Describing, categories, object functions, and other attributes in speech therapy: The research, therapy ideas, goal suggestions and more!
I use this worksheet along with a describing cue sheet if needed. The cue sheet includes questions such as: What category is it in? What do you do with it? What does it look like? Click here to download!
As the school year is winding down and you are thinking about all of the new things to include in your daily routine next year keep reading!!! The Expanding Expression Tool is an AMAZING resource that has helped my students become not only better writers but better communicators too. The Expanding Expression Tool or EET is used as a multi-sensory approach to improve oral and written language. Okay...so what does it look like and how does it work? Let's check it out..... What it looks like?: How does it work?: Each part of the EET serves a purpose. Check out the chart below to see what each color stands for. How can you use this to improve oral and/or written language? 1st- Select an item 2nd- have a student describe it 3rd- introduce EET 4th- have the student describe the item again and be amazed!! Example: You show the student penguin. They may say it's an animal that lives in the cold. After introducing EET the student will be able to share a lot more about the penguin. They will be able to tell you..... green/group: Animal blue/do: swim, walk/waddle, eat, lay eggs what does it look like?: black and white what is it made of?: comes from an egg pink/parts: flippers, bill, feathers, neck, eyes, webbed feet, claws white/where: Antarctica, zoo what else do you know?: males sit on eggs, mates for life, waddle and swim As the students get used to this their overall oral and written language will improve tremendously. You can use this tool in a variety of ways including, direct instruction, para led station, writing center, homework and more!! After my students were comfortable with EET, I set up an EET station in my classroom in lieu of my traditional writing center. You can even differentiate within EET. You may have some students who are just working on stating 1 word answers, but you can also have students practice responding in full sentences. Student 1 Example: Green/Group: animal Student 2 Example: Green/Group: The penguin belongs to the animal group. Overall, EET has been an amazing tool for my students and a wonderful additional to my classroom. We use this resource but you can also check out Teachers Pay Teachers for more. Or you can check out the original kit here! I hope you are able to implement EET into your day next year!! Follow my blog with Bloglovin
When we chose to read Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobadkina, I knew I had to think of a craft to to tie in describing with the Expanding Expressions Tool.
Supporting language development through well-planned intervention is a favorite topic here, and it is with pleasure that we feature Indiana-based SLP and ATP, Beth Waite-Lafever. Beth is a speech-l…
The "There Was an Old Lady" books and my EET kit are two absolute favorites in my speech room. I wanted to share how I combine my companion kits and the EET. To use the
Subscribers: click here to access the resource library! Not yet an email subscriber? Click HERE or fill out the form below to receive the password!
Color coded and easy to use. Great to document what your students are describing and see trends in where their descriptions are lacking. ...
When we chose to read Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobadkina, I knew I had to think of a craft to to tie in describing with the Expanding Expressions Tool.
Hey Everyone! I am so excited to be linking up with the Frenzied SLPs to share a few Halloween activities you can do this week in therapy. My students love telling me about their halloween costumes and currently, the sales ads are full of costumes! This is the perfect opportunity to develop multiple language skills including […]
Check out these tips and teaching strategies to structure language therapy using the EET (expanding expression tool).
Today we had fun using the game Headbanz along with the Expanding Expression Tool (EET) for describing. Normally, the game Headbanz has students asking about what is on their head. They are supposed to ask questions that will guide them into figuring out what item is on their head band. My students and I had an idea today to use Headbanz with the EET. We decided that instead of asking questions, we would have to describe what is on other people's heads using the EET. We also decided that you would "win" the card if the person guessed what item was on your head. I got some great descriptions from students using this game and the EET. They all tried to guess the items after just a few beads, but I made them describe using the entire string. I got a lot of "oooh, oooh, oooh, I know it, I know it!" But, I made them wait so that the other student got practice with describing. My students especially like when I play the game with them. I may get a few looks from passersby, but it is so fun. I love to get a grin from someone passing by my room, and the great laughs from my students when I look like this: You can check out the game Headbanz here (this is an Amazon Affiliate link):
When we chose to read Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobadkina, I knew I had to think of a craft to to tie in describing with the Expanding Expressions Tool.
