Page 164 - Literacy Based Speech Language Therapy Activities Digital Version

Literacy-Based Speech Language Therapy Activities

How to Leverage Predictable Narratives and Gaming to

Make Communication Gains

Now that we have learned a bit about predictable books, let’s talk about types of games and

the way we play. Yes, games come in boxes and line our shelves but we need to reach back into the
memories of our childhood and reintroduce ourselves to the games we played in and around our
neighborhood. We also need to open our minds forward and think of all the possibilities that apps

and websites could afford us. If it matches the narrative structure of a book, it is “fair game.”

Types of Games:

Board Games
We all have our favorites. Think of yours. No, truly think of yours. Monopoly is a cumulative story
where you are a realty investor and you travel around accumulating wealth. So is Sorry! Winners
accumulate. Trivial Pursuit is both a cumulative and question and answer game.

Scavenger Hunt – Searches
Tag, 7-Steps Around the House, Marco Polo, Oh Captain My Captain, Capture the Flag. If there

was a reason I was getting grounded in the summer when I was young, chances are I didn’t come
home when I was in the middle of a scavenger hunt -search game. Leaving the game would have
been against the law, basically, or so I told my mom. There are books like Going on a Bear Hunt or Are

You My Mother? which can be reenacted with 10 stick-figure drawings and a trip around your school
yard.

Imitation and Follow Directions Games
I was teaching my students Go-Go-Stop when a passerby asked, “Are you from up north?” When I
said I was, she said: “It’s called Red-Light Green-Light down here.” My student immediately knew

what to do. Statues and Simon Says are both imitation games. You can get your students out of
their chairs with books like Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? or From Head to Toe and move your way
through the plot.

Patty‐Cake Type Games
I don’t know if this is an actual genre of games, perhaps I made it up. But that is kind of the point of

clapping/rhythm games, you make them up. Beat on the table, clap, work with partners, or make up
a pattern by taping on your body. Middle schoolers often know hand-clap series that go with jump-
ropeish (second made up word!) songs that boggle the mind. There is something about creating the
beats that also generates loud responses as students really get into it and compete with the noise.

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