I love using books in therapy, but I also have kids with a wide variety of goals. I also see kids from early intervention all the way through teens, so I need ways to adapt books to work for a bunch of different kids. One book I’m very excited to use this season is There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bell by Lucille Colandro. Here’s how I use my Interactive Book Companion to adapt this book to my entire caseload.
First of all, I (almost) always pair a sensory bin with my activities. So many of my kids love using sensory bins, and I love them because they encourage participation and are super engaging. For books, I cut up pictures of each event in the book and have them find the pieces as we go. I also have a print out of the Old Lady so we can “feed” her each picture. This is a fun and engaging way to work on sequencing, retelling, and recalling information.
I love to use visuals with my students who are working on early language, expanding utterances, and AAC. I use this sentence strip while we read so we can follow along and form sentences on each page. I also use it with our sensory bin before we “feed” our paper Old Lady. This helps my early language learners engage with the activity and target their goals.
When we are using books in therapy, I like to incorporate the vocabulary into different activities outside of the book. We used these following directions cards to practice following 2- to 3-step directions with first/then and before/after. This helps reinforce the vocabulary while also targeting our other goals.
I have an interactive book to go with the Old Lady book so my younger kids and early AAC users can participate and stay engaged. This book uses simple, repetitive language to target core word “eat” while encouraging active participation through the use of interactive pieces.
For my older students working on comparing and contrasting, syntax, and describing, I use these compare & contrast diagrams. They include vocabulary from the book and we can use them for a ton of goals! I even use them to work on articulation generalization. I like to laminate these and use them with dry-erase markers.
For homework, I like to use these open-ended book pages for my older kids. Sometimes, we fill it out during the session and they can take it home to review. These are free on my blog! Just click the link.
This is how I’m using one book paired with my book companion for my entire caseload. What are your tips?
Also, I send tips, lesson plans, and freebies to my email list and some cute ones are coming for winter! Click HERE to sign up so you don’t miss it!
Chloe Elizabeth SLP 