Our speech students need to build their higher level thinking skills…here are fun ways to work on predicting in speech therapy!
Why is predicting important for our speech students?!
Predicting is a skill and a strategy necessary for science, reading, and social skills. It requires students to use information from a text/picture and their own personal experiences to anticipate what they will read or what will happen next. It is relevant in the curriculum so it is important that our students grasp this skill.
Why is this a speech and language skill?
Well in order to predict, students need to comprehend the information in front of them. They need to understand vocabulary, sentence structure, verb tense, as well as have listening comprehension strategies in place to assist them with recall and understanding. They need to be able to answer the question. They need to understand before/after and cause/effect. As you can see..there are many reasons why it is important for us as SLPs to help our students with this skill. It is necessary in the classroom and involves a lot of language…so we can help!
What are some fun ways to introduce predicting?!
I like to use props and some “basic” acting skills to introduce predicting. I might use it to introduce predicting at the basic level or to review the idea of predicting before we work on more elaborate tasks.
Use real life examples!
- Pretend to spill water (or hot coffee!) on your head
- Drop something on the floor
- Pick a cell phone up
- Grab a key and walk towards the door
Can they guess what will happen next? How did they know? What clues do they see?! You will get lots of giggles too! Then you can even take it further…”did you REALLY believe I was going to spill that on my head?!”
Using Pictures to Work on Predicting in Speech
I am all about using pictures! You can find pictures anywhere! In a magazine, Google Images, in a storybook, wordless picture books, any Super Duper fun deck. The sky is the limit. Model for your students…what do you see….what do we know….what might happen next?! Let them list all of the possibilities! Have debates! That is OK to disagree and have multiple answers!
Wordless picture books are a great way to work on predicting with pictures. Students can narrate their own versions of the story and easily try and predict what will happen next before you turn the page!
Here are just some of my favorites! CLICK HERE to learn more about my favorite wordless picture books!
Don't want to find your own pictures…I have a resource with worksheets that has pictures and the graphic organizers for you to use! CLICK HERE to learn more!
Using Mini Movies to Work on Predicting
Wordless mini movies are such a hit in my therapy room. It is so incredibly motivating and elicits so much language. I love using EdPuzzle to strategically stop and various points in movies and have students guess what will happen next. They have to back up their responses using the events that have already occurred! CLICK HERE to read about my favorite mini movie and CLICK HERE to learn more about EdPuzzle and why it is the best tool ever to bring videos into your speech room!
Adapt a Text To Encourage Predicting
When it comes to reading and taking an actual text, one strategy I love to do is to copy and paste it into a word document, enlarge it so that each page only has a paragraph or two, and then present the story one page at a time. First, I introduce the title. I like to give my students large poster paper and markers each so they can jot down as many guesses what they think the story will be about using the title (and maybe a cover illustration if I have one). Then, I read each page (one-two paragraphs) at a time and after each page we stop and jot down more guesses. We also review guesses we have made prior and cross off ones we know for sure are wrong. At the end…we have TONS of predictions and have fun using them to create summaries.
You can easily find stories to adapt like this on ReadWorks.org. That website also has pre-made stories that don't have any endings. This allows students to come up with their own versions! This is a fun activity and a great skill since it requires understanding of the entire text and the events that occurred prior. They can write, draw, or act out their own versions!
These are just some fun ways to easily work on predicting in you speech therapy room! Want even more ways?! Check out my predicting resources in my TpT store:
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