February 25, 2017 2 min read
Farm Language Activities are engaging for the student and fun for the speech path. But with a wide range of needs on our caseloads, it can feel overwhelming. Here’s how to target lots of goals with a farm set.
Raise your hand if you have a preschool student working on requesting? Don’t we all? To get a student to request an object with the farm set, open the box, but don’t take anything out until the student asks for each object.
Commenting is an extremely tough skill for many preschoolers with expressive language delays. Do something totally absurd with one of the objects such as putting the cow on your head or the tractor on the cow, then say “uh-oh,” and point to it.
Absurdities usually get my students to attempt a comment!
How many vocabulary words from the farm set can you model for your students? From naming animals to using the tractor to discuss transportation to describing the similarities between a stable and a home, there are limitless opportunities to expand your students’ vocabularies.
My students struggle to correctly use preposition words including “up/down,” “above/under,” “in/on,” and “around,” but this farm set makes it easy to facilitate natural discussions about where things are. “The fence is around the stable” and “The horse is inside the stable” are a couple of examples of how you can model these language concepts. Here are a few more ideas:
Without engaging materials, it’s really tough to get kids to answer questions. Luckily, manipulables included in this farm set really get kids motivated to answer questions like “What is it?” “Who says ‘baa’?” “When do the animals sleep?” and “Why does a farmer use a tractor?”
There are so many options with a farm set to hit those common speech therapy goals. Now, who is ready to say “moo?”
Bio: Sarah Wu is a bilingual speech-language pathologist who blogs at http://speechisbeautiful.com
If you enjoy using a farm theme in your speech room, you are going to love all of the fun activities you will find in this Farm Value Bundle!