Describing, categories, object functions, and other attributes in speech therapy: The research, therapy ideas, goal suggestions and more!
Using wordless videos in speech therapy is a great way to increase engagement and hit IEP goals. Use wordless videos for inferencing too
In the past I have mentioned that I use the Expanding Expression Tool in therapy. It's a multi-sensory tool that can be used to increase students oral and written language. No explanation from me, will
Have you joined in the EET party?! No...it is not a real party! But it is just that much fun to use in speech therapy! CLICK HERE to learn more about the Expanding Expression Tool! I have been working hard all year with my students to expand their abilities to describe common objects, compare/contrast, and ...
I've linked up with Sweet Southern Speech to talk about Pirate Day! September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day and we're gearing up for some fun in my upper grade and lower grade speech rooms! My older students are working on context clues with my Pirates Inferencing & Vocabulary game. Students draw cards that take them on a journey to find the hidden treasure. Context clues and upper grade vocabulary words are embedded in sentences. The first student to fill their treasure chests with the required contents wins the game. The little guys will be working on describing with the Expanding Expression Tool in this easy-to-make Walk The Plank game. I uploaded some great graphics from MyCuteGraphics and taped them onto a piece of plywood that I had in my basement. I then put the wood on two plastic bins that raised the plank about a foot off the ground. Students will roll the foam EET dice after they step on a picture. Everyone takes turns walking the plank up to the picture that they are working on. Interested in more EET Companions, click the images below. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has up their puffy sleeves? Head back to the linky party to see.
Okay so I know that Easter is this weekend but I'm pretty sure kids like opening Easter eggs year round! So this is one of the activities I have been using in therapy this past week. I gathered items around my house that were small and that my client would be able to guess or would know how to describe. I hammed it up when I brought it out and we both "knocked" on the egg carton to wake up the eggs. Then we both took turns peeking into the egg. The person peeking would describe the item using it's color, shape, how it feels, what you use it for and what its made of. The other person would try and guess what was in the egg. My client loved this and is always asking to play with the eggs. For homework I sent home three empty Easter eggs that my client filled with small items from his home. When he returned we played the same describing activity. We had to do it in the first five minutes of the session because he was bursting at the seams to tell me what was in his eggs! Here is the document I sent home for the homework assignment "What's in the Egg?". Still new at posting documents on the blog, so the font isn't as fun as it was when I originally made it but you can have fun customizing it for you! What kind of Spring activities have you all been using in therapy??
Check out these tips and teaching strategies to structure language therapy using the EET (expanding expression tool).
Most of us are familiar with the Expanding Expressive Tool (EET) Program, designed to build students' describing skills by assigning colored circles to a specific property of an item. I use this program a lot with my students, and this week came up with a different way of using it with my cognitively lower functioning Special Day Class kids. A lot of my SDC students have difficulty constructing more complex grammatically correct sentences and have grammar/syntax goals along with conceptual (e.g., category, function) goals. Most of them know basic sight words and respond very well to carrier phrases, so I thought of using EET within the context of a modeled sentence. In our teacher workroom I found these long paper strips (about 1.5') with handwriting lines on them. After snagging a few, I created the following visuals: EET carrier sentences. I also own a box of noun picture cards from Language Builder that I like to use when working with EET, so I picked a few suitable cards for our session. I presented each stimulus item as follows: "Group" & "Do" Students were expected to fill in the "group" (green circle) and the "do" (blue circle) independently. For this example, an acceptable response would have been, "A fish is an animal that swims." This was a great way to work on 3rd person singular "-s" morphological markers, too! We also practiced this activity with other aspects of EET. "An apple is a fruit that is red." While my students often needed a couple of initial examples for each sentence strip, they caught on quickly! "A sea gull is an animal that has feathers." "A table is a furniture made of wood." "A swimsuit is a clothing that you see at the beach." We even combined multiple aspects of EET to build even more complex sentences: "A tiger is an animal that roars in the jungle" This level of support was exactly what my students needed to successfully build grammatically correct sentences and work on their conceptual language skills, as well. I'll be hanging on to these sentence strips and probably make a few more! The best part: This activity was practically free! ~Viola
Have you fallen in love with EET (expanding expression tool) yet?! Are you still learning more about it?! Are you deciding how to incorporate it into your speech rooms? Are you deciding how to get your hands on it?! Thanks to an amazing program, Donor's Choose, I was able to get the ENTIRE kit purchased for ...
