If traditional approaches aren’t working…here are some fun ways to work on grammar in speech and language therapy!
It can be difficult to make a decision whether or not to focus on grammar in speech. It can be taught in the general education classroom and can be learned through traditional approaches such as modeling (saying) or recasting (repeating correctly) targeted grammar forms and hoping the child catches on. But what if they continue to struggle? When do we jump in to help? There was a study that found that there was a clear advantage of working on grammar using implicit and explicit approaches when working with children with a language disorder (Finestack, 2018).
Our students need more than a model. They need rules. They need it broken down, made visual, and have tons of opportunities to practice. Teach the morpheme in isolation. Show them how to use it in various contexts. Learn more about this #tbt past tense verbs activity by CLICKING HERE.
Check out this tip I learned from Cathy Alexander at the ASHA conference. When teaching plurals, don’t just use 1 vs. 2. Use larger numbers to represent the plural. This helps students grasp the concept better and there is evidence to prove it.
Want even more fun ways to work on grammatical structures in isolation? I love using Flocabulary videos to introduce a concept. The music is motivating and keeps attention. Check out this video on irregular verbs by CLICKING HERE.
You can also make quick and easy flip books using dollar store mini memo pads. This is a fun and easy way to drill how to add an ending to the verb or noun. Just cut some pages in half and add some nouns or verbs to one side. Add the ending on the other. Students can flip the pages and practice using the noun or verb tense!
Something else to keep in mind…that evidence shows that children learn new verbs best when shown multiple examples and when the examples vary in content (Snape & Krott, 2018). For example don’t just teach the work throw with pictures, videos, or actions of throwing a ball. Teach it with throwing a Frisbee or throwing a bone to a dog. You can use You Tube videos, illustrations in books, or Google images to do this!
As you can see…our students with language disabilities benefits from explicit instruction, even when it comes to grammar. We can still make it fun without a ton of prep and help them learn the rules and practice using them. To view all of my grammar resources on TpT CLICK HERE!
