Page 179 - Literacy Based Speech Language Therapy Activities Digital Version

Creating Incredible Games that Match Story Content

Pattern Stories

Pattern stories are the easiest to teach - best known -
easiest to find books around. Scenes, characters, and
phrases are repeated with minor variations such as in

Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Pattern stories are great for therapy
because they:

 Can be easily used to teach and practice story retelling skills since they follow a predictable
pattern and often include a predictable sequence.
 Include a pattern and new vocabulary words that often repeat, which can be helpful for
targeting both semantic and phonological/articulation goals.
 Often make use of a familiar tone/inflection to which kids can chant along that can facilitate
working on phonological and articulation skills – this is built-in repetition of target sounds
and words – while still being fun!
 Are great books for using cloze procedures to further engage children in the story and teach
new vocabulary, as the pattern repeats.
 Generally revolve around a theme or category that can be used to tie in with grade level
curriculum and expand children’s knowledge of basic concepts.

How to use Pattern Stories in Speech Therapy

As an example, here is one of our favorite pattern stories, and how we like to use it in therapy to
target a variety of goals:

Froggy Gets Dressed/Froggy Se Viste

by Jonathan London

Goal: English Spanish
Articulation /f, initial position, velar sounds /r/ blends, /s/ blends, medial and
/k/, /g/, /r/ blends final /s/, final /r/

Syntax Present (play, sleep, wake, etc., Present tense structure and past

and past tense sentence tense structure (e.g. puso,)-
structures – regular and irregular Noun/verb agreement- singular
(put, pulled, tugged, etc.) vs. plural

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