, qualitative and quantitative concepts, and core vocabulary, including ‘help’, ‘open’, ‘on’, ‘more’, ‘done’. For articulation goals, roll a dice to indicate a number of repetitions or target words and corresponding number of ‘dots’ to add to the picture.
Literature
Seasonal books are always a fun, interactive addition to therapy sessions. “Snowmen at Night”, “There was an Old Lady who Swallowed Some Snow”, “The Mitten”, “Sneezy the Snowman”, “Five Little Penguins”, to name a few of my favorites! You will find yourself exposing vocabulary throughout this season you wouldn’t otherwise think to teach. Afterall, when else do we ice skate, ski, snowboard, or sled?
Mr. Potato Head
Our favorite potato head is fun all year ‘round. Next When it’s time to make a snowman, consider swapping the coal eyes and carrot nose for Mr. Potato Head pieces. Model and teach vocabulary, including body parts and clothing items. Target requesting for each piece, sequencing, spatial concepts, wh-questions, following directions, and more. Get silly and misplace pieces on purpose and narrate “Do these shoes go on top of his head? No, that’s silly! Shoes go on feet. Let’s put the shoes on his feet. Do you want the green shoes, or the blue shoes?”
Although the winter months can feel long, I encourage you to build a snowman, make some hot cocoa, and create some winter magic!
I hope you enjoyed this "funtastic" blog post!
-Tacarra Keeley, M.A. CCC-SLP
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