Most SLPs are familiar with Expanding Expression Tool, or EET in short, an amazing therapy technique to work on description skills (find out more information about EET here). EET is my go-to strategy whenever I have students working on describing an item. For those of you unfamiliar with EET, it is basically a visual of multicolored circles. Each circle represents a different descriptive aspect of an item: Green - Group, Blue - What does it Do, Eye - What does it look like, Brown - What is it made of, Pink - Parts, White - Where do you find it, Orange - What else do you know? Students are guided through this hierarchy and provide the respective information about the item they are describing. I like EET because it is visual and easy to implement.To add some variety to my EET session, I came up with a really fun game that my students just loved: Musical EET! And the best part is that you can recreate it for virtually less than $1.50. You will need: * Felt sheets (Green, Blue, White x2, Brown, Pink, Orange) * A paper plate or other large circular object * A marker * Scissors * Some sort of music Cheap materials. Preparation: 1. Using the paper plate and marker, draw circular templates onto each felt sheet. 2. Cut out the circles. 3. On one of the white circles, draw the outline of an eye and cut a smaller circle from the leftover blue felt which is glued in the middle of the eye (this will be the iris). Draw some eyelashes. 4. On the orange circle, use the marker to draw a big question mark. Our EET circle. Once all of the circles are ready, place them in a big circle on the floor. The circle should be large enough for students to walk around the outer perimeter without being crowded. Also note that if you have bare floors, students may slip if they step on the felt. It is therefore most feasible to do this activity on a carpet. If you don't feel like taking the time to make these circles or have bare floors that are not conducive or safe for felt, you can buy non-slip steppers from the company (unfortunately only with the purchase of the entire kit). Game play. Tell the students that they will get to play a game like musical chairs. Start playing some music. As the music is playing, have students walk around the circle. When the music stops, they have to stand by the nearest circle. Once everyone is placed at their spot, they will look at a "mystery object" (i.e. a picture card) and have to provide the information about the item based on the color of their circle. For example, if they are standing on the brown circle, they have to state what the item is made of. My students had a blast with this game and the activity reinforced their memory of what each color stands for. In addition, the movement piece added a kinesthetic component and was especially feasible for my students with an ADHD diagnosis. ~Viola
Five Senses Activities with Picture Cards and worksheet / Graphic Organizer. Describing words / Adjectives Activities & Worksheet for Preschool, Kindergarten and beyond. Teach the Five Senses with this printable pack containing flashcards, activities for vocabulary development, and a homework worksheet. ************************************************************* What you get... ★ 5 full-color senses pictures of the five senses with/without text option ★ 5 black and white five senses pictures for easy copying ★ 32 color & 32 blackline pictures of everyday items to categorize according to the five senses ★ 6 instruction cards that can be copied to send in homework packets ★ 1 follow on five senses homework worksheet ************************************************************* The materials included will allow you to: ♥ Teach or reinforce core vocabulary for the five senses ♥ Teach an activity to increase the use of descriptive language/adjectives related to the five senses ♥ Give your students practice in asking and answering simple questions about the five senses ♥ Check that your students have retained the five senses core vocabulary and are able to use it in a sentence ♥ Carry out a simple lesson on the dangers associated with tasting, touching, smelling unfamiliar things. ************************************************************* Buyers say... "This is a fun activity I can use over and over. It went really well with my five senses theme too!" "This was great when we had our unit on the senses. The graphics were not too young for my special needs middle schoolers, and they loved the sorting activity!" "I enjoy using this visual when I teach describing. The 5 senses can be so abstract, especially for our language impaired kids, but this helps them to be able to "see" the senses and organize."
