Back to school season means SLPs and educators everywhere are on the hunt for easy and engaging "getting to know you" activities. In the past I almost always ask students "How was your summer?" or "What did you do over the summer?" Some students have lots to say and can't wait to talk about what happened. However I've also worked with students who aren't sure what to say, can't remember details about the summer or don't feel like they did anything "special" enough and may not answer the question at all.
As I have posted about in my executive functions article (linked below), working memory is almost always impacted in children with speech and language disorders. Given I'm an SLP, I am not working with all students when I work in a school, only those who have qualified for services. This means that most of the students I work with are struggling with some aspect of working memory. Working memory is essentially the ability to process and hold information long enough to store it. It is broken down into verbal working memory, non-verbal working memory and the episodic buffer. You can check out my instagram post by clicking on the photo to learn more.
When we ask kids open ended questions like, "what did you do this summer?", a student may struggle to recall any moments in detail, in large part because they are not making good pictures in their imagination. Or they may see some pictures of what happened but struggle to explain or verbalize what they are seeing inside their head. Our senses can be a powerful tool, both in the creation of memories and the recollection of memories. By using questions that ask about specific sensory experiences, I have seen student's better able to recall certain details or moments about their summer. It can also take some of the pressure off, because everyone heard something or tasted something. Even if they didn't go on a big trip or stayed home helping with their siblings, they still can share moments from their summer break.
So instead of asking students, "What did you do this summer", we can ask questions about what they experienced with their senses, using questions that are as specific as possible.
Sense: Smell
Can you describe something you smelled this summer? It can be something that smelled amazing or something that smelled awful!
Is this something you have smelled before?
Did you smell anything new?
What was your favorite thing you smelled this summer?
What smell makes you think of summer?
Sense: Touch
Can you describe something you touched this summer?
Maybe something you made or played with? What did it feel like?
Did you plant anything?
Did you go to the park? Or beach? Or desert? A concert? Did you go swimming? What did the water feel like?
Did you touch something hot? Did you touch something cold?
Sense: Hearing
Can you describe something you heard this summer?
Maybe something that made you feel happy? Or excited? Or scared?
Did you hear any birds outside? Any insects? Sounds of the city like cars or people talking outside? Or street music?
Did you go to any concerts? Listen to any new music? Or did you have a song you liked listening to?
Sense: Taste
Can you describe something you tasted this summer?
Did you eat something new? Something delicious?
Did you eat something you can only eat in the summer?
Did you eat anything that was cold? Or spicy? Or sour? Or sweet?
What food makes you think of summer?
Sense: Sight
Can you describe something you saw this summer?
Did you see something new in your neighborhood?
Did you see friends or family?
Did you see anything grow?
Did you see any thunderstorms or lightening?
Did you see something you can only see in the summer?
Some students may need examples or photos in order to talk about or recall their summer. You can use books, watch a youtube clip or even look at newspaper clippings with summer events. Newsela can be a great place to find recent articles to use to talk about summer events that are scaffolded for a variety of readers. This can also be a good way for you to model talking about your own summer. Show photos of places you went, foods you ate, maybe something you grew or made. Keep it as simple as you can, it's important to show kids that it doesn't have to be something spectacular. You can show a picture from a vacation of course, but you could also show a photo of some blueberries you ate or talk about hearing cicadas at night. If you have a way to easily reach out to parents, you can ask them to send you a photo from a day or event of the summer to give your students an easier place to start.
I have listed out ideas by age group, but of course adjust these for the age/developmental level of your students.
Therapy session ideas
Pre-k
For this age it might be easiest to pick an object/item and describe it using the senses. Such as a strawberry, what does it look like, taste like, smell like, etc. Or have a sensory box with water or sand, talk about what it feels like, sounds like when you rub it or walk on it, what does it look like, etc. You can also fill a sensory bin with summer objects, have them search for the item and then show what they might use it for, so if you hid a pair of sunglasses, ask "where do these go? Do we eat them or wear them? If you have kids that have limited verbal output and/or are non-speaking, having activities where they can demonstrate understanding without requiring speech can be great for rapport building. You can model the core words you are targeting and/or help them find the words on their AACs!
Elementary
If kids can list something from each category, this is a great time to talk about the main idea and details. You can also use tools like the EET, or describing worksheets. You can use objects or items the kids bring up, e.g., if you ask a kid about what they ate this summer and they say ice cream, you can have the group break down the main idea and details. I find a lot of kids really struggle with understanding the main idea and this is a concept that is important in every aspect of language. Often we only start talking about the main idea once kids are reading stories. However kids need to be able to identify the main idea and salient/most important details for a simple object or photo first, which I have found is a struggle for many kids with IEPs, even in middle and high school. If you want to learn more about the main idea/key details, I have main idea boom cards that teach all about why this is important and has two levels for kids to practice! Click on the photo to check them out.
You can also work on past tense, e.g., have the kids write or say sentences about smell, taste, see, etc and then have them go back and check their verbs. Did they write the verbs like it's happening now or it already happened. You can review how the words change, e.g., see becomes saw, taste becomes tasted, etc. This might be an activity you do over several weeks. Or you can do one sentence at a time.
Middle School
With this age you can have them write sentences about the things they saw, smelled, etc and create complex sentences or give them vocabulary words that they need to use in a sentence. If your students are struggling to write sentences, start with a main idea activity like I have written above and then have them use the main idea/details to help them to write sentences. If they went somewhere or saw friends/family they don't normally see, they can try to remember a detail for each of the five senses, e.g., "I went to my aunt's house for a BBQ. I ate corn salad. I saw her fluffy dog, Potato, I heard my family talking and laughing," etc. As mentioned above, you also work on past tense verbs, you can write the present and past tense of taste, smell, etc, have them first practice talking about present vs past and then when writing sentences, practicing writing the past tense verbs to describe moments of the summer. An example plan could be
Think about something I [saw, ate, tasted] this summer (change this for your target)
Write one sentence about something I remember [seeing] this summer
Look over sentence, if I have any present tense verbs, change to past tense
Review sentence for grammar, correct errors
Review sentence for word choice, correct errors
Review sentence for spelling, correct errors
Review sentence for capitalization, correct errors
Write sentence again with all errors corrected
High School
This is a great opportunity to have them write short paragraphs, maybe "my summer of senses". They can describe something they saw, touched, smelled, ate and heard. If this activity helps them remember a specific event, you can use that to have them write a short narrative about their summer. You can use this over many sessions, first helping making a plan for how to write the paragraph, working on editing, revising, etc. If they have a phone, you can even ask them to bring a picture of the event to use as a reference (if they are comfortable doing that). You can also have them practice drawing a picture first, to see if that helps them remember certain details. These drawings aren't about having a talent, just another way to help their memory. If I ask students to draw I will always draw myself, because I have no particular talent for it and I want them to see that it's simply meant to be fun, and not to have any pressure for it to be "perfect".
I hope this gives you some easy therapy ideas to try your first few weeks back to school! Please comment below if you try anything that I have listed. Or if you create something different, I love to hear what other SLPs and educators are doing.
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