Page 80 - Literacy Based Speech Language Therapy Activities Digital Version

Literacy-Based Speech Language Therapy Activities

expectations that the story will be in a certain order and contain important information. We can
therefore test a child’s ability to share information and understand what is happening around them

based on their ability to create a narrative. In the last half of this book, you will also see that story
narratives are also our inroads to teach grammatical structures and communication abilities.

Gathering a Language Sample

The first step to helping a child is finding out what a child knows so that we can celebrate her
strengths and know what is absent so that we can build upon it. We gather data to identify what

elements are present in a child’s narrative and what might be missing. First, it is important to take at
least two samples. A topic that is unfamiliar or of low interest might elicit a poor sample. By
collecting two independent stories we can be sure that we have an accurate representation of a child’s
knowledge (Klecan-Aker and Brueggeman,1991). Secondly, prior to asking the child to tell a story,

we need to provide a model. Research shows that asking a child to tell a story without a model does
not provide a true indication of their narrative ability (Klecan-Aker, McIngvale and Swank, 1987).

Use a Wordless Picture Book

Narrative abilities are most easily captured by using a wordless picture

book so that the student is not intimidated or influenced by reading.
Almost any wordless picture book will work. Mercer Meyer has a series
of “frog books” which have no text and a relatively simple plot line with
lots of action and emotion. For the truly research minded, a database

based on these books has been created of children from English and
Spanish speaking cultures as well as many other backgrounds.

Record the story as it is being told and type at the same time

Many of us are still scarred by our experience taking language samples in grad school. What we are

proposing here is a much less painful process. Use your phone to record while the child is telling the
story. Audacity (http://www.audacityteam.org/download/) is also free downloadable program for
your computer that makes recording and splicing easy. While you are recording, don’t just sit back
rd
with your coffee as the child is telling the story. For most children younger than 3 grade, you can
capture most of the story as they are speaking if you type along.

Analyze the story

Now that you have the language sample, what do you do? You need to analyze the macro-structure
(big picture) and micro-structure (details of a story). We have created this cheat sheet of the different
aspects of stories with developmental expectations.

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